17 Best Comedy Movies on Netflix Right Now (August 2026): ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ and More

Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson) is a professional ladies’ man who has a reputation for dating women younger than he is. His latest fling is with Marin (Amanda Peet), who invites him for a weekend getaway at her mother’s sure-to-be-empty Hamptons cottage. But they’re both in for a rude awakening when Erica (Diane Keaton), Marin’s mom, and Zoe (Frances McDormand), Marin’s aunt, interrupt their lovemaking and decide to stay for the weekend.

That’s just the beginning of Something’s Gotta Give, a light and breezy comedy about the highs and lows of middle-aged love. Erica loathes Harry at first sight, so it’s a surprise to her (but not the audience) that she begins to feel for him after he’s forced to stay at the cottage due to his heart condition. Their unlikely romance, and all the messy things that result from their love connection, form the basis of the film’s laughs as well as unexpected drama. Keaton and Nicholson have a relaxed chemistry with each other; it’s as if two old friends got together to gently make fun of each other for 90 minutes. Something’s Gotta Give isn’t a laugh riot like Bridesmaids is, but it makes you feel giddy, and you’ll find yourself smiling after it’s all over. Isn’t that what we all want from a great comedy?

Former ping pong child prodigy Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is asked by the FBI to go undercover and enter an underground table tennis tournament to spy on Feng (Christopher Walken), a criminal kingpin who murdered his father years ago. Randy accepts, but he soon finds his athletic skills aren’t what they used to be. Even worse, Feng’s game is a sudden-death tournament, with the loser actually getting killed by a poison dart. Randy is going to have to get better first, or else he’ll be reuniting with his dead dad sooner than he would like.

Balls of Fury is stupid fun – the title alone should clue you in on the film’s sophomoric humor. Comedies don’t have to be tasteful or mature to be good, though – they just have to be funny, and Balls of Fury scores enough laughs to warrant a watch. The deep-bench supporting cast includes action star Maggie Q, stand-up comedian George Lopez, Terminator 2 villain Robert Patrick and Bridesmaids’ Terry Crews. 

Growing up is hard, but Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) has it easy. Her father’s a big-shot lawyer, she lives in a big Los Angeles mansion and she’s the most popular girl at her high school. But true love, for her and those around her, proves to be elusive. That’s why she puts down her Prada handbag and decides to play matchmaker for others who need it the most, like sloppy new girl Tai (Brittany Murphy). Cher’s about to find out that love is a messy game and playing cupid is a lot harder than it looks.

A bona fide teen classic, Clueless is also a top-notch comedy that hasn’t aged a bit. Writer-director Amy Heckerling throws some good digs in about vapid California life (there’s a plastic surgery joke that still lands), and her satire on teen culture still packs a punch today. But Clueless is mostly a sweet-natured film that truly loves its characters, especially Silverstone’s rich-but-not-spoiled heroine. Her Cher could’ve easily been a shallow stereotype, but instead she’s an unlikely underdog who you somehow root for, even when she’s contemplating hooking up with her ex-stepbrother, Josh (Paul Rudd).

Rob (John Cusack) is a record store owner who knows a lot about music – it’s love where he lacks sufficient knowledge. After his lawyer girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) dumps him, he ruminates about all of his failed relationships, prompting him on a quixotic quest to find and talk with his ex-girlfriends and discover what went wrong and how he can avoid making similar mistakes in the future. But Rob isn’t prepared to discover that the one problem that occurs throughout each relationship is him.

Based on Nick Hornby’s popular 1995 book of the same name, High Fidelity is a hilarious look at a man-child who is forced to grow up. Cusack’s Rob looks and acts slick, but he’s really an immature boy who doesn’t take the women he dates seriously. Most of the film’s humor comes from Jack Black’s Barry, Rob’s best friend and employee who can’t stand the music store customers he deigns to acknowledge – and ruthlessly ridicules. The romantic comedy also features Catherine Zeta-Jones as one of Rob’s exes, Lisa Bonet and Tim Robbins.

Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) didn’t want kids – until she turned 37 and suddenly heard that ticking biological clock. Since she’s unable to conceive children on her own, she hires a surrogate, Angie Ostrowski (Amy Poehler), to carry her baby to term. Kate and Angie are completely different – Kate reads The New York Times, while Angie barely reads at all. But as the birth date looms, the two women begin to bond and become close friends.

The best thing going for Baby Mama is its cast, which is packed with numerous SNL vets and comedy stars from different decades. Anyone who has seen Fey and Poehler on Saturday Night Live knows they have a good comic rapport, and they elevate the routine material they have to work with. Steve Martin appears in a hilarious extended cameo as Barry, Kate’s extremely weird boss. Poehler is wonderfully vulgar as the trashy surrogate, while Fey is hilariously awkward and flustered as the career woman who embraces her inner Kate Gosselin. 

There’s no crying in baseball, but there’s plenty of laughter thanks to A League of Their Own. The 1992 hit comedy stars Geena Davis and Lori Petty as sisters Dottie and Kit, two farm girls who are recruited to join the Rockford Peaches, an all-female professional baseball team. World War II depleted the male rosters of baseball’s leading teams, so females from across the country, like Dottie and club bouncer Doris (Rosie O’Donnell), are asked to play ball like the boys – only in skirts and makeup. They quickly show everyone that they’re just as good as their male counterparts, and they execute enough home runs and fastballs to make it to the World Series.

While released over 30 years ago, A League of Their Own remains as funny today as it was in 1992. That’s due to, well, everything about the film – the sharp, funny script, the assured direction by Penny Marshall and the superb cast. From Tom Hanks as the team’s perpetually drunk manager, Jimmy Duggan, to Madonna’s shameless floozy, everyone is at the top of their game in the film, and in more ways than one. A League of Their Own is a classic comedy that’s a great way to spend two hours, and you don’t even have to be a baseball fan to enjoy it.

Rudd (John Cena) is a successful realtor and husband who is alarmed when the hospital tells him his brother has been in a car accident. He’s relieved – and plenty annoyed – when he finds out that it’s his “brother,” Marcus (Eric André), from a Big Brother program they were in when they were teens. Marcus has no place to go, which is why Rudd’s wife, Deirdre (Michelle Monaghan), invited him to stay at their house for a little while. That turns out to be a big mistake, as Marcus causes chaos wherever he goes, and Rudd can’t stand him.

Anyone who has seen Ricky Stanicky or Trainwreck knows John Cena is a gifted comic actor who shines best when he has the right people to play off of. André is that person, and the duo shares a comedic chemistry that makes you laugh even at the lamest jokes, like when Marcus urinates from a parked car, smashes a window with his injured foot and gets run over by a motorcycle. Little Brother is crude, but it’s also pretty hilarious; just make sure to turn your brain off when you start it.

Little Brother starts streaming on June 26.

Bobby Lieber (Billy Eichner) is a successful radio host who is missing the one thing in his life he wants – a bro. Well, more than a bro, a partner, a boyfriend and someone to maybe spend the rest of his life with. But the New York City gay dating scene is harsh and has left Bobby disillusioned that he’ll ever find Mr. Right. When he meets the impossibly good-looking lawyer Aaron Shepard (Luke Macfarlane), he thinks he’s hit the jackpot. But can he overcome his own doubts about long-term relationships and his insecurity that he’s not good enough for Aaron to give their union a chance?

Marketed as the first studio gay rom-com, Bros flopped hard when it was released in the fall of 2022. It wasn’t due to the quality – the film was critically acclaimed back then, and it’s even better now. Director Nicholas Stoller keeps things nice and light, and the film’s strong supporting cast, which includes SNL vet Bowen Yang and Community’s Jim Rash, lands enough jokes to make Bros a pleasant – if slightly formulaic – comedy. 

It’s a man’s world, and that’s just the way Damien Sachs (Sacha Baron Cohen) likes it. He’s a powerful CEO who doesn’t consider women his equals, and his power and position in life give his bad behavior a pass. But when he suffers a head injury that renders him unconscious, he wakes up to find himself in a world ruled by women. Even worse, his new boss is the employee, Alex (Rosamund Pike), whom he treated terribly in the real world. To survive in this sci-fi matriarchy, Damien will have to change his chauvinistic ways and do something he’s never done before — treat women with respect and sensitivity. 

If you like rom-coms with a sci-fi twist, Ladies First is for you. The comedic possibilities of Damien navigating his feminine-powered world are endless, and Baron Cohen has fun showcasing Damien’s horror at being considered “the weaker sex.” Pike’s Alex is the right woman to cut Damien down to size and show him the error of his ways. The battle of the sexes has always been a good source for comedies, and Ladies First is another entertaining entry in a subgenre that includes the 2000 Mel Gibson hit, What Women Want and its quasi-remake, What Men Want, starring Taraji P. Henson.

Ladies First will stream on May 22.

Great comedy movies don’t have to be crude or sarcastic — they can also be quiet, subtle and low-key charming. That’s the case with Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, a comedy that will make you smile from beginning to end. In 1950s England, cleaning lady Ada Harris (Lesley Manville) dreams of travelling to Paris to live out her fantasies. After receiving some money, she gets her chance, and soon, she’s buying a fancy dress at Christian Dior. But Mrs. Harris discovers her fancy new life can bring her a second chance at love as well. 

Like The Full Monty before it, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a comedy that treats its English working-class characters with respect. Even when Mrs. Harris lives it up with the rich and fashionably dressed Paris, she never forgets where she came from. Mostly known for her dramatic work in Another Year and Phantom Thread, Manville shows a lighter side and proves she’s a skilled comedienne, too.

Move over, J.Lo! There’s a new Anaconda movie, and Doug McCallister (Jack Black) and Ronald “Griff” Griffen Jr. (Paul Rudd) want to be the ones to make it. Griff and Doug pour everything they have into their low-budget reboot and take an excursion to the Amazon Rainforest to make it a reality.

This turns out to be a spectacularly bad idea because Doug and Griff are just unlucky enough to come across a real anaconda that’s already proven to be a killer. And if they aren’t careful, they’ll be the snake’s next victims.

Anaconda is streaming on Netflix.

Triangle of Sadness is a black comedy that shares some common elements with Parasite and Send Help. The film focuses on an influencer couple, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), as they take a luxury sailing trip alongside the filthy rich.

When the yacht sinks at sea, the rich passengers discover that the only person among them with any survival skills is Abigail (Dolly de Leon), one of the boat’s crew members. Suddenly, Abigail has all of the power over Carl, Yaya and the rest of the survivors, and she’ll do anything to keep it.

Triangle of Sadness is streaming on Netflix.

Released nearly 30 years after the original, Happy Gilmore 2 checks in on the titular character after he saved his grandmother’s house and won the heart of Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen). 

Happy (Adam Sandler) and Virginia are now married with kids, with one daughter wanting to go to an expensive ballet school. Low on funds, Happy decides to do what he does best — golf and beating people up. Will that be enough to make his daughter’s dreams come true?

The sequel doubles down on everything that made the original such a sleeper hit to begin with: crude humor, a supporting cast full of great comedic actors Ben Stiller and Eric André and cameos from actual golf pros like Rory Mcllroy and John Daly. Those expecting Uncut Gems should look the other way as Happy Gilmore 2 is strictly for fans of Sandler’s ‘90s era comedies like Billy Madison and The Waterboy.

Happy Gilmore 2 is streaming on Netflix.

The earth is being threatened by an extremely dangerous natural phenomenon that mankind could, theoretically, stop. Yet somehow, it seems like no one in power is doing anything about it. This is the premise of Don’t Look Up, a climate change allegory from Anchorman director Adam McKay. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play Dr. Randall Mindy and Kate Dibiasky, two astronomers who discover a cataclysmic, “planet-killer” comet hurtling towards Earth. They try to sound the alarm, only to find that getting the government to take action to protect its citizens is shockingly difficult.

The cast of Don’t Look Up is a laundry list of A-listers, from Meryl Streep as a clueless president to Timothée Chalamet as a young shoplifter who befriends Kate. As the crisis nears, Dr. Mindy becomes a celebrity while Dibiasky becomes a target for hate and derision. The more people talk about the comet, the further they seem to get away from doing anything about it. The whole story feels simultaneously fantastical, funny, and all too real. 

Don’t Look Up is streaming on Netflix.

Keke Palmer and SZA bring back the buddy comedy in a big way in this hilarious “day in the life” adventure flick. Dreux (Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) are best friends and roommates, despite their very different outlooks on life. (Dreux is organized and type-A, while Alyssa is a free-spirited dreamer.) But their friendship is tested when Alyssa’s boyfriend steals their rent money on the day that it’s due. In danger of being evicted, the girls come up with ever-escalating schemes to raise the money in less than 12 hours.

Palmer is as spectacular as ever, and SZA brings surprising depth to her first-ever onscreen role. Their chemistry as besties is totally believable and entertaining. The supporting cast is full of fun cameos from stars like Katt Williams and Abbott Elementary‘s Janelle James. You’ll root for Alyssa and Dreux the moment you meet them, and you’ll laugh your way to the finish line of their desperate quest for that rent money. Don’t miss this roller coaster of a comedy!

One of Them Days is streaming on Netflix.

Camila Mendes (Riverdale) and Maya Hawke (Stranger Things) star in this dark comedy about two high school girls who team up to “do each other’s revenge” — in other words, each girl will take down the other girl’s sworn enemy. This hyper-stylized gumball of a movie is subversive and nasty, but it hides some intelligent commentary about grudges and female anger at its center.

Do Revenge feels like a tribute to ’80s and ’90s teen comedies like Heathers and Cruel Intentions (Sarah Michelle Gellar, who starred in that film, even appears as the Headmaster at the protagonists’ private school), but it has a distinctly 2020s aesthetic and philosophy. It’s a sharp satire whose many twists will leave you gasping from shock in between laughs.

Do Revenge is streaming on Netflix.

Have you ever had a boss completely take over your life? That’s the situation for Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glen Powell), who are assistants to extremely demanding executives. Harper works for Kirsten (Lucy Liu), a sharp-tempered sports journalist who demands perfection from her staff. Charlie works for Rick (Taye Diggs), a businessman with severe anger management issues. Realizing their bosses need a distraction so they can regain control of their own lives, Harper and Charlie manipulate Rick and Kirsten into falling in love. “When they’re boning, we’re free!,”  says Harper. Of course, the two assistants end up falling in love along the way.

Set It Up hearkens back to when big-budget rom-coms were commonplace and successful. Deutch and Powell have irrepressible chemistry together, and the situations they manufacture for their bosses are absurd in a way that feels endearing. It’s a perfect “watch on your couch with pizza” movie.

Set it Up is streaming on Netflix.