49 comedies everyone needs to watch in their lifetime

This is the movie that made Jim Carrey a superstar.

With its wacky premise about a pet detective that is in search of the missing mascot of the Miami Dolphins, Carrey was given a lot of runway to get outlandish and completely hilarious in this film.

From the minds behind "Naked Gun" — Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker — they give us one of the greatest spoof movies ever made.

Playing on the disaster movies that were popular in the 1970s, here we follow all the antics that take place to try to land a plane whose pilots have suffered food poisoning.

In a movie that shows the true greatness of the Will Ferrell/Adam McKay collaboration, Ferrell plays a prominent 1970s TV anchorman in San Diego who isn't prepared for the progressive movement when suddenly a female anchor (Christina Applegate) is gunning to take his place.

There are countless things to love about this movie, from the banter back and forth between Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Christina Applegate, and other talents, to a rival anchor showdown and jazz flute.

After years of seeing movies where the guys get to have all the fun leading up to a wedding, we finally see the girls let their hair down with a hilarious cast including Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Ellie Kemper, and so many others.

With a screenplay by Wiig and Annie Mumolo, this is also the movie that gave Melissa McCarthy's a scene-stealing role that earned her an Oscar nomination.

This classic looks at the party hard madness of college life upped ten notches thanks to the twisted minds behind National Lampoon.

It's the movie that would make John Belushi an icon, despite having little screen time.

Mike Myers takes everything we love about the spy genre and turns it all upside down in this comedy in which he plays a British spy who is frozen for 30 years only to be awakened in the 1990s to take on his nemesis Dr. Evil (also played by Myers).

From classic one-liners to sharks with lasers, it's all a good time.

Another comedy that just never gets old regardless of how many times you watch it, "Clueless" took Jane Austen's "Emma" and transformed it for teens.

Alicia Silverstone's Cher epitomizes 1990s spoiled culture as we follow all the high-end hijinks at a Beverly Hills high school.

The Coen brothers use their special talents to weave a unique detective story, all told from the point of view of a slacker (Jeff Daniels) who only wants to get his rug back.

Thought to be a bust when it came out in theaters, thanks to the magic of DVD and cable, the movie turned into a beloved cult classic.

Based on the hit novel, this rom-com doesn't just pull off a great love story but showcases the incredible sights of Singapore and the talents of Constance Wu and Henry Golding.

Lots of drama, a massive wedding, and an all-star cast — there's so much to love about this movie.

Adam Sandler plays a spoiled 20-something who realizes he needs to completely redo 12 grades of school in two weeks to get his inheritance.

In this movie, we see the greatness of Sandler's zany comedic style, which would only be perfected in the years to follow.

One of the funniest movies ever made, Mel Brooks dives into the Western genre and creates a spoof that unapologetically makes fun of everything it can, from race, to class, to Hollywood itself.

Written by Dan Aykroyd and director John Landis, Aykroyd and friend John Belushi team up to become the Blues brothers, an R&B duo who is looking to get the band back together to earning enough money to save the Catholic home they were raised in.

Also, the movie features one of the greatest car chases you'll ever see.

Sacha Baron Cohen teams with director Larry Charles to craft a fantastic comedy that to this day I have no clue what is scripted and what is real. All I know is it's all really, really funny.

This teen comedy just never gets old, as our journey with cheerleading captain Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) to find new cheer routines after it's discovered that all her squad's routines are stolen is a story that never gets old.

Read our 20th-anniversary interview with director Peyton Reed.

This is one of Eddie Murphy's funniest movies. He's in top form with all the jokes and characters he plays as we follow an African prince who travels to Queens, New York, to find a wife.

This movie is a classic, and for good reason. (Please do not mess up the sequel.)

Steve Martin and Michael Caine are perfectly evil in this comedy from Frank Oz about two con men with very different styles who place a wager to see who can best the other in conning an heiress.

This classic from the Farrelly brothers combines their gross-out comedy with the talents of Jim Carrey to create a hilarious buddy comedy that brings it to another level thanks to Jeff Daniels opposite Carrey.

This perfect comedy about a rag-tag group who take on ghosts in New York City made Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson into movie legends.

What is not to love about this movie? With the dream-team casting of Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Tiffany Haddish we are given an amazingly entertaining ride of friends who just want to have fun.

If there's any justice in the world, these ladies will team up again for a sequel.

Pretty much every movie on this list (and comedy in general) is derived in some form from this Charlie Chaplin masterwork.

In it, his Little Tramp character sets out to the Klondike in search of gold and in the process pulls off some of the most memorable comedy bits ever created, from using bread as small dancing shoes to the house hanging off the side of a cliff.

In an example of masterful writing that perfectly captured the era it was set in, director Mike Nichols and screenwriters Calder Willingham and Buck Henry show just how complex it is to grow up. They channel all of that anxiety and the missteps of a generation into Dustin Hoffman's character, Benjamin Braddock.

Bill Murray is at his best in this comedy where he plays an egotistical weatherman who realizes he is repeating the same day over and over again (which happens to be Groundhog Day).

The laughs (and their originality and cleverness) never stop.

Before Dave Chapelle became huge with "Chapelle's Show," he starred in this stoner comedy that showed he was a writer and performer that had big things in front of him. Chapelle's talent aside, this movie is just really, really funny.

Adam Sandler is on the list again. In this one, Sandler plays a hockey player turned golfer whose super long drives will hopefully get him enough money to save his grandmother's home.

This is my personal all-time favorite Sandler comedy.

Not all comedies have to be light and silly. This one epitomizes the black comedy as we follow a teen who is obsessed with death and falls for an 80-year-old woman.

As the days pass, this movie seems to mirror our reality.

Luke Wilson plays a man who is accidentally frozen for 500 years and wakes up to find he's the smartest man alive as the world has gone completely down the toilet.

Steve Martin and director Carl Reiner team up for this off-the-wall comedy about a man who despite being very naive becomes hugely wealthy.

This marks Martin's first movie and it's quite a debut.

After spoofing the blaxploitation genre with "I'm Gonna Git you Sucka," and then the urban drama with "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood," Keenen Ivory Wayans takes on the horror genre (particularly "Scream") with this movie and launched a hilarious franchise.

Judd Apatow dives into the anxieties of becoming an expecting parent in this comedy that also showcased the huge talents of Seth Rogen.

In what has become an essential teen movie experience, this Tina Fey-scripted comedy stars Lindsay Lohan as the new girl who gets sucked into the popular clique and the petty drama that comes with it.

Robert De Niro shows his funny side as he teams with Ben Stiller to star in this hilarious comedy.

We follow Greg Focker (Stiller) as everything goes wrong for him while meeting his girlfriend's parents and attempts to get her father's (De Niro) permission to marry her.

The Monty Python troupe is in top form in this movie in which they spoof King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and their search for the Holy Grail.

There are countless comedy bits in this movie that are timelessly funny.

Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker take their cop spoof TV series "Police Squad!" and turn it into a movie franchise.

This one kicked things off in a strong way as we tag along with the dim-witted detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) on his misadventures.

Writer-director Mike Judge captures the stress and often times stupidity of the white-collar world with hilarious looks at the mundane lives of a group of employees at a software company.

Todd Phillips' outlandish R-rated comedy stars Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell as three men who decide to relive their glory days by creating their own fraternity.

Tim Burton's classic combines his unique style with that of Paul Reubens' alter ego Pee-wee Herman to make a heartwarming tale of a boy's cross-country search for his stolen bike.

Perhaps one of the most unappreciated comedies of the 2000s, Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island mates, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, create the "This Is Spinal Tap" of the pop music world.

Director Edgar Wright takes his love of horror movies and creates a modern-classic zombie comedy as we follow two friends (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) as they casually fight through a zombie apocalypse.

Billy Wilder's classic stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as two musicians who witness a mob hit and go on the run, deciding the best way to hide is to dress as women and join an all-female band. There they meet Sugar (Marilyn Monroe) and the movie shifts to a fun rom-com.

Everything about this movie is perfect and is required viewing, not just on how to do comedy but also good writing and story structure.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone give their hilarious TV show creation the big screen treatment and don't hold back on the raunchy laughs.

Director Greg Mottola takes Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's script about two guys in search of a night out of partying and crafts one of the best high school movies ever made.

Two years after making "Anchorman" together, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay gave us another memorable character in race car driver Ricky Bobby (Ferrell).

With John C. Reilly and Sacha Baron Cohen in fantastic supporting roles, this movie comes with the funny in every scene.

The Farrelly brother's classic stars Ben Stiller as a guy still hooked on his high school crush and decides to try to date her. The problem, Mary (Cameron Diaz) is every guy's type.

Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer put their hugely talented comedic minds together to create one of the best faux documentaries of all time: a look inside the misadventures of the fake rock band, Spinal Tap.

Comedy legends Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short team to play silent film action stars who travel to Mexico to perform for a village, only to realize the villagers think they are real gunfighters and have hired them to take out a gang of bandits.

All three stars are top-notch, and everything from the singing bush to the movie's homage to "The Magnificent Seven" is perfect.

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong take their stoner act to the big screen as they play two guys who join forces to drive a van from Mexico to LA for a battle of the bands competition. But they have no idea that the van is made entirely of marijuana.

One of the greatest rom-coms ever made and the blueprint for all the ones in the genre that would come after, director Rob Reiner and screenwriter Nora Ephron chronicle the lives of Harry and Sally over years of relationships until they finally date each other.

Here Mel Brooks creates (another) comedy classic as he spoofs the Frankenstein story. Gene Wilder plays Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the American grandson of the infamous scientist. Trying to distance himself from his relative, he finds himself forced to travel to Transylvania, leading to an incredibly funny journey of his true calling.

Ben Stiller directs and stars in this outlandish look at the male model world. He plays Derek Zoolander, the most famous male model in the world, who tries to figure out why someone wants to brainwash him into killing the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The cameos are endless in this movie and the supporting roles by Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell are what fuels the movie. (Now let's just forget about the awful sequel.)