Over the years Hulu has transformed from the home of sitcom re-runs to a streaming service that rivals Netflix in terms of available films and series. Get acquainted with just how good Hulu has become with a smile on your face by checking out some of these 20 great comedies currently available to stream on the service.
Ace Venture Pet Detective (1994)
IMDB Score 6.9/10
One of the main films that introduced us to the comedy genius that is Jim Carrey, in which he plays his now iconic detective that investigates animal crimes. Carrey based his characterisation, including the voice, clothes, walk, hair and mannerisms, on the behaviour of birds, setting this out as something different from the plethora of 90s comedies.
Anger Management (2003)
IMDB Score 6.2/10
Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler give strong comedic performances in this movie about a therapist (Nicholson) helping Sandler’s character overcome his anger issues. But Sandler is so frustrating that it unleashes his own anger issues. Nicholson’s role in the film is surprising, and awesome, and there are good cameos from Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly.
Borat (2006)
IMDB Score 7.3/10
Love or hate Sacha Baron Cohen comedies, they are hard to ignore with the controversy that they court. This is a faux-documentary about a Eurasian traveller discovering America, and America discovering him. It is a funny but serious commentary on the closeminded and outright xenophobic attitudes or many people towards foreigners that they do not understand. More relevant today than ever.
Cable Guy (1996)
IMDB Score 6.1/10
A movie that really should have been a horror rather than a comedy, while it is Carrey that we might remember most from this film, it is actually a Ben Stiller and Judd Apatow collaboration. Matthew Broderick stars as the man who just wants cable, and Carrey as the cable guy of his worst nightmares.
Cheech and Chong’s Up In Smoke (1978)
IMDB Score 7/10
This classic Robert Altman film is basically a series of vignettes that explore this comedy duos love of drugs and music, largely adapted from the two comedians’ live stand up albums. The movie certainly lacks unity, but it does capture what made the comedy duo popular in the first place.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
IMDB Score 7.7/10
This is a better than average high school comedy that looks at the lives of a group of high school students over the course of just one night. Featuring a great cast of future stars including Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Mila Jovovich and Parker Posey, it is the perfect 90s throwback for an afternoon of relaxation.
Dirty Work (1998)
IMDB Score 6.4/10
This is the film that should have launched Norm Macdonald’s career as a comedic leading man, but unfortunately it went pretty unnoticed. But it is a well thought out comedy full of well-earned laughs. Living in Hollywood, Norm has to save his grandmother’s boyfriend from being evicted by an evil landlord, proving that he is more than his slacker exterior.
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
IMDB Score 7.1/10
This is actually the first in the now long series of Richard Curtis-penned romantic comedies that star Hugh Grant, so will be either nostalgic, or an introduction to where this now familiar formula comes from. Grant, naturally, plays a bumbling Englishman struggling to impress the love of his life.
Heathers (1998)
IMDB Score 7.3/10
Set in the classic context of a teen comedy, this is actually one of the darkest and most brutal comedies that has hit screens. It cynically deconstructs the typical high school comedy, and raises the stakes to murderous levels. It smartly subverts the stake genre to create a generation defining film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater.
I Tonya (2017)
IMDB Score 7.5/10
Billed as a comedy, this is actually a brilliant biopic about the Olympic skater Tonya Harding, played brilliantly by Margot Robbie. The story of her tragic but extraordinary life provide moments of deep discomfort, but it is cut with a level of snark that you will be rebuking yourself for laughing at such horrible things!
In a World… (2013)
IMDB Score 6.7/10
This movie offers a surprising glimpse into an industry I had no idea I wanted to know everything about – the voice over industry. It takes a clear but entertaining look at this male oriented industry when the king of the industry dies. His most likely successor decides he does not want to take up the mantle, and so starts grooming a younger man to take on an important job that represents the mantle. But when his own daughter, played by Lake Bell who also directs, is also in line for the part, her father decides that we will indeed throw his hat in the ring. Let the competition begin.
Knocked Up (2007)
IMDB Score 7/10
An above the pack romantic comedy from Judd Apatow, it stars ambitions Katherine Heigl as a woman who accidentally gets knocked up by slacker Seth Rogan. What will they do, ow will they coke, and will they do it together? Surprisingly likable characters will keep you watching this formulaic movie to the end.
Major League (1989)
IMDB Score 7.2/10
Starring Charlie Sheen before he just become funny in a depressing way, this film takes a funny look at the 30 year slump of the Cleveland Indian baseball team. It looks at all the theories and suspicions behind why the team did so badly for so long, and uses the nation’s love of the game to show just ow ridiculous people can be.
The Oath (2018)
IMDB Score 5.3/10
With this film director Ike Barinholtz has created a dark comedy that is so relatable that it is painful as well as funny. It is about people of privilege that are angry all the time without any real reason, because of how cynical so many people have become. But will anyone learn on a lesson in the end, or just go on moaning?
Office Space (1999)
IMDB Score 7.8/10
A must-see comedy from Mike Judge for anyone who has ever worked in an office. With a strong cast led by Ron Livingston, this is a movie about people struggling to find happiness in the bland corporate world. The scene with the photocopier alone is enough to make this film worth watching in terms of living our your deepest work fantasies.
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)
IMDB Score 6.2/10
This film basically places Phoebe from Friends in a different world with a friend of her own as whacky as she is, and then sends this adult women back to high school in the form or a reunion. Clearly meant as a vehicle for Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino steals the show and really gives it the heart it needs to be enjoyable. Oh, and by the way, “I invented Post Its”.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
IMDB Score 7.6/10
This Wes Anderson comedy brings together a fantastic ensemble cast led by Gene Hackman and Angelica Huston as the patriarchs of the Tenenbaum family. Their prodigy children, played by Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow and Luke Wilson, come back together after many when their mother decides to remarry, and their father announces that he has stomach cancer.
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
IMDB Score 7/10
Rapper and producer Boots Riley’s first film, it is certainly ambitious, which will have you forgiving its short comings. He is clearly treating this like the only opportunity he may ever have to make a movie, and thrown in every idea he has ever had! Most of them will have you laughing out loud, and only a few are so bad that they have their own hilarity. It focusses on a desperate man who takes on a telemarketing job, which he is terrible at, until he uses his ‘white voice’.
Tucker and Dave vs Evil (2010)
IMDB Score 7.6/10
Let’s admit it, hillbillies get a pretty bad reputation in horror movies, often being the perpetrators of horrific crimes due to crazy family histories… or radiation. But in this film director Eli Craig suggests that they aren’t wild killers at all, but rather that our prejudice and fear of hillbillies can make us do some very silly, and very dangerous things.
Zombieland (2009)
IMDB Score 7.6/10
Zombie slasher flick meets bro road trip movie in this excellent comedy. Jesse Eisenberg plays a geeky college student, who finds himself teamed up with Woody Harrelson as a tough guy drifter when a zombie apocalypse hits. They also team up with a savvy sister duo played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin. This movie hits exactly the right balance of comedy and gore, and reminded us why we love Woody Harrelson.