Genre: Comedy

Comedy is built to make you laugh — through wit, absurdity, timing, and characters whose flaws and schemes keep tripping them up. Underneath the jokes, the best of it still says something true.

Being There (1979)

Hal Ashby's 1979 satire with Peter Sellers as gardener mistaken for political sage. Final film of Sellers' great period.

Comedy • Satire

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Wag the Dog (1997)

Barry Levinson's 1997 political satire. Hoffman and De Niro fabricate a war to bury a presidential scandal. Mamet co-wrote.

Comedy • Satire

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Idiocracy (2006)

Mike Judge's 2006 dystopian satire. Average man wakes in 500-years-dumber future. Cult standing built through home video.

Comedy • Satire • Science Fiction

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In the Loop (2009)

Armando Iannucci's 2009 spin-off from The Thick of It. British and American officials bumble toward Middle East war. Tucker.

Comedy • Satire

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Knives Out (2019)

Rian Johnson's 2019 Agatha Christie homage with contemporary wit. Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc. Launched continuing franchise.

Comedy • Mystery

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The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974)

Jack Hill's 1974 American exploitation film about a feminist journalism student who joins a college cheerleading squad to write an expose and finds genuine friendship with the team. Foundational entry in the cheerleader subgenre and one of the strongest Hill productions of the 1970s.

Cheerleader • Comedy • Exploitation

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But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)

Jamie Babbit's 1999 American satirical romantic comedy about a high school cheerleader sent to a conversion therapy camp by her parents who fall in love with another resident. Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall star in the canonical queer-cinema cheerleader film.

Cheerleader • Comedy • Queer Cinema • Romance

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Sugar & Spice (2001)

Francine McDougall's 2001 American crime comedy about a high school cheerleading squad that robs banks to support their leader's pregnancy. Marley Shelton and Mena Suvari star in the cult-classic cheerleader heist comedy.

Cheerleader • Comedy • Crime

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Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Karyn Kusama's 2009 American horror comedy with screenplay by Diablo Cody about a high school cheerleader possessed by a demon who feeds on her male classmates. Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried star in the substantially reappraised feminist horror landmark of the late 2000s.

Cheerleader • Comedy • Horror • Supernatural

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The Final Girls (2015)

Todd Strauss-Schulson's 2015 American meta-horror comedy about a grieving teenager and her friends pulled into the 1980s slasher film starring her dead mother where the cheerleader and counselor characters are stalked by a masked killer. Taissa Farmiga and Malin Akerman star in the canonical 2010s meta-slasher.

Cheerleader • Comedy • Horror • Meta

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