Variety magazine has published what it confidently calls “The 100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time,” asserting that “laughing may matter even more in modern times.” These lists are always subjective — I’ll get to the more egregious omissions shortly — but they can also serve as accidental cultural autopsies. Comedy, more than any other genre, tells you how a society thinks, what it tolerates, and what it’s willing to laugh at. And on that score, Variety’s list is remarkably revealing.
A look at the release years shows a dramatic bulge between 1980 and 2009, a 30-year stretch that accounts for over half the canon. It is the golden age of cinematic comedy, the era that produced everything from Airplane! (1980) to Groundhog Day (1993) to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004). And then, abruptly, the well runs dry.
