Is there anything more infuriating than being outdone by something (or someone) more unqualified than you, being beaten at your own game? You’re majoring in History of 18th Century Art at college, and yet, your friend who appears to be good at everything is only minoring in the subject and has far superior knowledge of the course’s studies than you. Ultimately, the same can be said for the best comedies of 2022 — these films are closely akin to that friend or acquaintance who is irritatingly talented at anything they turn their hand to.
Most of the best comedies from this year didn't actually major in comedy at all, with most only minoring in the genre, instead specializing in drama, mystery, romance, or action. A few others are so dark they might as well not be comedies at all. The point is, this wasn’t a year for comedies in their purest, most unadulterated form. Instead, 2022 was the year of the comical hybrid, with a lot of action, romance, and drama films that just happen to be frequently hilarious. Here are the best "comedies" of 2022.
Updated May 2023: If you're a fan of comedy, you're in luck. This article has been updated with additional content and entries by Molly Byrne.
15 The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild is an animated action comedy loaded with laughable moments. It is the sequel to Ice Age: Collision Course and was John C. Donkin’s directorial debut. The film received a great reception, reaching nearly one million households in the first two days of release.
When twin opossums Crash and Eddie accidentally cause an avalanche, their camp of family and friends no longer has a safe habitat for the summer. The twins end up running away to prove to everyone that they can survive on their own. As they journey, they come across the Lost World where they meet up with old friends who warn them that Orson the dinosaur is planning to rebel and conquer the Lost World. In an attempt to save the dinosaurs and their land, Crash and Eddie come up with a plan that brings peace to everyone. Though the opossums have proven to their family that they are responsible on their own, they choose to stay in the Lost World with those who had always accepted them as is, goofy, spastic, and all.
14 Bullet Train
Bullet Train struck up a new bromance we didn’t know we needed between Aaron Taylor Johnson’s Tangerine and Brian Tyree Henry’s Lemon. David Leitch’s comic-strip-like action-comedy set on a Japanese train places us at the heart of an assassin's attempt at retrieving a suitcase with unknown contents. Unfortunately for Ladybug (Brad Pitt), he is faced with a plethora of hired-killer adversaries, all with equally lethal ulterior motives. Tangerine and Lemon do most of the comedic lifting here, with a love-hate relationship that oozes a really authentic on-screen chemistry.
13 Brian and Charles
Brian and Charles is a very British comedy — dry, witty, and slightly strange. It incorporates the nation’s love for comedy of a sadistic, schadenfreude nature, and it tells the tale of Brian, an isolated, solitary individual who lives on his own in a remote part of the UK. A wacky inventor, Brian develops and creates weird and wonderful gadgets with minimal success.
After years of fruitless inventions, Brian builds Charles, an AI robot who has an inexplicable obsession with cabbages and an extraordinary command of the English language. Shot in the mockumentary style, Brian and Charles is an understated and unassuming comedy that acts as food for the soul and is absurdly funny.
12 Fire Island
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One of the best Hulu original movies of 2022, Fire Island was a delightful Pride and Prejudice adaptation. Relocating the setting to a legendary queer vacation spot, Fire Island is brimming with fun characters and performances (especially Saturday Night Live's Bowen Yang) that are extremely relatable, even if viewers don't identify as LGBTQ+. Funny and sweet, Fire Island embraces rom-com tropes while oh-so-subtly subverting them, resulting in a joyous Pride and Prejudice like you've never seen before.
11 The Man From Toronto
The Man From Torontois another one of Kevin Hart’s action comedy classics. Also starring Woody Harrelson and Kaley Cuoco, the film comes together in a funny-nonsense type of way. Hart includes his funny commentary and his co-stars follow suit.
When Teddy, played by Hart, takes his wife on vacation, he is mistaken as “The Man From Toronto,” an assassin named Randy with elite tactical training. As Teddy attempts to pose as Randy in order to lure in another criminal, the real Man From Toronto, played by Harrelson, ambushes and captures him. The two face numerous gunfights and Teddy uses his jokes to fend off the attackers. Shots are fired, but Teddy and Randy survive and later become friends after the whole scenario is over.
10 Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Nicolas Cage went all-in with his reputation as an over-the-top, ridiculous actor in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, playing himself (along with a hallucination of his cockier, more successful younger self). A feel-good meta-comedy that veers hard into action-adventure territory, Cage stars as a formerly huge movie star named Nic Cage who is having trouble getting parts. When a lucrative offer comes in to visit a rich drug lord on his birthday, he finds it hard to pass up; before you know it, the two of them are writing a script together while fighting a drug war.
9 Meet Cute
Released exclusively to Peacock, Meet Cuteis one of those romantic comedies with such an entertaining dialogue that you just don’t know what’s scripted and what’s improvisational. The film stars Pete Davidson as Gary and Kaley Cuoco as Sheila. The two are seemingly unhinged in their own ways. Sheila claims she has access to a time machine that allows her to relive the same day over and over again. She says she set the reset button on the day she wanted to kill herself, which is also the day she met Gary.
When Sheila and Gary meet, they have extreme chemistry and share their life stories and interests. They continue to date for about a year until Sheila goes back in time to change Gary into the man she might like better. After Gary doesn’t receive this well, Sheila again goes back in time to change Gary back into who he was. Wanting to still commit suicide, Gary finds a way to travel into the day that she decides to do so. He ends up saving her life and the two continue to date, making for a crazy, but happy outcome.
8 Dinner in America
Along with Terrifier 2, Dinner in America just might be one of the sickest movies of the year, but it's impossible to predict just where it will go. An extremely misanthropic, nihilistic, and punk rock comedy, Dinner in America follows a pyromaniac as he causes a lot of property damage (and emotional damage). While evading the police, the angry young punk comes across a social outcast, who he proceeds to treat horribly despite her taking him in and saving him.
Extremely politically incorrect and filled with cruelty and disgust, Dinner in America can be a tough watch, but it's perfect for people who hate people, and everything else. However, as mentioned, it does evolve into something genuinely surprising and special. This combination of an extremely uncomfortable and mean first half with an unexpected, surreal second half, along with playfully kitschy and pretty visuals, makes Dinner in America something special, if you can stomach it.
7 Tyler Perry’s: A Madea Homecoming
Written, produced, and directed by Tyler Perry, Tyler Perry’s: A Madea Homecomingis one of his funniest films yet. Among many new cast members were a couple of his usual recurring cast mates like David Mann as Mr. Brown, Cassi Davis as Bam, and Tamela Mann as Cora. The film follows Madea’s grandson as he is about to graduate from college. When Madea plans a party to celebrate, the whole family comes together in a hilariously entertaining way because as Madea would say, “Sometimes you just gotta do crazy stuff.”
Cousins come out of the closet, grills catch on fire and almost burn the whole house down, Mr. Brown jumps off the roof with a superhero outfit on, and Madea goes down memory lane to when she was a stripper. Not only that, Madea goes the extra mile and claims that Rosa Parks stole her boyfriend in 1955. As more family members join the party, so do the secrets. And as always, Madea makes sure to keep the laughs coming as the plot unravels.
6 On the Count of Three
Another extremely bleak comedy movie from 2022 (and one of the most violent outside the horror genre), On the Count of Three follows two friends who agree to kill themselves after one breaks the other out of a mental hospital. Starring and directed by stand-up comedian Jerrod Carmichael, the film is grim but often hilarious thanks to the effortless chemistry between Carmichael and co-star Christopher Abbott. A great supporting cast (J.B. Smoove, Henry Winkler, Tiffany Haddish) and beautiful music from Owen Pallett seal the deal in this great dark comedy.
5 Triangle of Sadness
Filmmaker Ruben Östlund is an auteur in demand after the riveting success of 2015’s Force Majeure, and 2017’s Palme d’Or-winning film, The Square. Naturally, the pressure was turned up a notch when his latest project, Triangle of Sadness, was announced. It certainly didn’t disappoint, equaling its predecessor by earning its own Palme d’Or triumph at Cannes Film Festival.
As is typical for Östlund, the film is a dark satire that hilariously mocks both classism and the inherent pretentiousness and excessive self-indulgence of the rich. Triangle of Sadness follows the story of an assortment of extremely affluent business people and those with considerable social status on a luxury, and their exclusive cruise that goes both drastically and (quite literally) hideously wrong. This is a movie that is unapologetically self-aware and teaches us a lesson in the social dimensions of the capitalist society in which we find ourselves.
4 White Noise
Noah Baumbach’s White Noise received its curtain-raiser at the Venice Film Festival in August and is set for its worldwide Netflix premiere on 30th December. Based on author Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel of the same name, the dark comedy stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, and Lars Eidinger as characters who get swept into an apocalyptic "airborne toxic event."
The Gladney family consists of father Jack (Driver), a Professor of "Hitler Studies" at the local college, mother Babette (Gerwig), and their four children, and White Noise chronicles the family’s attempts at navigating the catastrophic toxic waste spillage caused by a nearby train crash, which launches the world in the direction of an apocalyptic state. In typical Baumbach fashion, White Noise is deeply and attentively satirical, an idiosyncratic delight that continues to laugh at the preposterousness of being even in the midst of a potential nuclear disaster.
3 The Worst Person in the World
While it competed in last year's Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, The Worst Person in the World wasn't released in the United States or the UK until February 2022, so it technically qualifies here (plus it received a glorious home media release through the Criterion Collection this June). The Norwegian film had critics raving upon its release earlier this year, and we still haven't forgotten about it.
Having an existential crisis is a common occurrence among 20-to-30-somethings. Education officially finishes, and that inevitable question begins to jolt your mind — “What next?” Joachim Trier’s movie The Worst Person in the World is sadly not the best person in this list, though its story is both poignant and ultimately hopeful. It follows four years in the life of Julie, a young woman from Oslo who wrestles with problematic relationships, lack of an occupational muse, and attempts to find answers for her life’s real purpose. With incredible needle cuts and some really unexpected directorial choices, along with a great lead performance from Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World remains a funny, poignant, and relatable little gem.
2 Everything Everywhere All at Once
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Everything Everywhere All at Once seemed to take both critics and filmgoers alike by surprise. A film that plays on the concept of the multiverse, and other traditionally Marvel-y tropes so loved by Marvelites, Everything Everywhere All at Once actually outdoes the franchise at its own game. In this crazily alternative flick, Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) lives a fairly pitiful existence, drowning in excessive taxation and in the running of her laundry business.
Enduring the final, drab remnants of a loveless marriage, dealing with a problematic father, a rebellious daughter, and a pedantic IRS auditor (hilariously and perfectly played by Jamie Lee Curtis), Evelyn’s life is on the verge of utter capitulation. However, when she discovers alternate universes and is subsequently required to navigate them in order to save the world, she embarks upon a more personal calling of individual discovery, filial understanding, and self-fulfillment.
1 The Banshees of Inisherin
In the eagerly-awaited reunion of Martin McDonagh, Colin Farrell, and Brendan Gleeson after the rip-roaring cult success of 2008’s In Bruges, the announcement that the celebrated trio would be collaborating once more was greeted with predictable glee. The Banshees of Inisherin is a typically great McDonagh film, with refined and distinctive dialogue that is both cutting and hilariously straight to the point.
Set against the backdrop of the Irish civil war, this period comedy-drama depicts two best friends, Padraic (Farrell) and Colm (Gleeson), following Colm’s shocking declaration that he no longer wants to be acquainted with Padraic. As the progressively bemused, bewildered, and despondent Padraic tries to get to the bottom of why Colm has suddenly taken a disliking to him, the cause of an existential crisis begins to unravel. This is a sad, melancholic film that has a tangibly serious edge, despite the brilliant array of humorous techniques.
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