Plenty of comedy movies come out every year but not many of them are over-the-top. Comedy is a genre where performers are generally given more free rein to do their own thing in the pursuit of getting laughs. Once in a while, a comedy movie comes out that pushes the boundaries of humor, going to any heights to make the audience smile. Whether it's Simon Pegg as a ridiculously strict cop in Hot Fuzz or Will Farrell as a relapsed alcoholic partying with frat boys in Old School, there are many comedy movie characters that could be considered over-the-top.
While it would be almost impossible to put together a comprehensive list of all the over-the-top comedy movies ever made, there are some that stand out over time. Many comedy movies from the '70s are still funny today, like Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles or Monty Python's And Now For Something Completely Different. Here are some movies from the last six decades that took things to the extreme just to get a laugh.
20 National Lampoon's Animal House
National Lampoon's Animal House is a canonical '70s comedy movie. When two college boys are rejected while trying to pledge at an upscale fraternity, they change course and join a lower frat house instead. While there, they meet John Blutarsky (nicknamed "Bluto"), played by the hilarious John Belushi, and the antics begin. The house throws a toga party where things get wild.
Animal House is over-the-top because of its excessive partying and drinking scenes. The late Belushi in particular was a performer who was game for anything to get a laugh, which resulted in some great physical comedy. In one scene, Bluto and his buddies steal the answers for a test but don't realize the rival frat house has switched it for a fake. The boys fail their exams and end up being eligible for military service. For all of its belly laughs, Animal House is considered one of Ivan Reitman's best movies.
19 The Hangover Part II
Released in 2011, The Hangover Part II is the inevitable sequel to the wildly successful first film, The Hangover. The second film in the franchise once again follows Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) as they try to recount the debauchery that happened the night before. When the group travels to Thailand for Stu's wedding, they wake up with no memory of what happened the night before. For some reason they have a stolen monkey, Stu has a face tattoo, and they're missing Stu's soon-to-be brother-in-law Teddy.
The Hangover film series is full of over-the-top scenes, but The Hangover Part II pushes the boundaries of good taste. For instance, there are jokes about Stu hooking up with a prostitute and the group inciting a riot outside a tattoo parlor. Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) returns as well and helps the guys figure out exactly what happened. Everything about The Hangover Part II is exaggerated for full belly laughs.
18 Happy Gilmore
In Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler stars as a hockey player who gets banned from his professional league for taking off his skate while fighting. Happy's grandmother is about to lose her house, so Happy reluctantly enters a golf tournament to try to win enough money for her to keep it. But he's a guy with anger management issues, so trying another sport is going to be difficult. Unfortunately, Happy's rage transfers from the ice rink to the golf course, making him a pretty terrible golfer at first.
Happy Gilmore is driven by Sandler's ridiculous, over-the-top antics. At one point, he gets down on the green and yells at a golf ball. Later, Happy fights Bob Barker and loses, even though he's much younger than Barker. It's the movie most people know Sandler for, and it's the actor basically just being an exaggerated version of himself.
17 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Classic comedy duo Abbott and Costello helped create a new genre with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Released in 1948, the film is centered around Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) who wants to reactivate Frankenstein's monster. Realizing he needs a strong brain to keep the monster alive, Dracula seeks out Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello), a baggage clerk who has recently received a mysterious package to be delivered to a wax museum.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is an over-the-top whodunit where nobody seems to be who they say they are. Characters accuse each other of being Dracula at the masquerade ball, sparking comedy and causing confusion. It all comes to a head with a crazy ending that throws The Wolfman and The Invisible Man into the mix as well.
16 Jackass: The Movie
In Jackass: The Movie, Johnny Knoxville and his band of ragtag misfits take their pranks from TV to the big screen. Based on the popular show, Jackass features Knoxville and his buddies Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, and others pulling off insane stunts and painful pranks. Each performer is insistent on one-upping the others throughout the movie. For instance, Knoxville is knocked out after speeding around in and subsequently flipping a golf cart, while Steve-O snorts a spicy mixture of wasabi and soy sauce.
Everything about Jackass is over-the-top. The stunts have become more and more extreme over the years, with some of the guys going head-to-head with live bulls, smashing into garage doors, and voluntarily being bitten by various animals. The most recent installment Jackass Forever introduced some new performers as well, ensuring the Jackass legacy will continue for years to come.
15 This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap is a fictional mockumentary about a washed-up metal band trying to regain popularity in the mainstream. Directed by Rob Reiner, the movie follows Spinal Tap as they release a new album, create a new stage show, and go on tour. The problem is that everything they do is ridiculous, from ordering stage props that are way too small to using amps that "go to 11."
Everything that could go wrong does for Spinal Tap in their quest for stardom. Their drummers keep getting blown up, their relationships with women fall apart, and their record label won't let them release the album cover they want to use. It's the epitome of everything that's over-the-top about the music industry, and it works as a social commentary on the silly things people are willing to do to get famous. It's hilarious and fun to watch, making it one of the 10 best mockumentaries ever made.
14 Old School
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Old School is similar to Animal House in concept, but it also goes to the extreme. Released in 2003, the movie follows Mitch (Luke Wilson) as he tries to recover from a broken relationship. He moves into a new apartment near a college campus and soon his place is turned into a frat house. Mitch's friends Beanie (Vince Vaughn) and Frank (Will Ferrell) convince him to join a fraternity so that they can party every night and relive their past college lives.
A lot of the exaggeration in Old School comes from Ferrell's performance as Frank, which is absolutely hilarious. Frank is a recovering alcoholic who easily gets sucked back into his old ways. He ends up getting drunk, running naked through the streets, and getting scorned by his wife. Old School is a wild movie with tons of laughs.
13 And Now For Something Completely Different
Monty Python's And Now For Something Completely Different is a feature film that's really a compilation of shorter sketches. It mixes satire with physical sight gags and random cartoons to create an odd, over-the-top movie. The sketches vary in theme and tone. For instance, one bit is about a man trying to return a dead parrot, while another is about a man who writes a joke so funny that it's able to take out military forces in the middle of battle.
Anyone familiar with Monty Python knows the comedy troupe always pushes satire to the extreme just to get laughs. The characters in And Now For Something Completely Different are full of exaggerated quirks and eccentricities. As funny as the film is, it's still not the best Monty Python movie.
12 Mean Girls
Mean Girls is a 2004 movie based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman. When Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) goes to a new high school, she quickly feels left out by the popular girls, who have established cliques. Regina (Rachel McAdams), Gretchen (Lacey Chabert), and Karen (Amanda Seyfried) are a group known as The Plastics who reject and mock Cady and her friends every chance they get.
The movie is an extreme version of what real high school life is like. While viewers can relate to the movie, Mean Girls takes it to the next level with its stereotypical depictions of the people you knew in high school. The girls are downright nasty to each other and even create a "burn book" with the names of people they want to seek revenge on.
11 The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride is another Rob Reiner film that earns laughs with its over-the-top characters. Buttercup (Robin Wright) is a princess-to-be who is set to marry the obnoxious Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon). Before the wedding, she is kidnapped by a trio of misfits led by Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), an outlaw seeking revenge for his father's death.
The Princess Bride is a spoof on the popular fantasy movies that were popular in the '80s. There's silly slapstick comedy, funny one-liners, ridiculous accents, and unrealistic plot turns along the way. It's over-the-top in its campiness but it's a beloved movie nonetheless.
10 Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz is a hilarious movie about police officer Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) who gets so good at his job that he's banished out to the countryside for making everyone else look lazy. Once in a new town, Angel discovers there's a serial killer on the loose and everyone is a suspect. Angel teams up with fellow officer Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) but the duo soon learns that the whole town is plotting against them.
Hot Fuzz is full of witty one-liners and fast action sequences. The jokes fly by so quickly that viewers don't always catch them on the first watch. It's over-the-top because it's not afraid to let the blood fly to get a laugh. The whole scenario behind the movie is ridiculous, making it fun to watch Angel's growing frustrations with the surrounding silliness.
9 Doctor Doolittle
The original Doctor Dolittle movie was released way back in 1967. It starred Rex Harrison as the title character, a quirky veterinarian who can talk to animals. The Doctor keeps pets in his house, and they wreak havoc on all of his patients. The resulting caper sees Doctor Dolittle being accused of stealing a horse and trying to raise money for his trial by lending a dancing creature to the local circus.
Doctor Dolittle is an outrageous movie with a lot of talking animals. It's all very over-the-top with the Docter dressing them up in human clothing, escaping an insane asylum, and eventually being saved by a giant snail. In 2020, Robert Downey Jr. took on the role of Doctor Dolittle for an updated version, but it didn't go very well. The remake of Doctor Dolittle lost an estimated $100 million at the box office.
8 Bridesmaids
Bridesmaids is a hilarious comedy that came out in 2011. It features Saturday Night Live alumni Kristen Wiig as Annie Walker, a down-and-out single woman whose life has fallen apart since her bakery went bankrupt. Annie's whole life is a mess but she's asked to be a bridesmaid at her best friend Lillian's (Maya Rudolph) wedding. Jealous of Lillian's new relationship with rich socialite Helen (Rose Byrne), Annie's world continues to unravel in over-the-top ways.
One of the funniest scenes in Bridesmaids is when Annie boards a flight with the other bridesmaids for a bachelorette weekend in Las Vegas. Nervous about flying, Annie drinks too much and starts harassing crew members and guests. Wiig plays the character perfectly, exaggerating all of Annie's worst qualities for maximum belly laughs.
7 Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
What lengths would you go to for a cheeseburger? In Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Kal Penn, and John Cho play a pair of stoners desperate for their favorite burgers. When the duo arrives at the restaurant, they find that their local White Castle has been converted into a different burger chain called Burger Shack. They decide to go to a different White Castle several miles away, but the trek turns into an off-the-wall drug-fueled adventure.
The guys decide to stop at Princeton University to buy more marijuana, but Kumar is mistaken for another doctor and forced to perform emergency surgery. In another scene, Kumar sees a girl he knows at a drive-in theater and crashes his car trying to get her attention. The ridiculousness ends with the pair getting to the new White Castle location but realizing they have no money for burgers.
6 Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Before Harold and Kumar, there was Bill and Ted. In the 1989 movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, a pair of dimwitted buddies named Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) travel back in time to learn history and pass their high school course. They jump in a phone booth which transports them to different time periods and allows them to meet famous figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, Billy the Kid, and Ludwig van Beethoven, among others.
The characters of Bill and Ted are way over-the-top. Winters and Reeves are perfect at exaggerating their stoner qualities and acting like teenagers who don't know much about the real world. 31 years after the original film, Bill and Ted reunited for a new movie. In 2020, Bill & Ted Face the Music opened to great reviews.
5 Wedding Crashers
The 2005 movie Wedding Crashers stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as a pair of bachelors who show up to weddings uninvited. They pretend to be guests of the bride and groom in order to party every weekend, playing up the lies just to get drunk and try to score with women at the receptions. The two have no morals and no external filters, doing whatever it takes to have a good time.
Wedding Crashers is over-the-top because the premise seems too far-fetched to be true. There aren't many people that are bold enough to show up at a wedding reception for people they don't know. The movie features extravagant wedding scenes and excessive partying, but it all catches up to the guys in the end when their web of lies begins to unravel.
4 Cannonball
Cannonball is a 1976 action comedy movie that stars David Carradine as Coy "Cannonball" Buckman, a racing driver taking part in a cross-country drag race from Los Angeles to New York City. He's accompanied by his parole officer Linda Maxwell (Veronica Hamel), whom he's also having an affair with. The drag race is illegal, so the drivers go to extreme heights to outrace each other. In one scene, an assassin tries to take out another driver, while another scene shows the race turning into a demolition derby.
Cannonball was ahead of its time, beating The Fast and the Furious to the finish line when it comes to movies about car races. The over-the-top action and exaggerated storyline may be played up for comedic effect, but it's interesting to note that the film is based on a true story.
3 Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
In Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Bob Newhart plays detective Eddie Valiant who is hired by Jessica Rabbit to find out who set up her husband and got him fired him a movie set. The problem is that Valiant is reluctant to work with cartoons, as one of them killed his brother many years ago. He reluctantly agrees to work on the case but is offended by Roger Rabbit's silly antics.
At the time the movie was released in 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was considered ahead of its time. It featured animation mixed with live-action sequences, something that had never been done before in such great detail. The movie is full of the over-the-top craziness audiences expect from Saturday morning cartoons.
2 Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is Mel Brooks' comedic take on old Western films from the '50s. When Bart (Cleavon Little) becomes the first black mayor of Rock Ridge, he's forced to deal with an evil attorney general who wants to demolish parts of the town to build a railroad. Gene Wilder plays an alcoholic gunfighter that teams up with Bart to fend off thugs from invading the town.
Blazing Saddles is a spoof that will stop at nothing to get laughs. By the time the film breaks the fourth wall at the end, the audience is already in on the joke and rolling in laughter on the floor. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards for its efforts but is considered offensive to some audiences for its stereotypical portrayal of some races. It's now streaming with a disclaimer on HBO Max.
1 The Birdcage
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Robin Williams plays Armand, a gay nightclub owner in Miami in the funny 1996 comedy The Birdcage. His flamboyant partner Albert (Nathan Lane) is the club's star performer, but Armand fights to keep their relationship a secret. Armand's son Val is getting married, but Armand is hesitant to meet his fiance's father, who is a strict Republican with traditional morals.
Williams and Lane are great at playing the over-the-top characters that drive The Birdcage. It was one of the first films to introduce the idea of gay marriage in the early '90s, making it a groundbreaking success. It ended up earning $185 million at the box office despite being produced on a modest $30 million budget. The movie is so popular to this day that it returned to select theaters a few years ago for Pride month to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
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