3.          THE GENERAL (1927)         The Great Stone Face and his two great loves—his girl and a train.         Buster Keaton at his best, enduring hilarious hell to win them both.

4. DUCK SOUP (1933)         Throwing linearity and logic clean out the window, the Marx brothers and         director Leo McCarey concocted a thoroughly bonkers send-up not just of         politics but of…everything. Priceless exchange: "I didn't come         here to be insulted…" "That's what you think!"

5. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)         This Frank Capra-Robert Riskin concoction laid the groundwork for many         of the screwball comedies that followed—madcap heiress on the lam,         down-to-earth guy who pigheadedly resists her charms, oodles of innuendo         but it also wears its heart very prominently on its sleeve. You don't         just laugh at Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, you get to know them,         and like them an awful lot.

6. A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)         A bit too heavy on the Thalberg-imposed softening of the Marx Brothers'         anarchic antics, it still has great bits [that stateroom scene among them]         and an actual story line, for those who go for that sort of thing. Groucho         Marx, opera critic: "Boogity boogity boogity."

7. MY MAN GODFREY (1936)         In which the screwball comedy meets the forgotten man. Quintessential         madcap heiress Carole Lombard adopts down-on-his-luck William Powell with         designs to make a butler out of him; he turns the tables and makes a woman         out of her. Class war was never so amusing, at least until the original         Swept Away.

8. THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937)         Two marrieds [Cary Grant and Irene Dunne] divorce—rather arbitrarily—begin         seeing other people, and reunite—again, rather arbitrarily, albeit         with the intervention of a very engaging canine.

9. BRINGING UP BABY (1938)         A leopard, a dinosaur bone, and the crackling chemistry of Katharine Hepburn         and Cary Grant make this a screwball gem. The stars are more romantic         in The Philadelphia Story, but they were         never funnier.

13. TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)         Carole Lombard's final bow, and perhaps her finest hour, as the queen         bee of a Polish theatrical group that gets up in the Nazis' grill before         the invasion. Ernst Lubitsch's picture (co-starring Jack Benny) is remarkably         graceful, humane, and sidesplitting.

14. ROAD TO MOROCCO (1942)         The success of the previous Road To films emboldened stars Bob         Hope and Bing Crosby to ad-lib more and ignore the fourth wall; the result         is comedy that's as relaxed as it is hilarious. Classic line: "It's         all right Ma, I'll get a job tomorrow."

18. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)         Using a girl with a ukulele and two guys in skirts on the lam, Billy Wilder         turned the gangster film on its ear and made a timeless comic gender-bender.         C'mon—have you ever seen a cuter couple than Jack Lemmon and Joe         E. Brown?

20. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)         Stanley Kubrick's deep dark satire about how general (as in military)         buffoonnery could trigger nuclear annihilation features Peter Sellers         as an RAF officer, an impotent president, and the titular German scientist.         Cold War comedy at its finest.

23. M*A*S*H (1970)         It's hard to remember, after 11 seasons of the TV series, how startling         and subversive Robert Altman's original was. It still boasts a splendid         ensemble, a breezy anti-establishment attitude, and more going on in the         margins than most comedies can deal with front and center.

28. THE SUNSHINE BOYS (1975)         George Burns takes an Oscar-winning turn as a dotty vaudevillian whose         decision to retire outrages the other half of his act—played by a         very grumpy Walter Matthau. When a TV special reunites the comic cranks         after 11 years, artistic differences prove nearly fatal.

29. ANNIE HALL (1977)         Branching out from his "early funny ones," Woody Allen crafted         a delightful tale of quirky love among New York neurotics. Who would have         thought that a skit involving Marshall McLuhan would be so damn funny?

30. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE (1978)         Dean Wormer and his smirking rich-boy Omega minions futilely try to bring         down Otter, Boon, Blutarsky, Flounder, and the rest of the slovenly misfit         Deltas. The movie that turned the toga party into a campus staple and         taught us how to make like a zit.

31. HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1978)         Warren Beatty and Julie Christie prove there's more to life and death         than liver and whey shakes in a clever updating of the angel-makes-an-error         fantasy Here Comes Mr. Jordan.

32. THE IN LAWS (1979)         Loopy unpredictable exchanges between Alan Arkin's dentist and Peter Falk's         CIA agent—about, say, giant tsetse flies who carry children away         in their beaks—make this movie sing. Scientific fact: No one can         keep a straight face during the "Serpentine! Serpentine!" scene.

33. THE JERK (1979)         Finally a movie that explains the difference between shit and Shinola.         Steve Martin used bits from his stand-up routine to create this Jerry         Lewis-style misadventure about a kindhearted simpleton "born a poor         black child" who loves his thermos, Twinkies, and Tab.

34. AIRPLANE! (1980) Q: What do you get when you combine a singing nun,         a jive-talking little old white lady, Kareem Abdul Jabar, and a fear of         flying? A: The granddaddy of all pop-culture spoof movies, starring Leslie         Nielsen. And don't call him Shirley.

38. TRADING PLACES (1983)         Two bored millionaires perform a sociology experiment by switching the         lives of a scam artist (Eddie Murphy) and an uptight banker (Dan Aykroyd).         The result is hardly scientific, but it does make for splendid fish-out-of-water         humor, including "pimps," "bitches," and one great         "jive turkey."

39. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION (1983)         Slide in next to dead Aunt Edna and have some Hamburger Helper minus the         meat, as the Griswold family takes a disastrous road trip to Wally World.         As Clark says, "We're all going to have some much fun that we'll         need plastic surgery to remove the smiles from our faces."

43. AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (1997)         Cryo-frozen in the free love '60s and thawed in the politically correct         '90s, the poorly dentured, swinging superspy returns to battle the equally         out-of-synch Dr. Evil. Mike Myers's anachronistic cracks are always spot-on,         and the relationship between the doctor and his son, Scott (Seth Green),       is genius.

45. THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (1998)         At heart, this gross-out gem is a simple love story about a geeky guy         (Ben Stiller) reconnecting with his high school crush (Cameron Diaz).         In the process he catches his "frank and beans" in his zipper,         has his bodily fluids mistaken for hair gel, and proves just how funny         pain and humiliation can be.

48. ZOOLANDER (2001)         It's not easy being really, really good-looking—especially when you're         a male supermodel who has been programmed to assassinate the Malaysian         prime minister. Ben Stiller departs from his usual comic angst to play         an oddly endearing character too dim to sustain a neurosis.