The Funniest Movies of All Time

When it comes to funny movies, we all have our own opinions. Some like romantic comedies, while others like slapstick style flicks with crude and obnoxious humor. Whatever your taste may be there are always a few that everybody can enjoy. These are the movies that come to be known as the funniest movies of all time. This is a topic that people can sit and argue about for hours, but inevitably there are a few that stand out as classics.

The preeminent funniest movie of all time has to be Dumb and Dumber starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. This is a movie that can aptly be described as comedic genius. Here we have two nincompoops trekking across America to return a briefcase. Granted the humor is a little juvenile and can be downright ridiculous at points, but that's where the acting of Carrey and Daniels come in and make this a great movie.

Paired together, they resemble a mentally challenged odd couple, and their ability to feed of each other's ineptitude is what drives this movie from beginning to end. Carrey's character, Lloyd, can barely even pronounce the word "the," but still has enough street smarts to trade in their van for a mini bike that they happily share from Nebraska to Aspen.

Daniels's character Harry may have enough brainpower to trick Lloyd into thinking that he has set him up on a date, but still has the audacity to lick a frozen chairlift getting his tongue brutally stuck in the process. If you didn't know anything about this movie before you saw it, you would probably think it's for teens that like flatulence jokes and seeing people run into things. But it goes deeper than that.

This movie proves that two idiots, when working together, can summon the mental capacity of a single person and solve a problem while leading hilarious escapades. Dumb and Dumber is not only the funniest movie of all time; it could be one of the best-written one as well.

A movie that comes a close second to Dumb and Dumber is The Jerk, starring a young and vibrant Steve Martin. This movie is Martin at his unadulterated peak of hilarity. It's one of his first movies, and he indeed steals the show. He plays a young white man who after being orphaned to a poor black family in Mississippi, decides it's time to fly the coop and make a name for himself in California.

The movie follows his journey from being born a self proclaimed "poor, black child," to his rise to millionaire by developing a device called the opti-grab for glasses. It's evident that Martin's character, Navin Johnson, is slow. Slow to the point that when he's hitchhiking across the states, a truck driver picks him up and drops him off ten yards down the road, and he still gives a hearty thanks in return for the lift much to the confusion of the truck driver.

The brilliance in The Jerk lies in Martin's performance. Anyone can play a slow-witted moron, but Martin does it with such authenticity that you actually begin to believe that the producers cast someone with extensive mental problems to play the role. If you are a fan of Steve Martin, then this is a movie that you must see, as it catapulted him to the upper echelon of comedy.

Funny movies come at a price. Usually they sacrifice plot for humor, or the humor becomes less and less funny as they focus more on the story. However, both Dumb and Dumber and The Jerk push past these stigmas and prove that with the right characters, and the right acting, a comedy can become more than just a funny movie. It can become a great movie. So make sure you check out both of these next time you have the chance. You wont be disappointed.