Variety’s Top 20 Comedy Movies Spark Outrage After “Airplane!” Lands at #62

If you want to start a fight in a group chat, just ask everyone to name the greatest comedy movie of all time.

Variety apparently did exactly that, then poured gasoline on the internet by ranking Airplane! at a criminally low #62. Sixty. Two. At that point, why even make a list? But hey, their Top 20 still gives plenty to argue about, especially if you’re into classic comedies, cult favorites, or movies your parents insist “you just had to be there” to appreciate.

For anyone Googling best comedy movies, top comedy films ever, or funniest movies of all time, here’s what Variety says belongs at the top of the pile.

Their number one pick is The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! and honestly, that’s a choice with big goofy energy.

Leslie Nielsen’s deadpan genius absolutely deserves recognition, even if we can debate whether it’s the single greatest comedy ever made. Right behind it is Some Like It Hot, the 1959 classic that’s still quoted, referenced, and studied today. Billy Wilder fans are celebrating, teenagers everywhere are shrugging, and film professors are pumping their fists in victory.

Meanwhile, Annie Hall sits at #3, followed by The Great Dictator at #4, proving the list leans heavily on iconic, influential films, not just the ones that make you spit out your drink laughing. By the time you hit the middle of the Top 10, the list really starts to feel like a comedy hall of fame: Waiting for Guffman, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Duck Soup, Fargo, Young Frankenstein, and Groundhog Day. This is basically the comedy starter pack for anyone who wants to pretend they’re serious about cinema.

Spot #11 goes to Buster Keaton’s silent-era masterpiece Sherlock Jr., which probably delighted exactly three cinephiles while confusing everyone who just wanted to know where Step Brothers is.

Tootsie, Dr. Strangelove, and Sideways follow, giving the list a nice mix of satire, character comedy, and movies your dad quotes annually.

Then you get deep cuts like Playtime and His Girl Friday, plus cult classics like The Heartbreak Kid and mockumentary legend This Is Spinal Tap. Rounding it out are It Happened One Night and Superbad, the lone modern teen comedy in the Top 20, representing an entire generation that believes McLovin is basically Shakespeare.

Is this list perfect? Absolutely not. Is ranking Airplane! outside the Top 10 a cinematic crime? Yes. Should we still enjoy arguing about it? Always.

Here’s the full Top 20 according to Variety:

1. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
2. Some Like It Hot (1959)
3. Annie Hall (1977)
4. The Great Dictator (1940)
5. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
6. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
7. Duck Soup (1933)
8. Fargo (1996)
9. Young Frankenstein (1974)
10. Groundhog Day (1993)
11. Sherlock Jr. (1924)
12. Tootsie (1982)
13. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
14. Sideways (2004)
15. Playtime (1967)
16. His Girl Friday (1940)
17. The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
18. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
19. It Happened One Night (1934)
20. Superbad (2007)

Feel free to yell your disagreements into the void. Variety probably can’t hear you over the sound of all that chaos they just caused.