The Harry Potter movies were based on J.K. Rowling’s excellent book series but some of their funniest moments were totally original. The Potterverse movies kept the spirit of Rowling’s story in the best possible way, with the first and second installments arguably being the most faithful fantasy adaptations out there, bar minimal departures from the source material. For instance, Sirius Black deserved more screen time, especially given Gary Oldman’s performance. However, it was the directors Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, and David Yates who really brought the Wizarding World to life.
All eight Harry Potter movies diverged from the books to a certain extent, including leaving out a lot of Percy Weasley’s story and giving a lot of Ron’s lines to Hermione. The directors and producers of the movies made changes based on creating better drama and pacing; this sometimes resulted in hilarity. That said, a lot of the universe’s funniest and most original moments were created by the cast, as they improvised based on their chemistry. This is a testament to the unique magic that only films can bring and to the rewatchability of the often hilarious Potter pictures.
10 Harry Potter Picks Up A Waitress
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
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In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter made an endearing move on a waitress in a cafe, before Dumbledore cramped his style. It was nice to see this movie take some time over the Golden Trio’s teenage existence. Harry awkwardly checking his breath was relatably funny, as it emphasized the universal experience of having jitters when dealing with tricky social settings. This was something that the movies did really good with, making them very popular even to those who didn’t particularly enjoy the genre. Sadly, it was a shame that this line of humor couldn’t continue.
The Muggle waitress had been asking who Harry Potter was after seeing him make a headline of the Daily Prophet, which Harry was reading in the cafe. This scene’s real punchline was Harry saying that Harry Potter was just a “bit of a tosser,” knowing full well that he’s criticizing himself. A classic British self-deprecating joke, this captured the book’s sense of humor perfectly, despite being original content.
9 The Lovegood Dance Moves
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part One
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Luna Lovegood may not have been one of the main characters of Harry Potter, but she was one of the best, as demonstrated by her Wrackspurts dance. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One, Luna and Xenophilius Lovegood gave the world their Wrackspurts dance. The Lovegoods were known for their eccentricity and this kooky moment hit the nail on the head.
The team behind the movie was discussing how best to portray the Lovegoods’ rhythmic talent, but they were struggling. The choreographer had to create a dance routine for Luna and Xenophilius that was humorous yet resonant with their characters. In the end, Evanna Lynch and Rhys Ifans improvised their Wrackspurts dance, forming a timeless moment.
8 Ron’s Poor Emotional Range
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
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In the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie, Hermione funnily told Ron that he had the emotional range of a teaspoon. Overall, this movie was a great point for the Golden Trio – Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. They had solidified their friendships into the stuff of movie magic and were free to breathe into its complexities.
HBO is planning a
Harry Potter
TV series expected to be released sometime in 2026.
Released in 2007, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix did a great job of showing the difficulties of growing up. This was the installment that fully transitioned the young cast to be proper teens. In this excellent take from the fifth Harry Potter movie, Harry was explaining a confusing interpersonal moment he had experienced with his love interest, Cho Chang. Ron and Harry’s inability to understand Cho’s complex emotion was harshly rebuked by Hermione’s “teaspoon” remark.
7 Lavender Loves Won Won
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
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Lavender melodramatically signaled her adoration for “Won Won” in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This humorous moment recalled some of Lavender’s less tasteful attributes. In fact, watching the semi-appalled faces of the professors reacting to Lavender’s lovey-dovey sympathy for Ron may have been the best part of this scene.
Lavender was never quite the one for Ron, as this scene made painfully evident. Her confrontation with Hermione was a highlight of the Golden Trio’s development, evidencing the genius Muggle’s feelings for her friend. It was the triumph of the Harry Potter movies that they were able to show their main three characters developing via so many other subtle moments and relationships.
6 Dudley Ends Up In The Snake Cage
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone
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In the very first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Dudley Dursley got trapped in a snake cage in a zoo, which was funny and original material. This moment did not feature in the movie’s book equivalent. Played by Harry Melling, Dudley was a masterpiece of idiocy, parodying the petty bully to perfection. Dudley trying to escape the snake cage was so satisfying, it was hilarious.
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The Harry Potter books created an intriguing Dudley Dursley mystery that made his character far more interesting. Unfortunately, the books missed it.
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Melling played Dudley, even from his early days in movie one, with just the right mix of caricature and subtlety. Dudley’s reaction to ending up in the snake cage, courtesy of Harry Potter, was priceless. Indeed, the banter between Harry and Dudley held their scenes together. It sold Dudley as a piece of work and Harry as having the patience of a saint.
5 Seamus Finnigan’s Proclivity For Pyrotechnics
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone
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Seamus Finnigan was an underused character in the Harry Potter movies, as proven by his comedic clashes with fire. He kept exploding things in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Many of these moments were not in the books, but they captured the spirit of Seamus well enough – Seamus had actually set fire to a feather in the book.
It was appropriate that the movie drew out this element of Seamus’ character as it rightly saw its potential for making people laugh. Part of the strength of the Harry Potter movies was its strong cast, exhibiting regional diversity. Cho Chang’s Scottish accent and Seamus Finnigan’s Irish accent joined up to create a tableau of realistic life at a British university. No one could have captured the Irish legend persona of Seamus quite like Devon Murray.
4 Arthur Weasley And The Rubber Duck
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
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Arthur Weasley’s line of questioning around Muggles was comedy gold and fully original material. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry was at the Burrow and Arthur was asking him about Muggles. Harry was expecting questions of some level of intellectual difficulty, but Arthur’s profound bafflement about rubber ducks was a surprise. Weasley was desperate to know the purpose of a rubber duck.
Of course, there wasn’t much purpose at all, which made Weasley appear fantastically clueless. This was a gorgeous example of the divide between the Wizarding world and the Muggle world, illustrating the often hilarious ignorance between the two. There were other instances of this in the Potterverse movies, especially in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but Arthur Weasley pioneered this brand of humor in the Potter pictures.
3 Professor McGonagall And Ron’s Dance
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
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Professor McGonagall’s dancing with Ron was probably one of the funniest moments of the entire movie series and hadn’t come from the book. Dame Maggie Smith taught the world how to play a teacher and a headmistress in her world-class portrayal of the eventual Hogwarts headmistress Minerva McGonagall. Maggie Smith really did make the world a brighter place, especially in this epic scene.
Dame Maggie Smith passed away on September 27, 2024. She was 89 years old.
Ron Weasley was singled out by Smith’s McGonagall to exemplify a suitable Yule Ball dance. Ron was the perfect candidate for this moment, blessing it with a magic mixture of horror and politeness. McGonagall made Ron the laughingstock of his year group, but it was well worth it for viewers both on-screen and off-screen.
2 Hermione And Ron’s Awkward Handshake
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
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Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley shared the world’s most awkward handshake in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, leading to one of the best-improvised cuts of the movie. This comedic point of the second Harry Potter movie proved that Hermione Granger was Harry Potter’s best friend – not to preclude Ron. Hermione rushed to hug Harry but didn’t give Ron the same treatment.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 included a very brief “nude” scene that ended up being controversial even before the film came out.
Instead of a hug, Ron got a reserved handshake. The difference between Hermione’s attitude to Harry and her attitude to Ron was made beautifully clear in this scene. The two always shared a magical tension that kept them an arm’s length away from each other. While this was due to the complex irritation common to adolescents, it was also due to the desire to impress each other.
1 Harry’s “Not To Mention The Pincers” Line
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
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The funniest part of the Harry Potter movie series may have been Harry’s “Not to mention the pincers” line from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He delivered this line during Aragog’s funeral. The tragedy of the funeral was offset by Harry’s absolute disrespect, which was precipitated by the Felix Felicis potion he had drunk just before.
Harry’s disrespect wasn’t dark in tone, because he wasn’t trivializing the death of a human. He was innocently and unintentionally reminiscing on his experiences with the giant spider Aragog. Hagrid’s adoration of all beasts great and small led to his deep sadness about Aragog’s death, which was a stark contrast to Harry’s pragmatic recognition of the beast’s terrifying pincers. Far from an emotional tribute to a dead spider, this was a joyously sardonic Harry Potter moment that Daniel Radcliffe improvised.
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a multimedia franchise about an orphaned boy who enrolls at Hogwarts School of Wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family, and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world. Adapted from the novels, Harry Potter is an eight-episode film saga that follows the journey of Harry Potter and his friends, Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley, as they navigate the tricky world of growing up, school life, and magic. Starting from year one and moving to their seventh year, the films chronicle the students’ time at Hogwarts while unfurling a sinister plot that centers around the unsuspecting Harry. With the return of the dark wizard, Voldemort, the students and professors at Hogwarts will fight to carry on as the world around them may change forever. Harry Potter has expanded beyond the world of its films and novels with several video games, a spin-off film series titled Fantastic Beasts, and even attractions at Universal Studios.
Created by J.K. Rowling First Film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone First TV Show Harry Potter Cast Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson , Rupert Grint , Tom Felton , Alan Rickman , Matthew Lewis , Bonnie Wright , Evanna Lynch , Maggie Smith , Michael Gambon , Richard Harris , Ralph Fiennes , Helena Bonham Carter , Alfred Enoch , Harry Melling , Gary Oldman , Robert Pattinson , Warwick Davis , Oliver Phelps , James Phelps , David Bradley , David Thewlis , Katie Leung , Jason Isaacs , Imelda Staunton , David Tennant , Jamie Campbell Bower , Timothy Spall , Robbie Coltrane , Eddie Redmayne , Jude Law , Katherine Waterston , Ezra Miller , Dan Fogler , Alison Sudol , Johnny Depp , Mads Mikkelsen TV Show(s) Harry Potter Character(s) Harry Potter , Hermione Granger , Ron Weasley , Dumbledore , Minerva McGonagall , Rubeus Hagrid , Dobby the House Elf , Draco Malfoy , Sirius Black , Ginny Weasley , Voldemort Expand $88 at AmazonSee at TargetSee at Walmart