The 20 best comedies on Amazon Prime Video (November 2026)

9 to 5 (1980)

By taking a “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar” approach to some serious sociological messages (workplace sexual harassment, gender pay gap disparities, etc.), 9 to 5 is as charming, funny, and joyous as its three stars: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. The brilliant concept came from Fonda, who, through her activism, had her eyes opened to the struggles of women secretaries, many with bosses who made Dabney Coleman’s character look like a teddy bear.

In addition to the concept, Fonda also had the idea to cast Tomlin and Parton, creating a sparkly alchemy that virtually radiates from the screen. Thanks to Fonda’s sharp, savvy sensibility, 9 to 5 is now an eternal classic, not to mention the second highest-grossing film the year it came out (a little film called The Empire Strikes Back earned the top spot). —Debby Wolfinsohn

Where to watch 9 to 5: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Colin Higgins

Cast: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton

Afternoon Delight (2013)

Kathryn Hahn is one of our finest actresses who specializes in stories of modern-day women going through deep internal struggles, and this quirky indie dramedy is no exception. Hahn plays Rachel, a stay-at-home mom growing increasingly frustrated by the monotony of her life. In an effort to spice things up, she goes with her husband to a strip club where she meets McKenna (Juno Temple), a dancer to whom she’s drawn. She soon befriends McKenna, though Rachel’s insecurities soon come out, leading to tension in their relationship. —Kevin Jacobsen

Where to watch Afternoon Delight: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Joey Soloway

Cast: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, Jane Lynch

American Fiction (2023)

This adaptation of Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure is both a clever satire on the publishing industry and a poignant exploration of a writer examining his place in the world. Jeffrey Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a frustrated author who pens a satirical novel using stereotypical tropes from African American literature and accidentally gains acclaim for it from white publishers, who think it sincere. Monk also deals with family and relationship issues while struggling with his newfound, unwanted fame. Writer-director Cord Jefferson won an Oscar for his deftly composed screenplay, with the film also nominated for four other Academy Awards, including Best Picture. —K.J.

Where to watch American Fiction: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Cord Jefferson

Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams

Bernie (2012)

This engrossing black comedy, based on a wild true story, contains one of Jack Black’s best performances. The actor stars as Bernie Tiede, a mortician’s assistant treasured by his community for his caring nature toward elderly widows. After befriending the irritable Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine), she persuades him to work for her full-time. Her demanding nature eventually leads Bernie to take matters into his own hands, with major legal ramifications. —K.J.

Where to watch Bernie: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Richard Linklater

Cast: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey

The Big Sick (2017)

If you like your comedy with a side of tragedy, The Big Sick has got you covered. This is truly a unique, one-of-a-kind production: stomach-achingly hilarious, mega-touching, and…all true? Yep, written by the couple who went through it IRL (Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon) and acted by one (Nanjiani, with Gordon played by Zoe Kazan), the pair deftly turned her shocking diagnosis/near-death experience into true laughs. The best medicine? We think so. —D.W.

Where to watch The Big Sick: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Michael Showalter

Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, Holly Hunter

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

Exposing the worst of America in a fearless, laugh-while-you-cringe style is Sacha Baron Cohen’s specialty. Disguising himself as a mustachioed, overly-confident Kazakh allowed Cohen a kind of magic access: the ability to travel into the dark corners of the U.S. as an “innocent.” This ruse encouraged others to open up in ways they might not have otherwise, creating jaw-dropping moments of comedy (veering into tragedy) you can’t look away from.

The setup is simple — Cohen’s character Borat returns to the West with his daughter, Tutar (the excellent Maria Bakalova), to win the favor of its leader, “a magnificent new Premier named McDonald Trump.” In a kind of bizarro buddy comedy, the two visit synagogues, debutante balls, and freedom rallies, creating moments so indelible they will go down in cinematic history. It’s hard to choose just one, so we’ll pick two: Rudy Giuliani, and the horrifying father-daughter OB-GYN visit. As EW’s critic writes, “his outrageous, uncountable isms — the confident screeds against women and Jew[ish people], the casual endorsements of incest or indentured servitude — are of course satirical, and entirely the point.” —D.W.

Where to watch Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A–

Director: Jason Woliner

Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova

Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019)

Jillian Bell stars as Brittany, a New York party girl who decides to change her life the old-fashioned way: jogging! EW’s critic says Bell brings a “real, messy humanity to Brittany that comedies hardly ever allow a lead character — let alone a non-impossibly-bodied female — to have.” Kept afloat by her running buddies — Michaela Watkins’ divorcée with issues and Micah Stock’s sardonic gay dad — the movie avoids a simple happy ending but does provide a satisfying, uplifting one. It’s perfect for watching on the treadmill or stationary bike (or lying in bed eating ice cream). —D.W.

Where to watch Brittany Runs a Marathon: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A–

Director: Paul Downs Colaizzo

Cast: Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Utkarsh Ambudkar

Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

The age-old conflict between art and commerce is dramatized in a stylish, witty fashion in this Oscar-winning Woody Allen comedy. John Cusack plays David Shayne, a budding playwright who is forced to cast a gangster’s moll, Olive (Jennifer Tilly), in his new play in exchange for financing. Tensions naturally arise when Olive proves to be talentless, but this proves to be only the tip of the iceberg. As EW’s critic writes, “it’s nice to see Allen’s craftsmanship reanimated by a genuine showman’s ardor. This is one old-fashioned comedy with an up-to-the-minute sting.” —K.J.

Where to watch Bullets Over Broadway: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Woody Allen

Cast: John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly, Chazz Palminteri, Jack Warden

City Lights (1931)

Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, and starred in many masterpieces in the 1920s and ‘30s, but this bittersweet romantic comedy is his best work. The multihyphenate stars as his signature Tramp character, who falls in love with a blind flower seller (Virginia Cherrill) who mistakes him for a millionaire. Insecure about his lower-class status, he uses his newfound friendship with an actual millionaire to keep up the ruse. It all leads to one of cinema’s most poignant endings, an exchange that speaks to the power of silent cinema. —K.J.

Where to watch City Lights: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A+

Director: Charlie Chaplin

Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers, Al Ernest Garcia

Death Becomes Her (1992)

This hysterical black comedy satirizes the impossible beauty standards women deal with as they age. Meryl Streep plays Madeline Ashton, an actress in career decline, while Goldie Hawn is Helen Sharp, Madeline’s writer friend, whose happy life with her doctor fiancé (Bruce Willis) is shaken to the core when he breaks it off to be with Madeline. Years later, both women — unhappy with the direction of their lives — take an experimental potion that gives them a more youthful appearance, leading to chaotic consequences. Cartoonishly fun yet rooted in real vulnerability, Death Becomes Her is a campy delight with fully committed performances from Streep and Hawn. —K.J.

Where to watch Death Becomes Her: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Cast: Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis

Heathers (1989)

Veronica (Winona Ryder) is a teen who gets involved with the popular mean-girl clique at her high school, known as the Heathers. She also befriends the mysterious new student, J.D. (Christian Slater), a loner whose idea of revenge involves murder staged as a suicide and orchestrating a disturbing plan to get back at the Heathers for their cruelty. On paper, a plot description for this seminal cult classic sounds far from funny. But the film’s heightened tone and memorable one-liners (“Dear diary, my teen angst bulls— has a body count”) make for a darkly entertaining answer to the formulaic ‘80s teen comedies that came before it, while still holding up today. —K.J.

Where to watch Heathers: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Michael Lehmann

Cast: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty

Hundreds of Beavers (2022)

Made with $150,000 and a (highly unusual) dream, this bonkers indie comedy is among the most notable word-of-mouth favorites in recent years. Set in 19th-century Wisconsin, Hundreds of Beavers follows a frontiersman named Jean Kayak (Ryland Tews), whose applejack business is destroyed by unruly beavers. Jean is then forced to survive and adapt, soon falling in love with a local merchant’s daughter, whom he can only have if he procures the titular hundreds of beavers for their pelts. What follows is a goofy, thoroughly entertaining thrill ride in which man and beaver face off in the ultimate battle for supremacy. —K.J.

Where to watch Hundreds of Beavers: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Mike Cheslik

Cast: Ryland Tews, Olivia Graves, Wes Tank, Doug Mancheski, Luis Rico

The Little Hours (2017)

This underrated indie comedy transports Alison Brie, Kate Micucci, Aubrey Plaza, and all their collective modern comedic sensibilities to 1347 Italy, with the trio playing repressed nuns. Having tortured the convent’s gardener into quitting, they become intrigued by his replacement, Massetto (Dave Franco), who is pretending to be deaf-mute while hiding out after being caught in bed with his former employer’s wife. Those looking for 14th-century realistic dialogue should look elsewhere as The Little Hours takes wicked pleasure in its anachronisms, particularly Plaza’s sadistic, foul-mouthed Sister Fernanda. —K.J.

Where to watch The Little Hours: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B

Director: Jeff Baena

Cast: Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Kate Micucci, Aubrey Plaza, John C. Reilly

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Amazon Prime has quite a few Monty Python projects to choose from, but Holy Grail is, well, the holy grail of the comedy troupe’s artistic output. This send-up of Arthurian legend finds King Arthur (Graham Chapman) traversing England in the hope of recruiting knights to his Round Table. After assembling his men, God commands him to find the Holy Grail, leading to a perilous adventure with plenty a memorable sequence (shout out to those pesky knights who say “Ni.”) —K.J.

Where to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Amazon Prime Video

Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones

Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones

My Old Ass (2024)

A teenage girl (Maisy Stella) goes on a mushroom trip and sees a vision of her older self (Aubrey Plaza), who tells her all about her future. The premise (and title) of My Old Ass may make it seem like a disposable broad comedy, but writer-director Megan Park imbues her film with surprising depth. This is a coming-of-age story, one with valuable lessons to impart about our relationship to ourselves and the value of living in the present. “The pitch-perfect script and impressive acting made for a hilarious, charming, and surprisingly devastating cautionary tale about life, love, and loss,” writes EW’s critic. —K.J.

Where to watch My Old Ass: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Megan Park

Cast: Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks

The Naked Gun (2025)

Those longing for the days of mainstream, joke-a-minute studio comedies got their wish with this gut-busting legacy-sequel. Liam Neeson stars as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., the hilariously literal-minded son of Leslie Nielsen’s character, who led the original ‘80s and ‘90s franchise. The new film finds Drebin Jr. investigating the supposed suicide of a software developer, teaming up with the victim’s crime novelist sister (Pamela Anderson) to find answers. As EW’s editorial director writes, “Expect classic Police Squad shenanigans, a plethora of puns, sight gags galore, and an abundance of absurdity.” —K.J.

Where to watch The Naked Gun: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Akiva Schaffer

Cast: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Quentin Tarantino’s ode to 1960s Hollywood is arguably the writer-director’s most sentimental film. Bathed in the warm glow of nostalgia, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood centers on fading actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), each struggling to stay relevant and find work during changing times in showbiz. The film also incorporates real-life figures like actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) as she experiences life as a budding star; of course, with its 1969 Los Angeles setting, the threat of the Manson Family is ever-present. It’s a sprawling epic packed with stars and set pieces both big and small, with some of the funniest sequences in Tarantino’s filmography, from Rick’s trailer breakdown to the gonzo ending featuring a particularly well-deployed flamethrower. —K.J.

Where to watch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A–

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie

The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)

Question: How are wedding comedies like wedding cakes? Answer: The dysfunction’s baked right in! Based on the 2016 Grant Ginder novel and directed by Claire Scanlon (of Netflix’s Set It Up), the film follows relatably flawed, baggage-laden siblings Ben Platt and Kristen Bell to England, where they must join their mother (the always stellar Allison Janney) at the wedding of their wealthy half-sister (Cynthia Addai-Robinson). The comedic antics flow like champagne in this bride-com with an edge. —D.W.

Where to watch The People We Hate at the Wedding: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Claire Scanlon

Cast: Ben Platt, Allison Janney, Kristen Bell 

Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)

Based on Casey McQuiston’s best-selling novel of the same name, Red, White & Royal Blue is a charming romantic comedy that charts the unlikely romance between a British prince and the son of the president of the United States. In a classic tale of enemies-to-lovers, American Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez) feuds with Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), which escalates to a rather unfortunate cake accident (pictured above). Following the subsequent tabloid scandal, the pair eventually make amends and come to realize their feelings for each other, which blossoms into an affair.

It’s a frothy good time with two star-making performances at its center; it also happens to feature Uma Thurman in what may be her campiest performance since 1997’s Batman & Robin. (Some good news: We’re getting a sequel!) —K.J.

Where to watch Red, White & Royal Blue: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Matthew López

Cast: Taylor Zakhar Perez, Nicholas Galitzine, Sarah Shahi, Stephen Fry, Uma Thurman

The Sheep Detectives (2026)

For those craving the unique joys of 1995’s Babe, this family-friendly mystery comedy is just the ticket. Based on the novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, the film follows a flock of sheep as they try to solve the murder of their beloved shepherd, George (Hugh Jackman). Using detective skills learned from the mysteries George read aloud to them, the sheep gather evidence to help the town’s bumbling police officer (Nicholas Braun) piece it all together. Heartfelt without being cloying, The Sheep Detectives effectively tackles themes of grief and justice with a lighthearted charm. —K.J.

Where to watch The Sheep Detectives: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Kyle Balda

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Emma Thompson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus