The 10 best R-rated comedies

Let’s not beat around the bush. Dirty jokes are pretty damn funny. The best R-rated comedies aren’t just crude, however. They’re giddily transgressive, pushing past politeness and dragging the audience along with them. Laughter is the best medicine, but sometimes adults need something a little stronger than aspirin or a Z-Pak. These are my picks for the 10 best hard-R comedies.

10. The Hangover (2009, dir. Todd Phillips)

The no-holds-barred bachelor’s party ranks as one of life’s great paradoxes. As anyone who has engaged in such depravity can attest, this particular rite of passage turns on the conceit that its most memorable times are those that one can barely remember. The Hangover takes that notion and chases it with a few dozen shots of Jägermeister. Doug (Justin Bartha) is getting married, so best friends Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Stu (Ed Helms) take him to Las Vegas for a final blowout. Tagging along is Alan (Zach Galifianakis), Doug’s strange brother-in-law-to-be, a chaos agent. Cut to the following morning. Phil, Stu and Alan wake up hungover in a thoroughly trashed hotel suite. Doug is missing, and no one can remember anything from the night before. This cheerfully debauched concoction is smart enough to ground its debasement in vividly drawn characters.

9. Blazing Saddles (1974, dir. Mel Brooks)

When people lament that Hollywood doesn’t make ‘em the way they used to, I can’t help but think of Mel Brooks’ uproarious spoof of Westerns. It’s doubtful a major studio would dare produce this today. Blazing Saddles concerns a Black sheriff (Cleavon Little) sent by a crooked state bureaucrat (Harvey Korman) as a calculated insult to the embattled town of Rock Ridge. The movie skewers American racism by aggressively rubbing the audience’s nose in it. The script by Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor and Alan Uger employs the N-word more than a Klan meeting. Unfortunately, Blazing Saddles’ homophobia, in the form of Dom DeLuise as a prissy movie director, seems more about amplifying stereotypes than undercutting them. Still, Brooks keeps the jokes coming at a breakneck pace. For every clunker, there are at least two gems, whether it’s Madeline Kahn doing a pitch-perfect Marlene Dietrich or a roomful of government bureaucrats literally saying “harumph” repeatedly.

8. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005, dir. Judd Apatow)

Director Judd Apatow reportedly shot more than 1 million feet of film in his directorial debut, a testament to its anything-goes improvisational style that made this a comedic milestone. Steve Carell, who co-wrote the script with Apatow, is Andy Stitzer, a decent enough guy who works at an electronics store and long ago gave up on affairs of the heart. That lack of experience surfaces over a poker game with his co-workers, when he tries to join in on their talk of sexual conquests. “You know, when you grab a woman’s breast … and it feels like a bag of sand,” he says. Apatow’s modus operandi––gathering very funny people to say very funny things––has plenty to work with here, including Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Elizabeth Banks and Jane Lynch. Perhaps the most surprising joke of all is that a film titled The 40-Year-Old Virgin is, in the end, such a pleasing romantic comedy, at least once you get past that chest-waxing scene.

7. Superbad (2007, dir. Greg Mottola)

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg drafted Superbad back when they were teenagers growing up in Canada. That may explain its authenticity in capturing how teen boys think and act. Jonah Hill is Seth (loud, abrasive, porn-obsessed) and Michael Cera is Evan (reserved, twee). Both are arguably at the peak of their comedic powers, but 17-year-old Christopher Mintz-Plasse, in his film debut, steals most of his scenes as their nerdy friend McLovin, or at least that’s what it says on his fake ID. The hero’s journey here is suitably adolescent: the boys are determined to lose their virginity before graduating from high school. “You know when you hear girls say, ‘Ah, man, I was so shitfaced last night. I shouldn’t have fucked that guy?’” Seth tells Evan in preparation for a big party. “We could be that mistake!” Superbad is gleefully vulgar; Seth’s childhood compulsion to doodle penises is worth the price of admission alone. And yet at the center of the potty-mouthed flick is a genuine, surprisingly sweet tale of friendship.
(See more in The 10 best male buddy films.)

6. Bridesmaids (2011, dir. Paul Feig)

Screenwriting collaborators Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo hit box-office paydirt with this long-overdue female-fronted answer to Judd Apatow’s male-centric bromance comedies. Wiig stars as Annie Walker, whose life is falling apart at the same time her longtime best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) is about to get married. To make matters worse, Annie finds herself, as maid-of-honor, having to deal with Rose Byrne as Lillian’s oh-so-perfect new friend. The story of a longtime friendship under strain has its poignant moments, but they are punctuated by glorious crassness. We begin with a deeply cringy sex scene involving Wiig and Jon Hamm that seems hard to top. That’s well before bride-to-be Lillian, still in a wedding dress, is suddenly struck with food poisoning and lets loose in the middle of a street amid a mad dash to a restroom. Annie looks on in deadpan amazement. “Wow, you’re really doing it, aren’t you?” she says. “You’re shitting in the street.” (See more in The 10 best female buddy films and The 10 best bathroom scenes in film)

5. There’s Something About Mary (1998, dir. Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrell)

This landmark of gross-out comedy begins with hapless high schooler Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller) thwarted from getting to senior prom with his dream date, Mary Jensen (Cameron Diaz), after his pecker gets caught in his zipper. Thirteen years later, Ted is still carrying a torch for Mary––one of many who are. Matt Dillon is a slimy private eye who tries to ingratiate himself to Mary, whose brother has an intellectual disability, by declaring, “I love retards.” Another admirer named Tucker (Lee Evans) feigns a British accent and a disability in order to get close to her. One person’s masturbation misfire becomes another’s hair gel. Filmmaking brothers Peter and Bobby Farrelly cranked out a slew of reliably lowbrow comedies in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but There’s Something About Mary transcends their oeuvre of tastelessness by combining raunch with charm and heart. How can you be offended by a flick that ends with outtakes of its cast lip-synching the Foundations’ bubblegum hit “Build Me Up Buttercup”?
(See more in The 10 best bathroom scenes in film.)

4. Animal House (1978, dir. John Landis)

National Lampoon’s collegiate “slobs vs. snobs” comedy set the template for years of imitators, but even the lesser successors have failed to dull the shine from John Landis’ third (and arguably best) movie. Sure, not everything has aged gracefully in this yarn about a fraternity wreaking havoc at fictional Faber College circa 1962. Date rape, body shaming and peeping Toms don’t generate the same laughs they did when Animal House popped like a zit in 1978—but plenty still holds up. The merry band of drunks, losers and assorted miscreants comprising Delta House have the advantage of being played by some fantastically funny actors. John Belushi’s movie-breakout performance as Bluto is legendary (“Christ, seven years of college down the drain!”), but many others––particularly Tim Matheson, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst and, perhaps best of all, John Vernon as Faber’s scheming dean––are also terrific. I was 12 when I snuck into a theater to see Animal House, and I don’t think I’ve stopped quoting from it since. 

3. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004, dir. Adam McKay)

I don’t know how to put this, but … this movie is kind of a big deal. It has many leather-bound books and its apartment smells of rich mahogany. Eminently quotable and sublimely silly, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is a wedgie to the chauvinistic “boys’ club” of local TV news in the 1970s. The particular brand of white male pomposity lampooned is a specialty of Will Ferrell, stupendous here as San Diego news anchor Ron Burgundy. A self-satisfied legend in his own mind, Ron finds his status threatened when Channel 4 pairs him up with a woman. “It’s anchorman, not anchor lady—and that’s a scientific fact!” decries sportscaster Champ Kind (David Koerchner). The “lady,” Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), is a hard-charging reporter-anchor whose presence both upsets and titillates the heavily cologned machismo of the newsroom. Director Adam McKay, who co-wrote the script with Ferrell, makes the most of a terrific cast that includes Paul Rudd, Fred Willard and a scene-stealing Steve Carell as imbecilic weatherman Brick Tamland. Oh, what am I saying? Everyone is a scene-stealer in Anchorman.
(See more in The 10 best journalism movies.)

2. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006, dir. Larry Charles)

Sacha Baron Cohen is fearless. Maybe foolhardy is more accurate. In this searingly funny mockumentary, the chameleon-like British comic actor disguises himself as Borat Sagdiyev, a clueless Kazakhstani journalist traveling across the United States to report on its culture and customs. Baron Cohen, Borat director Larry Charles and their small guerrilla-style film crew are in on the joke, but not the people they punk—er, interview—on their travels. The Borat character is sexist, racist, anti-Semitic and a general idiot, but he presents himself as so naive and well-meaning that many of his interviewees chalk up his outrageous behavior to cultural differences. That’s why the faux journalist gets away with presenting a bag of human feces to a Southern etiquette coach or explaining to a group of feminists that women in his native land are not allowed to assemble unless it’s in a brothel. But then Borat butchers the National Anthem at a Texas rodeo, and the film suddenly shifts from comedy to suspense, as Baron Cohen hopes to escape the arena with his body intact.

1. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979, dir. Terry Jones)

This biblical satire from the Monty Python troupe rankled an awful lot of people, which is a shame because it’s honest-to-God hilarious. Granted, The Life of Brian is hilariously irreverent, but its humor is more of an affectionate elbowing to the ribs of Judeo-Christianity. Graham Chapman is Brian Cohen, an unassuming Judean chafing under Roman rule. Eric Idle is his cranky, long-suffering mum. Brian’s life keeps bumping up into that of the messiah, who was born in the stable next door––hence an accidental visit to Brian from three wise men bearing gifts. Along the way, The Life of Brian explores the dicey acoustics of the Sermon on the Mount (“What did he say? I think it was, ‘Blessed are the cheesemakers’”), how women manage to sneak into the men-only public stonings, and Pontius Pilate’s dear friends Bigus Dickus and Incontinentia Buttocks. There’s even a big musical number involving a crucifixion. OK, so maybe there was a reason nuns picketed the film upon its release, but blasphemy should always be this funny. 

Honorable mention: Bad Santa (2003, dir. Terry Zwigoff), The Big Lebowski (1998, dir. Joel Coen), Caddyshack (1980, dir. Harold Ramis), Clerks (1994, dir. Kevin Smith), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982, dir. Amy Heckerling), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008, dir. Nicholas Stoller), The Jerk (1979, dir. Carl Reiner), Knocked Up (2007, dir. Judd Apatow), Old School (2003, dir. Todd Phillips), South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999, dir. Trey Parker), Step Brothers (2008, dir. Adam McKay), This Is the End (2013, dir. Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen), Tropic Thunder (2008, dir. Ben Stiller), Used Cars (1980, dir. Robert Zemeckis), Wedding Crashers (2005, dir. David Dobkin)