Many sites and comedy film books have attempted to compile listings of the funniest scenes or funniest comedy films in film history. In June, 2000, the American Film Institute named the Top 100 Funniest Films of the Century in their multi-part series of tributes -- 100 Years...100 Laughs. Although it would be impossible to compile a list of every single funny scene ever screened, this collection moves toward that goal. It should be obvious that a selection of funny movie moments and scenes is entirely subjective and can only scratch the surface.

See also this site's general introduction to the genre of Comedy Films. Premiere Magazine's selections of the 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time (in their July/August 2006 issue) are indicated by this symbol:

The following illustrated list in the next few web pages, in unranked alphabetical order, presents a solid collection of the most classic, 'funniest' scenes in movie history, including film scenes from the silent era, the classic comedies of the 30s (the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, etc.), through to some of the best comedies of today. Some are scenes from other genres (drama, horror, science-fiction, etc.) that provide comic relief. They include slapstick, parody, screwball comedies, romantic comedies, black comedies, satire, farce, and films with witty dialogue. Most of these suggested scenes are quotable, 'laugh-out-loud' funny, universally hilarious, and hold up for repeated viewings.

The various pseudo-documentary mini-interview segments interspersed throughout the film -- each one with an elderly couple describing their relationship; the early scene of fussy and proper Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) ordering at a roadside cafe during an 18-hour road trip with slobbish student Harry (Billy Crystal): "I'd like the chef salad, please, with the oil and vinegar on the side. And the apple pie a la mode....But I'd like the pie heated, and I don't want the ice cream on top. I want it on the side. And I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. If not, then no ice cream, just whipped cream, but only if it's real. If it's out of a can, then nothing" while Harry just orders: "the Number Three"; and the notorious crowded, New York deli-restaurant scene of Sally's simulated orgasm to prove to Harry how most women occasionally fake orgasms: ("Ooooh. Oh, God. Oooooh. Oh God!..."), foot-noted by an elderly patron (director Rob Reiner's mother Estelle) exclaiming to the waiter at a nearby table: "I'll have what she's having!"

The scene in which down-to-earth New York sportswriter Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) takes brilliant, high-brow political correspondent Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) to her first baseball game during which he has to explain the game and its rules; and her disastrous attempt to cook a decent breakfast and be a domesticated housewife for him - she fights with the kitchen appliances and makes a shambles of waffles as he watches in amazement

The funny horror film spoof from director Mel Brooks, with its early scene in the medical classroom when grandson of the original baron named Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder): ("It's pronounced Frohn-ken-Shteeeen") must answer touchy questions from an inquisitive student about his legendary grandfather Dr. Victor Frankenstein - and he jabs a scalpel into his leg; the character of bug-eyed, leering Igor (Marty Feldman) with a shifting humpback who ignorantly uses the brain of "Abby Normal"; the scene of Frankenstein marveling at large iron door knockers on the Transylvania castle door: "What knockers!", with assistant Inga's (Teri Garr) quick response as he lifts her out of the carriage: "Oh, Thank you, doctor!"; and the charades sequence of Frankenstein acting out the word 'Sed-a-give' ("Give him the sedative"), using the game of charades, to control the violent Monster (Peter Boyle) with an injection; the classic scene of the Monster with the blind hermit (Gene Hackman) - a tribute to a similar scene in The Bride of Frankenstein in which he taps on the Monster to find out his name, pours boiling soup on the Monster's lap, and lights the Monster's thumb, thinking it's a cigar; the scenes of a horse neighing whenever housekeeper Frau Blucher's (Cloris Leachman) name is mentioned; also the revolving bookcase-fireplace sequence with a secret passageway ("Put the candle back"), and Dr. Frankenstein's introduction of the Monster to an audience as a "man about town" and their top-hat and cane, tap-dancing duet of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz" - with the Monster's slurred, squeaky, and high-pitched singing of "Punnondariiiiiiiizz!"; and the scene of nymphomaniacal fiancee Elizabeth's (Madeline Kahn) discovery of the 'O Sweet Mystery of Life' with the Monster by viewing his "enormous schwanstucker" - she first breathed an aroused, wide-eyed "Woof!", and then warbled the tune as he made love to her (offscreen), and her turned hair white, a la The Bride of Frankenstein