These Are The Most Glaring Omissions on ‘Variety’s 100 Best Comedies List

Since the online content industry is largely dependent on subjective pop-culture rankings that are perfectly calibrated to stoke outrage and, therefore, generate clicks, Variety’s new list of the “100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time” is understandably causing a lot of chatter online.

As we’ve already mentioned, the highest-ranked film on the list is The Naked Gun. And while nobody seems to have a problem with the 1988 Leslie Nielsen classic claiming the top spot, a number of people have called attention to the fact that the list has some pretty glaring omissions.

For starters, where’s Back to the Future? The beloved time travel comedy that is a cornerstone of modern popular culture is nowhere to be found on the list at all, a decision that is, frankly, baffling.

Frustratingly, the only mention of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is in the write-up for number 65: Poor Things. And a number of commenters called out the lack of Billy Wilder’s 1960 classic The Apartment.

On social media, fans suggested a laundry list of titles that easily could have made the top 100, such as Ghostbusters, There’s Something About Mary, What’s Up Doc?, Dumb and Dumber and A Shot in the Dark.

Others pointed out that the list is, disappointingly, mostly made up of English language films, plus Jacques Tati’s largely silent Playtime.

Which means that Variety completely overlooked any non-English comedies, including the wild 1966 Czech new wave classic Daisies – which is an especially conspicuous omission considering that it was one of the few comedies on Sight and Sound’s 2022 list of the Greatest Films of All Time.

To be clear, there are a ton of great picks on this list, including W.C. Fields’ The Bank Dick, Elaine May’s The Heartbreak Kid, Keenen Ivory Wayans’ I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know. Not to mention 1941’s Hellzapoppin’ starring the largely forgotten duo of Olsen and Johnson.

But one odd thing about the list is that it includes a number of films by certain big name directors or stars seemingly at the expense of equally worthy, or arguably even more worthy, titles featuring the exact same people.

For example, they included one Adam Sandler movie on the list – but instead of The Wedding Singer, Happy Gilmore or Billy Madison, they went with The Waterboy? And Eddie Murphy is represented on the list thanks to Eddie Murphy Raw and Coming to America – but that means that there’s no Trading Places or Beverly Hills Cop.

Similarly, Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator is at number four on the list, but Chaplin’s Modern Times and City Lights are nowhere to be found. Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. is number 11, but the outlet neglected to mention The General. 

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is in the top 10, but no Life of Brian at all? And the only Mel Brooks film is Blazing Saddles at 77 – meaning that there’s no Young Frankenstein or even The Producers. At least Spike Lee’s Producers-inspired Bamboozled got a mention.

The Coen Brothers' Fargo sits at number eight. While it’s a masterpiece, no doubt, it’s also arguably more of a quirky noir than a straight-up comedy. Meanwhile their overtly funny and unquestionably brilliant Raising Arizona somehow didn’t make the cut.

But at least that laugh riot Sideways cracked the top 15.