Best Slapstick comedy Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of slapstick comedy cinema — measured across 1,201 indexed frames from 15 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Slapstick comedy films over-index on fur, bow tie and tuxedo — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
Aaron Horvath, Peter Rida MichailIMDb 6.7TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →
It seems to the Teens that all the major superheroes out there are starring in their own movies-everyone but the Teen Titans, that is. But de facto leader Robin is determined to remedy the situation, and be seen as a star instead of a sidekick. If only they could get the hottest Hollywood film director to notice them. With a few madcap ideas and a song in their heart, the Teen Titans head to Tinsel Town, certain to pull off their dream. But when the group is radically misdirected by a seriously super villain and his maniacal plan to take over the Earth, things really go awry. The team finds their friendship and their fighting spirit failing, putting the very fate of the Teen Titans themselves on the line.
- 2
Madagascar (2005)
Eric Darnell, Tom McGrathIMDb 6.9TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →
Longing to roam free in the vast landscapes of Mother Africa, Marty, the bored and dejected zebra of the famous Central Park Zoo, escapes his prison on the night of his tenth birthday celebration. However, after a botched rescue attempt by Marty's companions--Alex, the content lion; Melman, the skittish giraffe, and Gloria, the resolute hippo--the friends will find themselves crated up and shipped off to a remote wildlife preserve, only to end up on the sandy shores of exotic Madagascar. At last, Marty's dream will come true; nevertheless, what does it really mean to be a truly wild animal?
- 3
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Buster KeatonDP Byron HouckIMDb 8.2TMDB 8.0See in full on FrameThrower →
Buster Keatonas Projectionist / Sherlock, Jr.
Kathryn McGuireas The Girl
Joe Keatonas The Girl's Father / Man on Film Screen
A meek and mild projectionist, who also cleans up after screenings, would like nothing better than to be a private detective. He becomes engaged to a pretty girl but a ladies man known as the Sheik vies for her affection. He gets rid of the projectionist by stealing a pocket watch belonging to the girl's father - which he pawns to buy her an expensive box of candy. He then slips the pawn ticket into the projectionist's pocket and subsequently is found by the police. He doesn't have much luck but in his dreams, he the debonair and renowned detective Sherlock Jr. who faces danger and solves the crime. In real life, the girl solves crimes quickly.
- 4
Eric Darnell, Conrad VernonIMDb 6.8TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are still trying to get back to the Big Apple and their beloved Central Park zoo, but first they need to find the penguins. When they travel to Monte Carlo, they attract the attention of Animal Control after gate crashing a party and are joined by the penguins, King Julian and Co., and the monkeys. How do a lion, zebra, hippo, giraffe, four penguins, two monkeys, three lemurs travel through Europe without attracting attention and get back to New York? They join a traveling circus. Their attempts to get back to New York are consistently hampered by the Captain of Animal Control who wants to make Alex part of her collection. Once they make it back to New York Marty, Alex, Gloria and Melman realize that they want to be part of the traveling circus.
- 5
The Cat In The Hat (2003)
Bo WelchDP Emmanuel LubezkiIMDb 4.1TMDB 5.3See in full on FrameThrower →
Conrad and Sally Walden (Spencer Breslin and Dakota Fanning) are home alone with their pet fish. It is raining outside, and there is nothing to do. Until The Cat in the Hat ('Mike Myers') walks in the front door. He introduces them to their imagination, and at first it's all fun and games, until things get out of hand, and The Cat must go, go, go, before their mother gets back, but their pompous neighbor has bigger plans for them.
- 6
Peter SegalDP Robert M. StevensIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.5See in full on FrameThrower →
Tasting the fruit of his labor with his wife Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley), the maladroit and now retired Police Squad Lieutenant, Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), secretly dreams of getting back in action. Before long, his old partners, Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Nordberg (O.J. Simpson), will have to enlist the help of their loose-cannon friend, when Rocco (Fred Ward), the deranged terrorist, intends on blowing the annual Academy Awards ceremony to smithereens. Once more, Drebin goes undercover, interrogating dangerous blonde bombshells, and putting his precious, but fragile marriage in jeopardy. Are this year's Oscars doomed to disaster?
- 7
David ZuckerDP Robert M. StevensIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →
A rerun of many of the gags from the television series Police Squad! (1982). An Airplane! (1980)-type spoof, this time with the an incompetent Lieutenant Frank Drebin, who always "gets his man". Visual gags come thick and fast, and it's impossible to catch them all with one viewing. The plot: Queen Elizabeth II of England is coming to town, and Vincent Ludwig has plans to assassinate her using a brainwashed baseball player.
- 8
The Mask (1994)
Chuck RussellDP John R. LeonettiIMDb 7.0TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
Timid bank clerk, Stanley Ipkiss (Jim Carrey). Unfortunately, he's too gentle, and is unable to handle confrontations. After one of the worst days, he finds a mask which depicts Loki, the Norse god of mischief. When he puts it on, he becomes his inner, self: a cartoon wild man. After Ipkiss's alter ego indirectly kills the friend of small time crime boss, Dorian Tyrel (Peter Greene),he wants the green-faced goon destroyed.
- 9
Modern Times (1936)
Charlie ChaplinDP Ira H. MorganIMDb 8.5TMDB 8.3See in full on FrameThrower →
Charlie Chaplinas The Tramp (A Factory Worker)
Paulette Goddardas A Gamin
Henry Bergmanas Cafe Proprietor
Chaplin's last 'silent' film, filled with sound effects, was made when everyone else was making talkies. Charlie turns against modern society, the machine age, (The use of sound in films ?) and progress. Firstly we see him frantically trying to keep up with a production line, tightening bolts. He is selected for an experiment with an automatic feeding machine, but various mishaps leads his boss to believe he has gone mad, and Charlie is sent to a mental hospital - When he gets out, he is mistaken for a communist while waving a red flag, sent to jail, foils a jailbreak, and is let out again. We follow Charlie through many more escapades before the film is out.
- 10
The Kid (1921)
Charlie ChaplinDP Roland TotherohIMDb 8.2TMDB 8.1See in full on FrameThrower →
The opening title reads: "A comedy with a smile--and perhaps a tear". As she leaves the charity hospital and passes a church wedding, Edna deposits her new baby with a pleading note in a limousine and goes off to commit suicide. The limo is stolen by thieves who dump the baby by a garbage can. Charlie the Tramp finds the baby and makes a home for him. Five years later Edna has become an opera star but does charity work for slum youngsters in hope of finding her boy. A doctor called by Edna discovers the note with the truth about the Kid and reports it to the authorities who come to take him away from Charlie. Before he arrives at the Orphan Asylum Charlie steals him back and takes him to a flophouse. The proprietor reads of a reward for the Kid and takes him to Edna. Charlie is later awakened by a kind policeman who reunites him with the Kid at Edna's mansion.
What slapstick comedy films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a slapstick comedy frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — fur is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- fur11.4×
- bow tie7.6×
- tuxedo5.9×
- teeth2.7×
- child2.0×
- eyes1.9×
- necktie1.5×
- brick wall1.5×
How slapstick comedy films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate slapstick comedy from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 27%high keyvs 12% baseline
- 24%low keyvs 40% baseline
- 10%interior indeterminatevs 7% baseline
- 33%nightvs 43% baseline
- 17%closeupvs 21% baseline
What breaks the pattern
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,201 frames from 15 films carrying the slapstick comedy label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/slapstick-comedy
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