The 45 Best Comedies of the 21st Century

"After over a year of a pandemic, the world could use a laugh. Luckily, that laughter is just a few clicks away on a streaming service of your choice. And this bizarre, in-progress century has already produced any number of great comedies that you can fire up any time you need a serotonin burst. Here are 45 made since 2000 that never fail to leave our sides splitting.As we tend to lean toward the indie side — and away from certain men-behaving-badly movies, although "This Is the End" is essential — there are also some titles on here that you might not have seen. There are even some you may not consider to be straightforward comedies. You may not think of "Lost in Translation" or "Mistress America" or "Toni Erdmann" as laugh riots, but we felt it best to be broad in our approach — any movie that balances its darker shades with cathartic humor was eligible. One is even in Finnish and has an instant-classic scene built around "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."