71 articles
Moon Over Parador
Moon Over Parador is a 1988 Paul Mazursky comedy starring Richard Dreyfuss, Raul Julia, and Sonia Braga, in which an American actor is forced to impersonate a deceased Latin American dictator; released September 9, 1988 by Universal.
Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios
Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) is Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 Spanish comedy starring Carmen Maura, freely inspired by Cocteau's La voix humaine; it won 5 Goyas and an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
Nine to Five
Nine to Five is a 1980 American comedy directed by Colin Higgins, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton as office workers who take revenge on their sexist boss.
Ödipussi
Ödipussi (Loriots Ödipussi) is Loriot's 1988 West German comedy debut, starring Loriot and Evelyn Hamann as a 56-year-old mama's boy and a psychologist; it premiered simultaneously in East and West Berlin and drew 4.6 million admissions.
Otto – Der Außerfriesische
Otto – Der Außerfriesische is a 1989 West German comedy starring and co-directed by Otto Waalkes, whose character travels from East Frisia to Miami to save his lighthouse.
Otto – Der Film
Otto – Der Film (1985) is Otto Waalkes' feature debut, a West German slapstick comedy co-directed with Xaver Schwarzenberger, written with the Titanic gag team, drawing about 14.5 million West and East German admissions, the most-attended German film.
Polyester (film)
Polyester (1981) is John Waters's black comedy starring Divine as Baltimore housewife Francine Fishpaw, with Tab Hunter. Waters's tenth film, first in 35mm, under a $1 million New Line budget, known for its Odorama scratch-and-sniff card gimmick.
Ruthless People
Ruthless People is a 1986 American black comedy film directed by the ZAZ team. It stars Danny DeVito and Bette Midler, and was Disney's highest-grossing movie of that year.
Scrooged
Scrooged (1988) is a Richard Donner Christmas comedy starring Bill Murray as TV executive Frank Cross in a modern A Christmas Carol adaptation; Metascore 38, IMDb 6.9, Paramount.
Security Unlimited (摩登保镳)
Security Unlimited (摩登保鑣) is a 1981 Hong Kong Cantonese comedy directed by and starring Michael Hui with brothers Sam and Ricky, their last film together; it topped the 1981 Hong Kong box office and won Michael Hui the first HK Film Awards Best Actor.
See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989 film)
See No Evil, Hear No Evil is a 1989 American comedy directed by Arthur Hiller, starring Richard Pryor as a blind man and Gene Wilder as a deaf man.
She-Devil
She-Devil (1989) is Susan Seidelman's comedy adaptation of Fay Weldon's novel, starring Roseanne Barr as vengeful housewife Ruth Patchett and Meryl Streep as romance novelist Mary Fisher; released December 8, 1989 by Orion Pictures, 99 minutes, PG-13, $12.8 million US gross, distinct from the 1957 sci-fi She Devil.
Soul Man (film)
Soul Man (1986) is an American comedy directed by Steve Miner, starring C. Thomas Howell as a white student who uses tanning pills to pose as black for a Harvard Law scholarship; protested by the NAACP, grossing $27.3 million.
Spies Like Us
Spies Like Us is a 1985 John Landis Cold War comedy starring Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd as fake CIA decoys in Soviet Central Asia; Warner Bros. release grossed $60 million domestically with poor reviews.
Strange Brew
Strange Brew (1983), full title The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew, is an MGM comedy co-directed by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, loosely based on Hamlet, about two SCTV hosers foiling a brewery mind-control plot.
Stranger Than Paradise
Stranger Than Paradise is Jim Jarmusch's 1984 black-and-white indie comedy-drama about Willie, Eddie, and Hungarian cousin Eva in New York, Cleveland, and Florida; winner of the 1984 Cannes Caméra d'Or and a landmark of American independent cinema.
Stripes (film)
Stripes is a 1981 American military comedy directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Bill Murray as a cab driver who enlists in the U.S. Army with friend Harold Ramis.
Stroker Ace
Stroker Ace: 1983 Hal Needham NASCAR comedy starring Burt Reynolds, based on the novel Stand on It; a $14 million Universal-Warner Bros. co-venture that flopped with $13 million gross and 18% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The 'Burbs
The 'Burbs: 1989 Joe Dante black comedy starring Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, and Carrie Fisher about suburbanites spying on the suspicious Klopek family; also a 2026 Peacock series with Keke Palmer, created by Celeste Hughey, renewed for season 2.
The Crimson Permanent Assurance
The Crimson Permanent Assurance is Terry Gilliam's 1983 British short film, a prologue to Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, in which accountants turn their office building into a pirate ship and raid corporate finance.
The Dirk Diggler Story
The Dirk Diggler Story (1988) is a 31-minute mockumentary short Paul Thomas Anderson made at 17, loosely based on porn star John Holmes and the documentary Exhausted; it was later expanded into Boogie Nights (1997), with the ending changed so Dirk survives.
The Enchanted Forest
The Enchanted Forest (El bosque animado) is a 1987 Spanish comedy by José Luis Cuerda, scripted by Rafael Azcona from Wenceslao Fernández Flórez's 1943 novel, starring Alfredo Landa as a Galician bandit; it won five Goyas including Best Film.
The Funeral (お葬式)
The Funeral (お葬式, Osōshiki) is Juzo Itami's 1984 directorial debut comedy about an actor couple staging a three-day traditional funeral, a Kinema Junpo No. 1 hit and Japan Academy Best Film winner.
The King of Comedy (film)
The King of Comedy (1982/1983) is Martin Scorsese's black comedy starring Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin, an obsessive fan who kidnaps talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), written by Paul D. Zimmerman; a box office flop later seen as prescient and a key influence on Joker.
The Missionary
The Missionary is a 1982 British comedy, also called The Missionary Position, directed by Richard Loncraine and written by Michael Palin, who stars as Rev. Charles Fortescue, a missionary assigned to London prostitutes, with Maggie Smith, Trevor Howard, and Denholm Elliott; a HandMade Films production.
The Naked Gun (1988 film)
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is a 1988 Paramount spoof comedy directed by David Zucker, starring Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin foiling a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II, adapted from the canceled 1982 TV series Police Squad! and spawning two sequels and a 2025 reboot.
The Troubleshooters (顽主)
The Troubleshooters (顽主, Wanzhu) is a 1988 Emei Film Studio comedy directed by Mi Jiashan from Wang Shuo's novel, starring Zhang Guoli, Ge You, and Liang Tian as founders of Beijing's 3T Company; noted for its fashion-show sequence, six 1989 Golden Rooster nominations, and influence on Feng Xiaogang's Personal Tailor.
The War of the Roses (film)
The War of the Roses is a 1989 American black comedy film directed by Danny DeVito, starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as a divorcing couple.
The Witches of Eastwick (film)
The Witches of Eastwick is a 1987 American comedy-fantasy film directed by George Miller, adapted from John Updike's novel, starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) is Rob Reiner's mockumentary about a fictional British heavy metal band's disastrous US tour, written with Guest, McKean, and Shearer, almost entirely improvised, and a landmark of the mockumentary genre.