There aren’t many comedy movies which use historical settings, but ones that do can have a timeless appeal. Comedy often works best when it feels timely and relevant, so the large majority of comedy movies focus on contemporary stories. Historical comedies offer something different, however, such as the opportunity to laugh at the past, and the chance to deconstruct the lofty pretensions of historical dramas.
While most period movies are judged on their historical accuracy, comedies usually have different motives. Since they don’t profess to present an accurate depiction of the past, historical comedies have license to go off the rails, and inaccuracy and anachronism can often be part of the joke. While historical comedies are rarely accurate, they can still shine a light on some surprising truths about how people relate to the past, and how other movies give historical periods a quasi-mythological sheen.
10
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Spike Lee’s Outrageous True Story Unfolds In The 1970s
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8/10
BlacKkKlansman
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Release Date
August 9, 2018
Director
Spike Lee
Cast
Alec Baldwin
, John David Washington
, Isiah Whitlock Jr.
, Robert John Burke
, Brian Tarantina
, Arthur J. Nascarella
Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman was his funniest movie in decades, returning to the laugh-out-loud style of early hits like Do the Right Thing. However, BlacKkKlansman seems more grounded in some ways, largely because the unbelievable story of a Black police officer who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan is based on a real case. John David Washington delivers one of his most charismatic performances to date as the police officer, while Adam Driver plays his accomplice in the department.
Washington and Driver strike up a wonderful chemistry. BlacKkKlansman looks like a buddy cop movie, but the dynamic between the two main characters is fueled by their impish glee at getting away with a long con, which lends the movie the atmosphere of a caper. Spike Lee uses BlacKkKlansman to underline that racial hatred in American society is as rife as ever. Just as Ron Stallworth is disturbed to discover the inner workings of a thriving Klan in the 1970s, Lee closes the movie with a harrowing montage that shows how more recent events indicate that racism is alive and well.
9
Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975)
Monty Python Skewer The Middle Ages
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9/10
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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Release Date
May 25, 1975
Director
Terry Jones
, Terry Gilliam
Cast
Michael Palin
, John Cleese
, Terry Jones
, Graham Chapman
, Terry Gilliam
, Eric Idle
Monty Python’s movies all take an irreverent stance as they deconstruct societal norms and assumptions. The Life of Brian skewers religious orthodoxy, and The Meaning of Life tears down just about every aspect of modern life from the cradle to the grave. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a farcical comedy that questions the reverence with which people approach history, and it examines the smudged line between history, legend and pure myth.
Part of the joke is that it’s just as likely to be true as any other Hollywood representation of the past.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a gleefully inaccurate portrayal of the Middle Ages, but part of the joke is that it’s just as likely to be true as any other Hollywood representation of the past. Within this framework, the Pythons take turns playing a carousel of contemptible nitwits and absurd, overblown stereotypes, and many of their funniest characters can be seen on King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail.
8
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Taika Waititi Ridicules Fascist Ideology
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8.7/10
Jojo Rabbit
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Release Date
October 18, 2019
Director
Taika Waititi
Cast
Stephen Merchant
, Sam Rockwell
, Rebel Wilson
, Taika Waititi
, Alfie Allen
, Thomasin McKenzie
, Scarlett Johansson
, Roman Griffin Davis
At one point in Taika Waititi’s World War II comedy Jojo Rabbit, a Gestapo officer compliments a young child on his blind fanaticism. Herein lies the thrust of Waititi’s political satire. By using a child with a head full of daydreams as his main character, he exposes the immature lunacy of fascist ideologies. Only someone as detached from the real world as Jojo should believe that an autocrat can solve all their problems. Jojo sees Adolf Hitler as a figure akin to Superman, and Jojo Rabbit‘s script is full of hilarious dramatic irony as he ties himself in knots to defend this fantasy.
Waitit uses the setting to create a timeless satire of how political ineptitude and indifference can tear any society apart.
Taika Waititi has proudly stated that he did no research for his portrayal of Hitler. This is partly because his Hitler is only an imaginary version that exists within Jojo’s mind, but also because Jojo Rabbit would have no use for a realistic depiction of the dictator. By making Hitler a petty, silly loser, Waititi is able to draw attention away from the specifics of the era and create a more timeless satire of how political ineptitude and indifference can tear any society apart.
7
The Death Of Stalin (2017)
A Great Ensemble Cast Capture The Chaos Of Stalin’s Succession
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The Death of Stalin
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Release Date
October 20, 2017
Director
Armando Iannucci
Cast
Steve Buscemi
, Simon Russell Beale
, Paddy Considine
, Rupert Friend
, Jason Isaacs
The Death of Stalin opens with the miniature farce of a radio station forced to repeat a concert so that they can record it for Joseph Stalin, filling the seats with random passers-by for acoustical purposes and waking a conductor in the middle of the night. This bizarre episode is just one of many true stories Armando Iannucci copied and pasted into his script to highlight the absurdity of Soviet life during Stalin’s reign. In some cases, Iannucci had to tone down the real history, for fear that his audience would think it was too far-fetched and implausible.
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The Death of Stalin looks at the power struggle that unfolded in the days and weeks after Stalin died without naming a successor. The ensemble cast includes plenty of comedic heavy-hitters, such as Steve Buscemi, Michael Palin and Jason Isaacs, who puts a hilarious spin on his talent for playing villains. While The Death of Stalin takes plenty of creative license, a surprising amount of the story is strangely true.
6
The Favourite (2018)
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Unusual Style Brings Out The Darkness In A Murky True Story
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7.8/10
The Favourite
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Release Date
November 23, 2018
Director
Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast
Olivia Colman
, Emma Stone
, Nicholas Hoult
, Mark Gatiss
, Rachel Weisz
Yorgos Lanthimos’ movies all share the director’s singular style, with plenty of flat, emotionless characters and strangely animalistic fits of sex and violence. The Favourite balances Lanthimos’ comedy with his dark characterization better than his other movies, creating a story that is simultaneously hilarious and gut-wrenchingly tragic. Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne, with Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone as two cousins vying to be her court favourite in the early 18th century.
The story of Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill has been the subject of some debate among historians.
The story of Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill has been the subject of some debate among historians. While the consensus among experts is that rumors of any sexual relations were politically motivated, Lanthimos makes this a key feature of The Favourite. Whether he believes the rumors is unclear, but he certainly seeks to draw parallels between the political game of cloak-and-dagger between the two cousins and primitive sexual jealousy. This is just one way that Lanthimos bucks the trends of stuffy period dramas.
5
The Banshees Of Inisherin (2022)
Martin McDonagh Looks At The Irish Civil War From A Different Angle
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7/10
The Banshees of Inisherin
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Release Date
October 21, 2022
Director
Martin McDonagh
Cast
Colin Farrell
, Brendan Gleeson
, Kerry Condon
, Barry Keoghan
The Banshees of Inisherin takes place during the Irish Civil War, but the setting is a remote island off the mainland, removed from the fighting in more ways than one. Though the sounds of cannon fire can sometimes be heard echoing over the water, the characters in The Banshees of Inisherin don’t pay much attention to the political turmoil that engulfs the rest of the country. However, the plot has often been described as an allegory for the Civil War.
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The Banshees of Inisherin follows two friends who suddenly stop talking after one decides to end their friendship out of the blue. In some ways, this reflects the way that the Irish Civil War turned friends against one another, and there are plenty of subtle hints that suggest that the two main characters represent the two sides of the conflict. Despite this heavy subject matter, Martin McDonagh uses his talent for hilarious dialogue to get plenty of laughs.
4
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Billy Wilder’s Classic Comedy Looks At The Prohibition Era
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10/10
Some Like It Hot
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Release Date
March 15, 1959
Director
Billy Wilder
Cast
Marilyn Monroe
, Tony Curtis
, Jack Lemmon
, George Raft
, Pat O’Brien
, Joe E. Brown
Some Like It Hot stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as two musicians who disguise themselves as women to avoid detection by the mob. To add some more danger and a little throwback charm to the movie, the story takes place in the prohibition era. This sets up plenty of great jokes about the future, Al Capone-style gangsters and the emergence of jazz. Some Like It Hot gets most of its historical comedy out of the way before the story leaves Chicago. Most of the movie could just as easily have taken place in 1959.
Like many classic Old Hollywood comedies, Some Like It Hot is admired for its rapid-fire dialogue, with Curtis and Lemmon combining to create a frenzy of witty banter. Some Like It Hot is funny when the two men struggle to pass themselves off as women, and it’s even funnier when they start to play the part a little too well. Some Like It Hot is credited with putting the final nail in the coffin of the Hays Code, so it’s only fitting that it’s set in a pre-Code era with free-flowing alcohol, men in drag and a dash of violence.
3
The Nice Guys (2016)
Shane Black’s Buddy Cop Comedy Recreates The 1970s
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9/10
The Nice Guys
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Release Date
May 20, 2016
Director
Shane Black
Cast
Ryan Gosling
, Ty Simpkins
, Rachele Brooke Smith
, Russell Crowe
, Yaya DaCosta
, Margaret Qualley
, Kim Basinger
, Keith David
, Matt Bomer
, Yvonne Zima
Not only is The Nice Guys a throwback to the 1970s, it also feels like a throwback to an earlier era of comedy movies. In an era when the comedy genre is either being consumed by action or leaning into dark tragicomic drama, The Nice Guys proudly treats its more serious elements as secondary. There is no fight scene or disturbing mystery in The Nice Guys that can’t be immediately undercut by a childish squeal by Ryan Gosling or a gruff shrug by Russell Crowe.
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The retro charm is so central to the appeal of The Nice Guys that it seems to imagine it taking place in the modern day, and the technological limitations of the 1970s make the investigation delightfully tedious for the two detectives. Gosling and Crowe are surprisingly perfect together, making The Nice Guys one of the best recent comedy movies, even though Crowe in particular isn’t known for comedy roles.
2
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Bullets Over Broadway Uses Film Noir Tropes For Comedic Effect
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10/10
Bullets Over Broadway
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Release Date
October 14, 1994
Director
Woody Allen
Cast
John Cusack
, Chazz Palminteri
, Dianne Wiest
, Jennifer Tilly
, Mary-Louise Parker
, Tracey Ullman
, Jim Broadbent
, Joe Viterelli
, Harvey Fierstein
, Rob Reiner
, Jack Warden
, Tony Sirico
, Victor Colicchio
, Louis Eppolito
, Gene Canfield
, Peter Castellotti
, Tony Conforti
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Like so many of Woody Allen’s comedies, Bullets Over Broadway is about a struggling writer who thinks he’s more talented than he really is. 10 or 20 years earlier, Allen probably would have played David himself, but John Cusack delivers a brilliant performance. The story takes place in the 1920s, as David reluctantly casts a mobster’s girlfriend in his play to secure funding.
Bullets Over Broadway uses the intensity of the gangster genre as little more than a backdrop for one man’s crisis of confidence.
Bullets Over Broadway pays tribute to the art of theater, and all the frenzied rehearsals, rewrites and insecurity that come with putting on a show. It heightens the tension with the inclusion of the mob, and a violent gangster movie plays out in the background as David worries about his artistic credibility. Bullets Over Broadway uses the intensity of the gangster genre as little more than a backdrop for one man’s crisis of confidence.
1
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
The Coen Brothers Mix History And Mythology
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O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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Release Date
February 2, 2001
Director
Joel Coen
, Ethan Coen
Cast
George Clooney
, John Turturro
, Tim Blake Nelson
, John Goodman
, Holly Hunter
, Charles Durning
Many of the best Coen brothers movies focus on specific regions of the United States. Fargo takes place in the frigid north, Raising Arizona focuses on the deserts of the west, and O Brother, Where Art Thou is a southern tale. It’s also one of the Coen brothers’ historical movies, unfolding in 1937. O Brother, Where Art Thou takes in some of the cultural tropes of the time, with chain gangs, old folk music and a Klan rally.
While this portrayal isn’t necessarily historically accurate, what it says about the mysterious nature of the past rings true.
O Brother, Where Art Thou is inspired by The Odyssey, but the Coen brothers take a very loose interpretation of the story. Still, some elements of fable seep into the story, lending 1930s Missouri a mythical quality. Unknown creatures seem to lurk around every corner, some of which are friends and some of which are foes. While this portrayal isn’t necessarily historically accurate, what it says about the mysterious nature of the past rings true.