"The 40-Year-Old Virgin" blends sincere passion with wild and provocative humor, cementing writer-director Judd Apatow's approach as the canonical one of 2000s film comedy. Andy, a painfully shy middle-aged man who has never felt the touch of a woman, is played by Steve Carell.

When his macho coworkers discover the truth, they go on an '80s sex comedy-style mission to make things right for Andy, offering him all kinds of harsh and sexist advice that puts him in a number of terrible and excruciatingly humorous situations. Meanwhile, he may take care of things himself, while he pursues a genuine and delicate romance with a single mother.

Starring: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd
Director: Judd Apatow
Year: 2005
Runtime: 116 minutes

Filmmakers David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker created a spoof of the 1957 B-movie "Zero Hour" that also acted as a parody of 1970s disaster films, notably the "Airport" franchise. In doing so, ZAZ laid the groundwork for a completely new kind of film: rapid-fire humor, with jokes occurring every few seconds or less, as well as sight gags that pass rapidly.

Pilot Ted Striker in "Airplane!" can't get over a botched military mission or his former sweetheart, flight attendant Elaine, and pursues her aboard a long-haul trip. But then tragedy strikes: practically everyone on board becomes ill with food poisoning, and Ted is forced to take over flying the plane in lieu of the perplexingly titled Captain Oveur, all while being aided by stoic Dr. Rumack, who gets the joke in the film's pivotal conversation.

Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Haggerty, Leslie Nielsen
Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Year: 1980
Runtime: 88 minutes

Local TV news anchors could reportedly be superstars and revered like trustworthy, forgiving gods in the 1970s when media alternatives were limited. At least, that's what "Anchorman" says, which tells the story of Ron Burgundy, the ruler of San Diego's popular Channel 4 news team, as he comes to terms with his woefully sexist and self-absorbed ways when he's forced to share the nightly news with feminist journalist Veronica Corningstone (with whom he's also desperately in love).

"Anchorman" is more than simply a satire of gender politics in which a clown is a punchline – there are several moments of Ron and his news crew goofing about, getting into violent confrontations with other local news people, and breaking out into bizarre 1970s love songs.

Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd
Director: Adam McKay
Year: 2004
Runtime: 95 minutes

Cary Grant excelled in playing attractive, debonair rogues, and in "Arsenic and Old Lace," he portrays Mortimer Brewster, an author of books advocating the abolition of marriage entirely. He eventually resolves to settle down, but Elaine, the charming, all-American lady next door, steals his heart, and they decide to marry on Halloween.

That's a portent of ill things to come, according to the film, and so was his decision to embrace family life. Mortimer realizes that his brother, uncle, and weird aunts are all secret, unrepentant murders not long after they announce their engagement.

Starring: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey
Director: Frank Capra
Year: 1943
Runtime: 118 minutes

There will always be a generational divide between adults and their adolescent offspring, but "Back to the Future" devised an ambitious, creative, and incredibly scientific approach to get parents and children to understand one other by making them all 17 at the same time. Marty McFly spends his time in 1985 avoiding his nerdy and dejected parents, George and Lorraine, and hanging around with Doc Brown, a local crazy scientist.

He shows Marty the time machine he's created in a DeLorean one night, and before he realizes it, Marty has been transported 30 years back in time. To make matters worse, he's expected to play matchmaker for his future parents – or else he won't exist. That's going to be difficult because George is a jerk and Lorraine has a crush on Marty, who she doesn't realize is her son from the future.

Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Year: 1985
Runtime: 116 minutes

It's not every day that Hollywood produces a buddy comedy starring two middle-aged Midwestern women, much alone one as brazenly, breathtakingly ridiculous as "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar." Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who collaborated on the Oscar-nominated "Bridesmaids," wrote the script for this film and star as the leads — two long-time, naive, and very square best friends who, after losing their jobs, embark on an adventurous road trip to a tropical resort called Del Mar, which caters to people of a certain age.

This plot, along with the many ridiculous musical numbers and an entire airplane ride spent discussing the theoretically perfect woman named Trish, would be enough for most comedies, but to add to the madness, a supervillain (Wiig again) and her odd group of minions are plotting to destroy Del Mar as revenge for some long-ago childhood slight.

Starring: Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo, Jamie Dornan
Director: Josh Greenbaum
Year: 2021
Runtime: 106 minutes

Everything is great and dandy for young New England couple Adam and Barbara at the start of "Beetlejuice," one of Tim Burton's pioneering horror-comedy films. Then one day, they wreck their car into a river and walk home, only to discover that something isn't quite right. In reality, they're dead – ghosts haunting their own house.

When a pair of obnoxious yuppies buy their stately home, the ghostly couple seeks the assistance of the ghost realm, namely the charming, scary, shape-shifting, joke-cracking monster Beetlejuice, to scare the new tenants away. But Beetlejuice goes a bit too far, and Adam and Barbara have to free the purchasers from his clutches since they're particularly fond of their confused teenage goth daughter who completely understands them, as they're ghosts.

Starring: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin
Director: Tim Burton
Year: 1988
Runtime: 92 minutes

Eddie Murphy took the charisma and remarkable comic timing that had made him a success on "Saturday Night Live" to the big screen with "Beverly Hills Cops," a smash hit of an action-comedy. Murphy plays Axel Foley, a Detroit police sergeant who is completely out of his jurisdiction and comfort zone as he hunts for a killer in a snobby Los Angeles enclave in this fish-out-of-water thriller (with a persistent through-line of jokes, riffing, and wisecracking).

When he isn't squabbling with the uptight policemen of the Beverly Hills Police Department, he is amusingly experiencing culture shock over what he thinks to be anomalies of California living. The viewer begins to empathize with and root for Axel Foley as he navigates '80s consumerism, all while Murphy flaunts every aspect of his cinematic character that made him famous.

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, Ronny Cox
Director: Martin Brest
Year: 1984
Runtime: 105 minutes

"The Big Lebowski" is a cult classic and stoner comedy of all time, but it's also a film about heists, rich people, bowling, and artists. Ultra-chill Jeff "the Dude" Lebowski is pleased to just hang around in his L.A. apartment, drinking White Russians and then going bowling with his pals Walter and Donnie.

Then some kidnappers mistake him for a millionaire called Jeff Lebowski, and he has to deliver a ransom to the strange crooks who abducted that other Lebowski's wife... and maybe reclaim the area rug they took since it "truly brought the room together." Donnie, The Dude's antagonistic and overconfident bowling buddy, devises a strategy to keep the money, but it too fails miserably. A bowling-themed dream sequence and an artist also have an effect on the Dude, culminating in a very bizarre comedy, but that's just our perspective, buddy.

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore
Directors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Year: 1998
Runtime: 117 minutes

Bill and Ted, two teens from Southern California, are as close as best friends can be, owing to their similarities. They're not very bright, they talk like surfers, and they're fascinated with Wyld Stallyns, their own purportedly heavy metal band. They can't play their instruments, but there's a greater issue that might jeopardize their career as rock stars. Ted's father will send him to military school if they flunk history.

Fortunately, that's when future guy Rufus sends a phone booth back in time to inform Bill and Ted that they'll be revered as saviors and metal masters in the coming decades. Even better, kids may utilize that time-travel technology to bring genuine historical personalities — Joan of Arc, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln — back to their high school as part of their history project. Excellent!

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin
Director: Stephen Herek
Year: 1989
Runtime: 90 minutes