The 10 Best 2010s Comedy Movies, Ranked

It's an unfortunate truth that, after a ton of great comedies came out in the 2000s that crushed box office expectations and became cultural and critical darlings, the 2010s saw a stark decline in big-budget studio comedies. Thankfully, despite the fact that studios went all in on new trends like comic book movies (recall that the Marvel Cinematic Universe officially launched in 2008 with "Iron Man" and spent most of the 2010s monopolizing all of Hollywood's actors and money), there are some incredible comedies that came out between 2010 and 2020. Actually, there's ten of them.

From TV reboots that seem ill-advised (but turn out to be awesome) to clever comedies featuring rising stars to ensembles that mesh together perfectly, there are ten near-perfect comedies that came out in that decade, and as a result, it's unfair to say that this list is ranked from "worst" to "best." It's actually ranked from "least incredible" to "most incredible," and every single one of these movies will leave you wheezing because you're laughing too damn hard. Without further ado, here are the ten best movies that came out in the 2010s.

Between "The Lego Movie" and the "21 Jump Street" movies, it's clear that directing duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have an uncanny talent for taking a terrible-sounding idea and making it incredibly awesome. In 2012, the pair directed "21 Jump Street" — with Michael Bacall as the screenwriter, who also developed the story with star Jonah Hill — and even though movie reboots of old TV shows typically produce diminishing returns, this comedy turned out to be one of the funniest films of the decade. As the movie opens, we meet Morton Schmidt (Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum), a nerd and a jock who have nothing in common in high school but grow up to be cops together (albeit totally inept ones). After a botched arrest in the field, the two are sent undercover at Sagan High School to figure out who's trafficking a drug called HFS ("Holy F***ing Sh*t"), only for them to discover that Schmidt is popular with modern high-schoolers and Jenko is a total loser.

Hill and Tatum approach their roles with complete and utter commitment — Tatum, in particular, brings a sort of maniacal glee to Jenko that's incredibly funny — and with a supporting cast that includes future Oscar winner Brie Larson, Ice Cube, Rob Riggle, and Dave Franco, absolutely everyone here is bringing their "A" game. (Even the original stars of "21 Jump Street," Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise, briefly show up during the movie's climax.) "21 Jump Street" is silly, self-aware, and surprisingly hilarious; give it a chance and you won't be disappointed. (Unbelievably, "22 Jump Street," which we'll circle back to shortly, is even better.)

In 2023, Ryan Gosling showed off his impeccable comedic timing and instincts in Greta Gerwig's blockbuster hit "Barbie" and even managed to earn a nomination for best supporting actor for playing Ken ... but real Gosling fans have known just how funny the guy is since his 2016 film "The Nice Guys." In Shane Black's film (which he co-wrote with Anthony Bagarozzi), Gosling plays private eye and single dad Holland March, who's looking for an adult film star at her aunt's request when he runs afoul of hired muscle Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe). After Jackson breaks Healy's arm, the two unexpectedly team up to help Amelia Kuttner (Margaret Qualley), who may know something about the actress' disappearance.

If you're familiar with Black's filmography, you know that he gives his actors unbelievably funny dialogue and really lets them loose — and Gosling and Crowe make a meal out of every single line. (Just as one example, when Holland is scolded for "taking the Lord's name in vain," he responds, "No, I didn't. I found it very useful, actually.") The two are an unexpectedly great pair on-screen — who ever would have thought that Gosling and Crowe would be such a dynamic duo? — and together, they turn "The Nice Guys" into a basically perfect buddy comedy. (It was, at one point, supposed to get a sequel, but you can blame "Angry Birds" for the fact that it never happened.)

As of this writing, Emma Stone has two Academy Awards for best actress — one for 2016's "La La Land" and another for 2023's "Poor Things" — but she should also have one for her 2010 movie "Easy A." Written by playwright Bert V. Royal and helmed by director Will Gluck (who's also known for "Friends With Benefits" and "Anyone But You"), "Easy A" takes a book most people were forced to read in high school, Nathaniel Hawthorne's morality fable "The Scarlet Letter," and adapts it for a younger, cooler audience. When we first meet Stone's protagonist, Olive Penderghast, she's sort of a nobody at her high school in sunny Ojai, California ... but after she makes up a lie that she lost her virginity to an older, made-up guy named George to get out of a camping trip with her best friend's weird family, everyone at school goes wild over the fact that she's some sort of harlot. (She really takes things further by faking sex with a fellow student, Dan Byrd's Brandon, so that people will stop gossiping about his sexuality, while the two are at a house party.) Olive, one of Stone's all-time best characters, leans into that reputation in the funniest possible way.

Clad in lingerie with a scarlet A on her chest, Olive struts through the halls of her high school and pretends to be wildly promiscuous ... all while accepting light bribes like gift cards so that boys can say they've hooked up with her. Obviously, this doesn't end well for Olive, but she manages to get out of the situation fairly unscathed, and Stone's performance turns Olive into the kind of character you genuinely wish you could befriend in real life. Plus, Olive's parents are played by Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci, which freaking rules.

When Olivia Wilde's directorial debut "Booksmart" released in 2019, people deemed it "'Superbad' for girls" — and while it certainly does take some important cues from the beloved 2007 comedy, "Booksmart" is in a league of its own. When we first meet graduating high school seniors Amy and Molly, played by Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein, they're all set to go to Ivy League schools after four years of perfect grades ... but when they find out their hard-partying classmates also got into great schools, they feel like they've wasted all of their time behaving too well. To try and remedy that, Molly and Amy set out to have one perfect night right before their graduation ceremony, and to say it goes awry is a serious understatement.

Flanked by powerhouse supporting players like Skyler Gisondo ("The Righteous Gemstones"), Billie Lourd, and former Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams, Dever and Feldstein are brilliant as two best friends with some serious unresolved issues that they end up working out in a very public forum, and their friendship feels genuinely lived in; you never question that they've been joined at the hip for years. (Also, regarding those supporting players, there's an insanely funny running gag in the movie where Lourd pops up at every single party Amy and Molly attend, usually in a different outfit; it's outstanding.) Add in a killer soundtrack and some brilliant directing choices by Wilde, and you've got a pitch-perfect comedy that made stars out of its lead actresses and immediately earned a place in the high school movie hall of fame.

If you're somehow unfamiliar with Edgar Wright's 2010 comedy "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World," you should probably get out of the house more. Adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by Bryan Lee O'Malley, Wright's film stars Michael Cera as the titular Scott Pilgrim, a bass player living in Toronto who happens to meet the beautiful, mysterious Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) at a party and immediately falls for her. In order to pursue Ramona, though, Scott has to fight her "seven evil exes" — one of whom is Mae Whitman's Roxanne "Roxy" Richter, which is why Ramona keeps correcting Scott when he talks about her "ex-boyfriends" — so that he can even start dating her.

The cast of "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" is, to put it lightly, a bunch of future superstars; Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Kieran Culkin, Brie Larson, and a pre-MCU Chris Evans all play supporting roles, which is pretty wild when you consider how drastically all of their careers took off after 2010. Cast aside, though, the movie is brilliantly funny, stylized perfectly by Wright — who employs quick edits and visual gags to their fullest effect — and just a blast to watch (or re-watch). "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" is many things — action-packed, an excellent adaptation of a beloved graphic novel, and a showcase for its ensemble cast — but it's also just an excellent comedy.

Melissa McCarthy is one of the funniest actors working today, but unfortunately, a lot of her starring vehicles — like "Tammy" or "Identity Thief" — make her the butt of the joke. Luckily, director Paul Feig clearly enjoys working with McCarthy ... and they've collaborated on a handful of projects that put the Oscar-nominated actress front and center, including his on-point 2015 parody "Spy." A perfect approximation of classic spy movies, the film stars McCarthy as Susan Cooper, an overlooked and underappreciated desk agent at the CIA whose field partney Bradley Fine (Jude Law) is (apparently) killed during a mission by the evil heiress Rayna Boyanov (an incredibly funny, wry Rose Byrne). Susan seems meek and mild-mannered until the audience sees footage of her combat training for the agency thanks to her boss Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney). Desperate to avenge Bradley, Susan goes into the field, armed with a series of increasingly dowdy costumes and aliases.

"Spy" is pretty funny during its first act, but when McCarthy lets loose and pretends that she's actually a foul-mothed bodyguard hired by Rayna's late father — ingratiating her with the unwilling socialite — it turns the dial to up to 11. Watching McCarthy and Byrne spar throughout the film is an absolute delight, and McCarthy is fully in command as Susan, basically out-spying all of the actual field agents around her. Adding Jason Statham in as a cocky agent whose increasingly wild experiences mimic Statham's outlandish action movies is a pretty great touch too.

One of the last great studio comedies of the 2010s, the ensemble movie "Game Night" features a murderer's row of unbelievably funny people — and also somehow manages to deliver several wild twists that keep you guessing for the whole movie. Directed and written by "Freaks and Geeks" and "Bones" veteran John Francis Daley and his creative partner Jonathan Goldstein (with Mark Perez as the screenwriter), "Game Night" introduces audiences to the hyper-competitive couple Max and Annie Davis (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams), whose regular game night with friends is interrupted by Max's arrogant brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler). After Brooks gets kidnapped during what everyone else thinks is an interactive role-playing game, Max and Annie and their friends Ryan (Billy Magnussen), Kevin (Lamorne Morris), Michelle (Kylie Bunbury), and Ryan's new girlfriend Sarah (Sharon Horgan) keep playing along ... only to discover that the whole thing isn't a game at all.

You can't talk about "Game Night" without talking about Jesse Plemons as Gary Kingsbury, Max and Annie's very off-putting neighbor ("How could that be profitable for Frito-Lay?" is probably the best line read in the whole film thanks to Plemons), but the truth is that this ensemble cast is firing on all cylinders. All of the performances in "Game Night," especially McAdams overly-eager Annie, make the movie truly great. Daley and Goldstein are a great directing duo — another extremely funny movie, "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves," also came from the pair — but the gang they got involved with "Game Night" is nothing short of spectacular.

It's very rare for a movie based on a TV show to be any good. It's even rarer for a sequel to a movie based on a TV show to be any good. This is all to say that 2014's "22 Jump Street" is basically a miracle of a movie; a unicorn, if you will. Christopher Miller, Phil Lord, Jonah Hill, and Channing Tatum all return for the sequel, which makes a real meal out of the fact that it's a sequel — characters often talk about how they're doing the same thing as last time, but bigger and more expensive — and puts Hill's Schmidt and Tatum's Jenko in college instead of high school. The two settle back into their roles as a nerd and a jock, with Jenko joining the football team and Schmidt falling in with an artsier crowd, but the reason they're really there is to (once again) find the supplier of a dangerous new synthetic drug called "WHY-PHY" (Work Hard? Yes, Play Hard? Yes). 

Ice Cube returns along with Hill and Tatum as their irascible captain, Dickson — whose anger issues shoot off the charts when Schmidt starts dating his daughter Maya, played by Amber Stevens West — and they're all joined by standout newcomers Wyatt Russell and Jillian Bell, the latter of whom delivers some of the movie's funniest lines. (Making fun of how old Schmidt looks, Bell's Mercedes quips, "Tell me about the war. Any war.") As if "22 Jump Street" wasn't delightful enough, the movie ends with a lengthy, genuinely bonkers credits sequence that imagines all sorts of sequels, including "24 Jump Street: Foreign Exchange Students" and "29 Jump Street: Sunday School," including an interlude where Seth Rogen quietly replaces Hill after a salary dispute.

People like to say that Paul Feig's 2011 comedy "Bridesmaids" is just "The Hangover" with girls, but that's a ridiculous way to describe "Bridesmaids" on several levels — without even mentioning that Feig's movie earned not one, but two Oscar nominations. At the beginning of the movie, we meet Kristen Wiig's Annie, a woman down on her luck whose best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged and asks Annie to be a bridesmaid. Annie is then thrust into a new group of women, including Lillian's snotty, wealthy new friend Helen (Rose Byrne), Lillian's unhappily married cousin Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), Lillian's newly married coworker Becca (Ellie Kemper), and Lillian's abrasive, odd future sister-in-law Megan (Melissa McCarthy).

From the infamous food poisoning scene — where all of the women except Helen basically explode in a pristine bridal salon — to the airplane scene where an intoxicated Annie gets everyone kicked off of a flight to Las Vegas, "Bridesmaids" is stacked with an astounding number of comedy setpieces; any other movie would be lucky to have one of these sequences. The real best part of "Bridesmaids," though, is that Annie experiences a genuine emotional evolution throughout the movie, opening herself up to a relationship with a local cop named Nathan (Chris O'Dowd) and moving on from her destructive habits, like isolating herself, repressing her feelings, or meeting up with her gross situationship Ted (a deliriously funny Jon Hamm). "Bridesmaids" is basically a perfect comedy, and it barely lost out on the top spot on this list.

Pound for pound, there isn't a funnier movie than "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping." The Lonely Island's second feature film after the delightfully bizarre 2007 comedy "Hot Rod" tackles the celebrity documentary with Andy Samberg as Connor "Connor 4 Real" Friel, a pop star (who seems to be cut from a similar cloth as, say, Justin Bieber) who leaves his boy band the Style Boyz behind to pursue a lucrative solo career. (One of his bandmates, Jorma Taccone's Owen Bouchard, sticks with Connor, while Akiva Schaffer's Lawrence Dunn runs away to a farm to make seriously terrible wooden sculptures; Schaffer and Taccone co-directed the movie and wrote it with Samberg.) 

The movie picks up at the height of Connor's fame and just as he's about to release his sophomore album "Connquest," which bombs immediately — made worse by the fact that Connor and his team ink a deal with Aquaspin home appliances that play the album on a loop in people's houses (clearly referencing the time a U2 album loaded itself onto Apple devices automatically). As Connor struggles to hang onto his fame and remain relevant, he finds himself drifting back to the Style Boyz, culminating in a performance at "the Poppys" (a fictional awards show where the Style Boyz perform after Taylor Swift is "arrested for murder"). 

Ringo Starr, Questlove, P!nk, 50 Cent, Miley Cyrus, Adam Levine, and Usher are just a few of the celebrities who play themselves in "Popstar," and those cameos are, somehow, the least remarkable part of this joke-packed, heightened, eminently ridiculous and absolutely hysterical movie with a killer soundtrack penned by The Lonely Island. Even the deleted scenes are incredible; if you haven't checked out the full version of "Mona Lisa" or the cut-for-time song "F*** Off," Google them immediately and buckle your seatbelt.