The 2010s were the decade comedy stopped pretending it had to stay light. Streaming originals sat next to awards-season road movies, a French caregiver farce became a global hit, and a Seoul basement family turned class rage into the decade’s sharpest laughs. From Inside Out and Klaus to The Grand Budapest Hotel, Jojo Rabbit, and Parasite, the 2010s treated a joke as something you could smuggle into animation, jazz musicals, World War II satire, and a house built on a slope.
This list gathers thirteen essential comedy movies from the 2010s — a Mexican riches-to-rags lecture, a Netflix Santa origin story, a Wall Street bacchanal, and a hotel lobby that runs on perfume and protocol. Every pick uses TMDB-backed metadata and a short guide to why it belongs on a 2010s comedy watchlist.
1. Gifted
- Movie Title: Gifted
- Release Date: April 7, 2017
- Main Cast: Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan
- Director: Marc Webb
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included Gifted on This List
Marc Webb’s custody comedy is the 2010s movie that finds its laughs in a Florida porch, a one-eyed cat, and a seven-year-old who would rather do long division than sit still in second grade. Chris Evans’s boat-mechanic uncle Frank and Mckenna Grace’s Mary turn a family argument about genius into a small-town sitcom about who gets to decide what a childhood is for. It belongs here because so many 2010s studio comedies chase weddings and workplaces, and this one finds the joke in a man who wants his niece to have friends more than trophies. On a 2010s list it is the warm entry that treats math as the setup and ordinary life as the punchline.
Quick Gifted Summary
Frank, a single man raising his child prodigy niece Mary, is drawn into a custody battle with his mother. Lindsay Duncan’s Evelyn wants the girl in a program built for prodigies; Frank wants her in a classroom with kids her age. The court date is the plot. The joke is how badly every adult in the room thinks they are the reasonable one.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Gifted
Webb made this after the Amazing Spider-Man films, returning to the relationship comedy register of (500) Days of Summer with a quieter Florida palette. Evans, then still the face of a superhero franchise, plays Frank as a guy who would rather sand a hull than give a speech, which is why Grace’s impatient Mary gets most of the comic energy. Duncan’s grandmother is the film’s real antagonist and its driest comic weapon: a British academic who cannot hear a joke if it is not about achievement. The movie became a 2017 word-of-mouth pick for viewers who wanted a comedy that still believed a family argument could be funny without turning cruel.
2. We Are the Nobles
- Movie Title: We Are the Nobles
- Release Date: March 28, 2013
- Main Cast: Gonzalo Vega, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Karla Souza
- Director: Gary Alazraki
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included We Are the Nobles on This List
Gary Alazraki’s Mexico City farce is the 2010s comedy that opens a checkbook, then slams it shut. Gonzalo Vega’s patriarch, Luis Gerardo Méndez’s idle heir, and Karla Souza’s party-circuit daughter turn a staged financial scandal into a jobs-and-roommates lecture the kids never asked for. It belongs here because English-language 2010s comedy lists often stop at Hollywood, and this one is the decade’s proof that a riches-to-rags buddy movie can also be a national hit. On this list it is the international pick that treats privilege like a costume you only notice when someone takes it away.
Quick We Are the Nobles Summary
The film tells the riches-to-rags story of the Nobles, three upper-class twenty-somethings that appear to have no limits to their checkbooks, and no direction in their lives. Until one day, their father tries to teach them a lesson by staging a financial scandal that forces the whole family to escape to an old house in the poor side of town, and leads the kids to do what they have not done before: get jobs. The scandal is fake. The work is not.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About We Are the Nobles
Released in Mexico as Nosotros los Nobles, Alazraki’s film became one of the country’s defining commercial comedies of the 2010s — a local smash that traveled on the strength of its cast more than any studio campaign. Méndez and Souza play spoiled siblings who discover that charm does not punch a time clock, and Vega’s father is the rare comic patriarch who is both the architect of the joke and its first victim. The “old house on the poor side of town” is the movie’s second set and its whole thesis: the same family, a smaller fridge. It remains a comfort rewatch in Mexican popular cinema for viewers who want the decade’s class comedy without a lecture that forgets to be funny.
3. Love, Simon
- Movie Title: Love, Simon
- Release Date: February 16, 2018
- Main Cast: Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel
- Director: Greg Berlanti
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included Love, Simon on This List
Greg Berlanti’s suburban coming-out comedy is the 2010s movie that finally let a studio teen rom-com keep the lockers, the group chat, and the Ferris wheel without swapping the gay kid for a sidekick. Nick Robinson’s Simon, Jennifer Garner’s mom, and Josh Duhamel’s dad turn an anonymous email crush into a high-school farce about who knows what and who is about to hit send. It belongs here because 2010s teen comedy spent years recycling the same straight-prom template, and this one treats honesty as the set piece. On a 2010s list it is the studio picture that made a love story look ordinary on purpose.
Quick Love, Simon Summary
Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it is a little more complicated. He has not told his family or friends that he is gay, and he does not know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he has fallen for online. The emails are the romance. The inbox is the ticking clock.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Love, Simon
Berlanti adapted Becky Albertalli’s novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda into the first major-studio teen rom-com built around a gay lead, a fact the 2018 release could not stop mentioning because it had taken that long. Robinson plays Simon as a kid who is funny in the group chat and careful everywhere else, which is why Garner and Duhamel’s parents land as comic relief instead of a lecture. The film’s high-school ensemble does the usual 2010s teen-movie work — parties, blackmail, a very public apology — without turning Simon into a mascot. It opened a lane that later teen comedies treated as available instead of exceptional.
4. El Infierno
- Movie Title: El Infierno
- Release Date: September 3, 2010
- Main Cast: Damián Alcázar, Joaquín Cosío, Ernesto Gómez Cruz
- Director: Luis Estrada
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included El Infierno on This List
Luis Estrada’s cartel satire is the 2010s comedy that greets the decade with a joke so dark it needs a sunglasses gag to get through the door. Damián Alcázar’s deportee Benny, Joaquín Cosío’s veteran gunman, and Ernesto Gómez Cruz’s local boss turn a hometown homecoming into a recruitment pitch for the only employer left. It belongs here because 2010s crime movies often play the drug war as tragedy alone, and this one keeps the farce in the uniforms, the slogans, and the men who call murder a job. On this list it is the opening-decade pick that treats corruption like a sitcom the town cannot cancel.
Quick El Infierno Summary
After being deported back to Mexico, a man has no choice but to join the vicious drug cartel that has corrupted his hometown in order to survive. Benny wants a simple return. The town has already rewritten the welcome sign. The laughs come from how cheerfully everyone pretends this is normal.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About El Infierno
Estrada opened the 2010s with a bicentennial-year satire aimed straight at Mexico’s drug-war official story, following the political-comedy lane of his earlier Herod’s Law. Alcázar’s Benny is a comic innocent who learns the local dialect of power too well, and Cosío’s Cochiloco is the movie’s scene-stealer — a killer who talks like a motivational speaker. Gómez Cruz’s don José is the small-town face of a national joke: the respectable man who already knows the ending. The film became a landmark of Mexican popular satire in the 2010s precisely because it refused to separate the punchline from the body count.
5. Klaus
- Movie Title: Klaus
- Release Date: November 8, 2019
- Main Cast: Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons, Rashida Jones
- Director: Sergio Pablos
- TMDB Score: 8.2/10
Why We Included Klaus on This List
Sergio Pablos’s Santa origin story is the 2010s comedy that proves a streaming cartoon can still look hand-painted and still get a laugh out of a postal route. Jason Schwartzman’s selfish postman Jesper, J.K. Simmons’s reclusive toymaker, and Rashida Jones’s teacher Alva turn a frozen island feud into a delivery-route farce about how a town learns to mail a letter. It belongs here because 2010s animated comedy is usually sequels and minions, and this one is two grouches inventing Christmas because the alternative is another winter of snowballs. On a 2010s list it is the holiday movie that keeps the jokes in the workshop.
Quick Klaus Summary
A selfish postman and a reclusive toymaker form an unlikely friendship, delivering joy to a cold, dark town that desperately needs it. Jesper is there as punishment. Klaus has a shed full of toys and no one to give them to. The feud between the town’s two families is the obstacle; the mail is the workaround.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Klaus
Pablos, a veteran animation designer, made Klaus as Netflix’s first original animated feature and pushed a 2D look that felt handmade in a decade of CG houses. Schwartzman’s Jesper is all spoiled timing; Simmons’s Klaus is the rare Santa who starts the movie as a man who would rather be left alone with wood shavings. Jones’s Alva is the film’s dry moral center, a teacher who has already given up on the island when the postman arrives. The movie earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature and became the 2019 proof that a new Santa story could still surprise people who thought they had seen every origin myth.
6. Green Book
- Movie Title: Green Book
- Release Date: November 16, 2018
- Main Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini
- Director: Peter Farrelly
- TMDB Score: 8.2/10
Why We Included Green Book on This List
Peter Farrelly’s road-trip comedy is the 2010s movie that puts a Bronx bouncer and a concert pianist in the same Cadillac and lets the food orders do half the work. Viggo Mortensen’s Tony Lip, Mahershala Ali’s Don Shirley, and Linda Cardellini’s Dolores turn a 1962 Deep South tour into a two-hander about manners, fried chicken, and who gets to sit in which seat. It belongs here because Farrelly spent earlier decades on broader studio farce, and this one finds the 2010s sweet spot where a buddy comedy can also be a period piece. On this list it is the awards-season pick that never throws away a laugh just because the route is ugly.
Quick Green Book Summary
Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book. The itinerary is the plot. The car is the comedy club. Cardellini’s letters from home are the reminder that Tony still has a life waiting in the Bronx.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Green Book
Farrelly — long associated with broad 1990s studio comedy — used a real touring partnership and the historical Green Book as the spine of a 2018 awards-season hit. Mortensen gained the weight and the Bronx music for Tony; Ali plays Shirley as a man whose precision is itself a joke at Tony’s expense. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Ali won Best Supporting Actor. Whatever arguments followed the trophies, the movie remains the 2010s buddy comedy that treated a concert tour like a two-hour argument about how to eat fried chicken in a car.
7. The Intouchables
- Movie Title: The Intouchables
- Release Date: November 2, 2011
- Main Cast: François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny
- Director: Olivier Nakache
- TMDB Score: 8.3/10
Why We Included The Intouchables on This List
Olivier Nakache’s caregiver comedy is the 2010s movie that made a Paris townhouse feel like the decade’s most reliable two-hander. François Cluzet’s Philippe, Omar Sy’s Driss, and Anne Le Ny’s household staffer Yvonne turn a job interview nobody expected to work into a friendship built on Earth, Wind & Fire and a wheelchair that can still do a little speed. It belongs here because so many 2010s inspirational comedies sand the edges off disability, and this one keeps the jokes in the room — including the ones Philippe is tired of hearing. On a 2010s list it is the international smash that proved a French comedy could fill theaters without translating the attitude away.
Quick The Intouchables Summary
A true story of two men who should never have met — a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects. Driss applies for the caregiver job because he needs a signature for his benefits. Philippe hires him because everyone else is too careful. The care is the job. The comedy is what happens when neither man will perform gratitude on cue.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Intouchables
Nakache’s film is drawn from the real relationship between Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and his caregiver Abdel Sellou, already the subject of a documentary before this fictionalized version became a 2011 phenomenon. Sy’s César-winning turn made him a French star overnight; Cluzet plays Philippe almost entirely from the neck up and still wins the quieter half of the comic duet. Le Ny’s Yvonne is the household’s dry Greek chorus, the person who has seen every previous applicant fail the vibe check. The movie became one of France’s most successful films of the decade and later spawned the English-language remake The Upside — a rare 2010s comedy that was already a standard before Hollywood borrowed it.
8. Jojo Rabbit
- Movie Title: Jojo Rabbit
- Release Date: October 18, 2019
- Main Cast: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson
- Director: Taika Waititi
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included Jojo Rabbit on This List
Taika Waititi’s wartime satire is the 2010s comedy that puts a ten-year-old in a Hitler Youth coat and then introduces him to the person hiding behind the wall. Roman Griffin Davis’s Jojo, Thomasin McKenzie’s Elsa, and Scarlett Johansson’s Rosie turn a German household into a farce about propaganda that cannot survive a real conversation. It belongs here because 2010s period comedy often plays it safe, and this one is willing to make the imaginary friend the dumbest person in the room. On this list it is the late-decade pick that treats a child’s education as a joke the adults have already failed.
Quick Jojo Rabbit Summary
Jojo, a lonely German boy during World War II, has his world shaken when he learns that his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Influenced by a buffoonish imaginary version of Adolf Hitler, he begins to question his beliefs and confront the conflict between propaganda and his own humanity. The attic is the secret. The imaginary friend is the punchline that gets less funny as Jojo gets smarter.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Jojo Rabbit
Waititi adapted Christine Leunens’s novel Caging Skies and cast himself as Jojo’s imaginary Hitler, a buffoon in a uniform who exists to lose arguments. Davis was a first-time lead; McKenzie’s Elsa is the film’s sharpest comic partner, a girl who can outtalk a boy who has only ever heard speeches. Johansson’s Rosie — dancing in the street, hiding a truth in the walls — earned an Academy Award nomination, and Waititi won Best Adapted Screenplay. The movie became the 2019 argument that a comedy about indoctrination could still look like a fable and still sting.
9. La La Land
- Movie Title: La La Land
- Release Date: December 1, 2016
- Main Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend
- Director: Damien Chazelle
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included La La Land on This List
Damien Chazelle’s Los Angeles musical is the 2010s comedy that turns a traffic jam into an opening number and a failing jazz club into a running joke about what people will endure for a dream. Ryan Gosling’s Sebastian, Emma Stone’s Mia, and John Legend’s successful bandleader Keith turn a romance into a two-career argument about who gets to be stubborn. It belongs here because 2010s musicals often hide the comedy behind pastiche, and this one keeps the laughs in the auditions, the Christmas parties, and the pianist who will not play the synth. On a 2010s list it is the Hollywood movie that is funny about Hollywood without winking itself to death.
Quick La La Land Summary
Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart. The songs are the dates. The careers are the third person in the room.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About La La Land
Chazelle followed Whiplash with a full-scale original musical shot on location in Los Angeles, and Stone and Gosling did their own singing and a lot of the dancing. Legend’s Keith is the movie’s slickest comic foil: the friend who already took the deal Sebastian is still refusing. The film won six Academy Awards, including Best Director for Chazelle and Best Actress for Stone, and became instantly famous for the Best Picture envelope mix-up that briefly handed it a trophy meant for another movie. That night only underlined what the film had been joking about for two hours — in this town, even the ending can get rewritten in front of you.
10. Inside Out
- Movie Title: Inside Out
- Release Date: June 17, 2015
- Main Cast: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind
- Director: Pete Docter
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included Inside Out on This List
Pete Docter’s headquarters comedy is the 2010s movie that turned five emotions into a workplace sitcom and then sent two of them into the long-term-memory warehouse. Amy Poehler’s Joy, Phyllis Smith’s Sadness, and Richard Kind’s Bing Bong turn an eleven-year-old’s move to a new city into a rescue mission through abstract thought. It belongs here because 2010s family comedy often explains feelings in a speech, and this one puts them on a control panel and lets them argue. On this list it is the Pixar pick that made a joke out of growing up without talking down to the kid in the seat.
Quick Inside Out Summary
When 11-year-old Riley moves to a new city, her Emotions team up to help her through the transition. Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness work together, but when Joy and Sadness get lost, they must journey through unfamiliar places to get back home. Headquarters is the office. The islands of personality are the sets that start crumbling when the move goes badly.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Inside Out
Docter — already the director of Monsters, Inc. and Up — built the film with Pixar artists and psychologists so the joke about core memories would still feel like a real kid’s inner life. Poehler’s Joy is a manager who cannot stand downtime; Smith’s Sadness is the employee everybody tries to bench until the plot proves she is the point. Kind’s Bing Bong, Riley’s forgotten imaginary friend, is the movie’s most 2010s comic invention: a farewell that still gets a laugh on the way out. Inside Out won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and became the decade’s default metaphor for talking about feelings without calling it a lesson.
11. The Wolf of Wall Street
- Movie Title: The Wolf of Wall Street
- Release Date: December 25, 2013
- Main Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included The Wolf of Wall Street on This List
Martin Scorsese’s brokerage bacchanal is the 2010s comedy that treats a penny-stock boiler room like a three-hour roast of American appetite. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort, Jonah Hill’s Donnie Azoff, and Margot Robbie’s Naomi turn securities fraud into a party that will not end just because the FBI has taken a seat. It belongs here because 2010s crime movies often play Wall Street as prestige drama, and this one keeps the laughs in the chest-thumping, the yacht, and the sales floor that thinks it is a religion. On a 2010s list it is the Christmas-Day release that used excess as the joke and still made the joke feel expensive.
Quick The Wolf of Wall Street Summary
A New York stockbroker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, the corporate banking world, and mob infiltration. Based on Jordan Belfort’s autobiography. The memoir is the alibi. The movie is what the alibi sounds like when the narrator is still proud of himself.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Wolf of Wall Street
Scorsese and DiCaprio’s fifth collaboration adapted Belfort’s own account of the Stratton Oakmont years, with Hill earning an Academy Award nomination as the sidekick who matches Jordan’s worst ideas. Robbie’s Naomi is the film’s sharpest comic counterweight: a trophy-wife role that keeps stealing scenes from men who think they are the show. The movie earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and became infamous for how much of the chaos was improvised on that sales floor. It is the 2010s comedy that proved a cautionary tale could still be a party if the host never stops talking.
12. The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Movie Title: The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Release Date: February 26, 2014
- Main Cast: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Tony Revolori
- Director: Wes Anderson
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included The Grand Budapest Hotel on This List
Wes Anderson’s lobby farce is the 2010s comedy that puts a legendary concierge, a stolen painting, and a protégé with a pencil mustache into a hotel that looks like a cake and runs like a military. Ralph Fiennes’s M. Gustave, Tony Revolori’s Zero, and F. Murray Abraham’s older Zero turn an interwar alpine republic into a chase comedy about perfume, poetry, and the people who still believe in service. It belongs here because 2010s style comedies often settle for pretty frames, and this one is funny in every corridor — prison breaks included. On this list it is the mid-decade masterpiece that treats civilization as a dress code you keep wearing after the fascists arrive.
Quick The Grand Budapest Hotel Summary
The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune, and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century. The lobby is the stage. The painting is the MacGuffin that keeps everyone running through it.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Grand Budapest Hotel
Anderson drew on the writings of Stefan Zweig for the film’s Mitteleuropean mood and built the hotel as a dollhouse you could still stage a slapstick chase inside. Fiennes’s Gustave is the decade’s great comic gentleman — vulgar, precise, and always late for a perfume refill. Revolori’s Zero is the straight man who learns the job by surviving it, and Abraham’s older Zero is the frame that tells you the jokes had a cost. The film won four Academy Awards, for costume design, makeup and hairstyling, production design, and original score, and became the 2014 movie people meant when they said a comedy could also be a complete world.
13. Parasite
- Movie Title: Parasite
- Release Date: May 30, 2019
- Main Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong
- Director: Bong Joon Ho
- TMDB Score: 8.5/10
Why We Included Parasite on This List
Bong Joon Ho’s class satire is the 2010s comedy that ends the decade by turning a tutoring gig into a family heist and a house into a punchline with a basement. Song Kang-ho’s Ki-taek, Lee Sun-kyun’s Mr. Park, and Cho Yeo-jeong’s Mrs. Park turn unemployment, peaches, and a scholar’s rock into a dark farce about who is allowed to smell like what. It belongs here because the 2010s comedy map is incomplete without the movie that made audiences laugh at a staircase and then sit with why they were laughing. On this list it is the closer that treats social climbing as a con and still lets the con be funny.
Quick Parasite Summary
All unemployed, Ki-taek’s family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident. The jobs start as a favor. The house has more floors than anyone advertised. The comedy is in the scheme; the incident is what the scheme was standing on.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Parasite
Bong’s film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and then became the first non-English-language movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Bong also winning Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Song’s Ki-taek is a comic patriarch who can fake a resume and still look like he is improvising his dignity. Lee and Cho play the Parks as people whose politeness is the joke: they are kind until a smell crosses a line. The movie closed the 2010s by proving a Korean dark comedy could be a global event — and that a laugh about class could travel farther than anyone in that living room expected.
The 2010s comedy map runs from a Florida porch and a Mexico City spare house to a Paris townhouse, a hotel lobby in Zubrowka, and a Seoul staircase that will not stay a joke. If you want the decade next door, try our list of the best comedy movies of the 2000s — or stay in the 2010s with the best horror movies of the 2010s and the best drama movies of the 2010s.
