The 15 Best Comedies Streaming On Hulu Right Now

Picture two films in front of you. One is a three-hour drama, an epic about an important issue acclaimed by critics, a piece of cinematic homework you have to see lest a Letterboxd gatekeeper sneers at you. The other is maybe 90 minutes and is really, really funny, critical consensus be damned. I know which one I’m picking.

Like many others, I am a huge fan of comedy movies. It’s the art of finding visceral, uncontrollable catharsis (i.e., laughter) through this maddening existence we call “being alive.” It requires all the facets of dramatic storytelling with the added task of poking fun at the “normal” elements of dramatic storytelling. It’s so hard, and when it’s pulled off well, there’s nothing like it. And there are many great comedy films to check out on streaming services, including, but not limited to Hulu.

So the next time you’re scrolling through Hulu looking for a flick to watch, do me a favor and save the three-hour epic for another day. Instead, check out the 15 best comedies streaming on Hulu right now.

Based on a Kazakh journalist character from his acclaimed English comedy series “Da Ali G Show,” Sacha Baron Cohen traveled across America and earned some of his finest moments on film in “Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”

Borat Sagdiyev is virulently sexist, anti-Semitic, racist, and every other problematic quality you could think of. Thus, as he interacts with everyday Americans in vignettes captured under not-entirely-truthful circumstances, he gives them ample room to show their whole ass on screen for the whole world to see. Also, he sees Pamela Anderson on a TV screen once and vows to marry her.

You’ll see some of the hardest and most queasy satire ever filmed in the Larry Charles-directed mockumentary, especially if you remember American culture during the George W. Bush era. But “Borat” isn’t just a finger-wagging history lesson. Many of its set pieces remain hilarious because they’re rooted in timeless comedy foundations of slapstick and idiocy.

The rare big-budget studio comedy to get Oscar nominations (for screenplay and supporting actress), “Bridesmaids” is easily director Paul Feig’s best movie, and might make a run for producer Judd Apatow’s best movie, too.

Kristen Wiig stars as Annie, the best friend of Lillian (Maya Rudolph), who’s getting married. Lillian asks Annie to be her maid of honor, but there’s another bridesmaid obviously jockeying for the spot: Helen, played by the acidically hilarious Rose Byrne. Take all of these elements, add in an endearing love story with Chris O’Dowd, and the chaotic genius of Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy, and you’ve got a contemporary comedy classic on your hands.

“Bridesmaids” gets as raunchy as any Apatow-era comedy, and allows its performers to follow their improv-friendly bliss down some loopy corridors (though it was originally going to be even more absurd). But I also appreciate Oscar-nominated co-writer Wiig and Annie Mumolo’s storytelling fundamentals; their remembrance that things like “structure” and “emotional investment” are just as important.

In the middle of Barack Obama’s second term, American racism in the wealthy, white, ruling class burrowed underground a couple of thin layers, still hiding in plain sight. Problematic white people weren’t necessarily antagonistic or explicit in their aggressions. Instead, tones turned smug and patronizing, and offensive jokes became justified because, well, look at who’s president!

It’s into this milieu that writer/director Justin Simien hurls a hand grenade in the form of 2014’s “Dear White People” — which was not President Obama’s favorite movie of 2014, for the record. Tessa Thompson, Teyonah Parris, and Tyler James Williams play students at a prestigious college; Sam (Thompson) hosts a radio show calling out many of the campus’s white microaggressions, Coco (Parris) deals with cultural colorism, and Lionel (Williams) is trying to write about the “Black experience” for the school newspaper. All of these conflicts come to a head when some touchy white students decide to throw a profoundly offensive themed party, changing everyone’s collegiate lives forever.

You might recognize this title from a Netflix series of the same name, spun off from this film. If you’re a fan of that show, why not try out the source material?

“The Death of Stalin” is as pitch-black a comedy as I can think of in the 21st century, with a ghastly ending sequence that has lodged into my brain the way some horror movie setpieces do. I can’t recommend it enough.

Armando Iannucci directed the film, and if you’re a fan of his work on shows like “Veep” or “The Thick of It,” you’ll have a great starting point to appreciate this movie. Iannucci trains his vulgar, handheld, and deeply cynical eye onto the power vacuum paralyzing Soviet Russia after, well, the 1953 death of leader Joseph Stalin. Some of the key players in this authoritative struggle include Steve Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev, Simon Russell Beale as Lavrenti Beria, and a particularly odious Jason Isaacs as Georgy Zhukov.

These actors all use their natural accents, adding a welcome sense of immersion and naturalism to the sometimes farcical proceedings. It’s a nasty piece of work performed by an admirably fearless ensemble cast, a minor classic in Iannucci’s robust oeuvre.

Giving Wes Anderson access to stop motion animation is like giving Michael Phelps fins. He was already doing “that” incredibly well on his own, and now that we’re super-powering his strengths, it’s almost like he’s cheating.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox,” based on the Roald Dahl novel, stars George Clooney as the title character, a fox who, like many Anderson protagonists, is a self-mythologizing raconteur who’s maybe not being the best father he could be. When the evil trio of farmers known as Boggis, Bunce, and Bean start hunting down the foxes for stealing their goods, Mr. Fox must hunker down and save his family.

The film is swarmed by a truly stunning bench of voice actors, some of whom are familiar Anderson players (Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson) and some of whom acquaint themselves perfectly with his exacting style (Meryl Streep, Jarvis Cocker). It’s a laugh-out-loud hilarious film, maybe Anderson’s most “pure” comedy, but it’s also frequently beautiful, not just in its startling animation but in its mature thematic explorations. These explorations, however, might have limited the movie’s box office success, as Anderson himself theorizes.

For fans of unorthodox, contemporary Jane Austen adaptations (“Clueless,” “Austenland,” etc.), please add “Fire Island” to your Hulu watchlist, post-haste. Written by and starring Joel Kim Booster, the film transplants the familiar, romantic maneuverings of “Pride and Prejudice” onto Fire Island, a New York landmark known for its vibrant queer community. As Booster hangs and flirts with a group of friends, and at least one alluring stranger, relationships fracture and feelings emerge.

The film is a who’s who of Asian-led LGBTQ comedy, with luminaries like Bowen Yang and Margaret Cho joining Booster and the impressive, authentic ensemble cast. For certain viewers, some of “Fire Island” may resonate and hurt to an almost uncomfortable degree, so willing is it to depict longstanding friendships and flirtations without blinking at some of their less savory aspects.

In a just world, it would be canonized as a generation definer, the heir apparent not just to people like Whit Stillman or Lena Dunham but to Jane Austen herself. It’s a comedy of manners without manners, and it’s worth your time and then some.

Speaking of poor manners, let’s say you’re with your family on a skiing vacation when a life-threatening avalanche barrels down upon you. What would you do? Would you risk your own life to attend to the safety of your spouse and children? Or would you bolt as quickly as possible, leaving every person to fend for themselves?

This is the moral quagmire that incites “Force Majeure,” and it is not a spoiler to say that family patriarch Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke) chooses the latter, arguably more cowardly option. He absolutely hightails it out of harm’s way, leaving his wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and their two children to fend with the elements on their own.

Luckily, everyone is okay … physically. “Emotionally” is another matter, and the film takes a great, twisted pleasure in showing just what happens to a marriage and a family unit when their leader reveals himself to be a big ol’ wuss.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a lover of pop culture, and you’ve probably seen “High Fidelity” and seen yourself in its main character, the misanthropic and elitist Rob (John Cusack). He and his equally eccentric coworkers (Todd Louiso and Jack Black, who was worried this movie would kill his music career) run a record store, ranking all matters of ephemera into top five lists. And when Rob’s latest girlfriend abruptly dumps him, what else can he do but walk us through his top five ex-girlfriends list, seeing what he can learn about himself and his broken heart along the way?

“High Fidelity,” beyond being a formally adventurous, laugh-out-loud funny, and deeply felt comedy, is a great litmus test for the artist or curator in your life. It captures a certain kind of “enthusiastic ennui” that marks these kinds of creative conversations, and it is more than willing to burrow past wish-fulfillment and become an out-and-out criticism and call to change. It’s a remarkable picture that will unlock different things for you whenever you watch it in your life’s journey.

Here is a simple, pleasant, crisply placed, and gutbusting comedy for your viewing pleasure! What else could you want?! “I Love You, Man” features Paul Rudd in one of his best movies as the sensitive but isolated Peter. When he asks Zooey (Rashida Jones) to marry him, he realizes something shocking and important: He doesn’t really have any male friends, let alone one who could be his best man! So he goes on a journey toward male camaraderie and finds a promising candidate in the laissez-faire, slovenly Sydney (Jason Segel). But will Sydney reorient Peter out of balance, jeopardizing his upcoming marriage in the process?

There are a lot of versions of this story, especially this story released in 2009, that could play problematically upon modern eyes. Happily, “I Love You, Man” tends to clear this bar. At its core, it’s a deeply sweet film, one interested in presenting a decently enlightened idea of masculinity and what male bonding does to the modern man. Less Andrew Tate, more “I Love You, Man,” is what I say!

We’re not living in an “Idiocracy” world, yet. But watch the Mike Judge cult comedy classic and tell me we’re not troublingly in its orbit.

The film stars Luke Wilson as Joe Bauers, a man determined by the U.S. Army to be “the most average human being.” He partakes in a government experiment that places him in suspended animation, waking up in the year 2505. Here, our literal Average Joe finds a world marked by loud, vulgar stupidity where common sense literally makes you the smartest person alive.

Barely released in 2006 by a nervous 20th Century Fox, “Idiocracy” found its life on home video. It’s not hard to see why a corporation would blanch at the film; it’s ruthless about America’s capitalist devolutions and bold in its genre-blending aims. But for adventurous filmgoers and lovers of unique satire, “Idiocracy” makes a hilarious and startling watch. Judge still sees “Beavis and Butt-Head” as his career’s magnum opus, but this has to come pretty close.

Another 2006 banger, “Little Miss Sunshine” won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for its writer, Michael Arndt, and for good reason. It’s well-structured, frank, sensitive, and constantly funny (and surprisingly inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger). It finds the perfect sweet spot between pessimism and optimism and stays there.

Olive (Abigail Breslin) is a young girl who wants to compete in a beauty pageant in California. To get there, she’ll have to undergo a road trip in a busted down Volkswagen bus stuffed with the world’s most dysfunctional family, including an embittered wannabe motivational speaker (Greg Kinnear), an angsty teen taking a vow of silence until he can be a fighter pilot (Paul Dano), and a rakish, vulgar, drug-addicted grandpa who somehow has a heart of gold (Alan Arkin, who also won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). Can they all make it in one piece? And what will a traditional pageant make of these oddballs?

The modern American family is full of strife, and directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have put, like, all of the strife in one place. But they’ve also supposed that underneath all this strife lies a certain kind of love that doesn’t deny the strife’s existence but makes it worth digging through.

I can’t think of a more charming or endearing movie than 1992’s “My Cousin Vinny.” It’s an underdog story with an appealing “slobs vs. snobs” dynamic and some of the greatest comic performances you’ll ever see on screen — including one from the Oscar-winning Marisa Tomei, controversy be damned.

The title character, Vinny Gambini (Joe Pesci), is technically a lawyer in the sense that he just passed the bar. But he’s never conducted an actual trial, and his brusque mannerisms don’t exactly read “dignified steward of the law.” Still, when his cousin Bill (Ralph Macchio) is jailed for a crime he didn’t commit in the great state of Alabama, who else can he turn to? Vinny and his fiancée Mona Lisa (Tomei) arrive to deal with the dignified, Southern charms of the Alabama criminal justice system and try their damndest to prove their cousin’s innocence.

“My Cousin Vinny” doesn’t just hold up as a comedy. It’s also a genuinely great legal drama, one that spins an intriguing and authentic-feeling court case cracked by accurate and competent procedure.

In 2020, a year where we all lost any sense of time and structure, Hulu gifted us with a comedy that spoke to our sense of existential malaise and offered an optimistic way to cope.

“Palm Springs” stars Andy Samberg as Nyles, a mildly nihilistic slacker at a Palm Springs, California, wedding who has found himself trapped in a time loop. He lives the same wedding day over and over again, memorizing everyone’s dance moves, drunken arguments, and discoveries of infidelity — and he’s sorta chill about it, if not a little bit defeatist. But when the mildly depressed Sarah (Cristin Milioti) gets caught up in the same time loop, everything changes, and breakthroughs are discovered.

Yes, “Palm Springs” will remind you of “Groundhog Day,” the iconic time loop comedy about a disgruntled man’s journey to enlightenment. But it has its own identity and tone, especially thanks to the crisp pacing from director Max Barbakow and editors Matthew Friedman and Andrew Dickler. And when you’re done watching, check out the commentary cut, also streaming on Hulu.

More than any other comedy on this list, “A Real Pain” will make you cry. But it ain’t just a tearjerking drama; it also provides some of the hardest, even cruelest laughs you’ll see on any streaming service. “A Real Pain” is a real masterpiece.

Written, directed by, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, the film follows two cousins, David and Benji (Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin, whose Oscars speech is one of the best we’ve ever seen), on a trip to Poland to honor their recently deceased grandmother. But the two family members start butting heads based on philosophy, life situations, and what “family” actually means to each of them.

So much of “A Real Pain” is an exacting and excruciating dissection of the diametrically opposed lifestyles of its lead characters, and subsequently, the neuroses that power both of them. These conversations lead the film to its most emotionally powerful moments, especially a dinner scene from Eisenberg that I’ll think about forever. But, again, I can’t stress how laugh-a-minute funny this film is, too, including a character’s “goodbye” to Eisenberg I’ll think about forever. A minor miracle, “A Real Pain” is.

“Sideways” won Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and for good reason. It’s an exemplary feat of screenwriting, thorough and spritely, founded on a strong character’s drive while willing to take some appealing forks in the road. And it’s brought to life perfectly by an essential cast.

Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) are dissimilar friends on a road trip to wine country. Miles just went through a painful divorce, while Jack is having one last bachelor’s hurrah before his upcoming wedding. And these two wine-obsessed men will have some bold encounters and surprising discoveries in their travels, especially when they meet Maya (Virginia Madsen) and Stephanie (Sandra Oh).

For some unfathomable reason, Giamatti did not get an Oscar nomination for this film. This is egregious, as the man is working near the peak of his powers, powering his character with a courageous willingness to appear insufferable while deepening every relatably pathetic facet about him. He anchors the perfect film perfectly. And if he wants to play a Bond villain, we should let him!