The 3 best comedies on Netflix – not including Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

EntertainmentStreamingThe 3 best comedies on Netflix – not including Once Upon A Time In HollywoodIf you want to cheer yourself up in January, Netflix may not be the best place to start but we’ve found what we canWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

If you want to cheer yourself up in January, Netflix may not be the best place to start but we’ve found what we can

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Sony)

Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in still from Quentin Tarantino�s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

(Image credit: Sony)

Still, part of the reasonNetflixis the world’s favourite streaming service is that it really does have something for everyone, to stream for ‘free’ (once you’ve paid your monthly sub). So as well as lots of great action movies, horror, anime and documentaries, I did eventually manage to find some quite funny movies to turn into a listicle. Our shortlist of thebest films to watch on Netflixin January is short on new comedies, although it does have a film about a machete-waving hitchhiker. However, here are some smile-inducing older classics to make you bust a gut, and cheer you right up in this cold and blue January.

Dolemite is my Name

This film could easily have been an offensive mess, but Murphy’s clever performance, and the genuine fondness it has for his hapless crew, make it really rather heart-warming, with some laugh-out-loud funny moments. If you’ve ever seen the original Dolemite, you’ll note that the supposed clips from it in Dolemite is my Name lookwaybetter than they did in the real life movie.

You may also like:The aforementioned Ed Wood (about the maker of the 2nd worst film of all time) and The Disaster Artist (about the maker of the 1st worst film of all time). Although neither of them are on Netflix.

The Dictator

This extremely non-PC comedy from Sacha Baron-Cohen got somewhat mixed reviews due to its schoolboy humour, a lot of which is wee- and poo- and sex-based. However, ignore scenes such as the one of a man swinging into a window on a rope groin first, and you have quite an intelligent satire on both the tyrants of the Middle East and the hypocrisies of the democratic West.

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Baron-Cohen plays Admiral General Aladeen, Supreme Leader of the Republic of Wadiya and owner of ‘the Supreme Beard’. He’s clearly meant as a dim-witted amalgam of Ghaddafi and Saddam, and in the film he also has Osama Bin Laden as a house guest. Obviously the specific people satirised date it a bit, what with them all being dead and all, but the themes explored are eternal and universal.

What follows is a tight 80 minutes of extremely vulgar comedy, mixed with some more old-fashioned humour that is more like the Marx Brothers, plus that slim layer of political satire, which has genuine bite. I should think you’ll either find it pants-wettingly funny, or watch it stony-faced for 10 minutes before deciding it’s not for you.

Alpha Papa

Turning over-the-hill radio DJ and former chatshow host Alan Partridge into an action hero doesn’t sound like a great idea on the face of it, but Steve Coogan pretty much pulls it off with Alpha Papa. Whether attempting to describe a crime to the police – “Actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm… harm… chronic thuggery… brandishment” – or taking a tactical decision to ‘stow’ his genitals after losing his trousers while escaping through a window, Alan is not aclassicaction star in the Bruce Willis or Sly Stallone mould. However, when he becomes the face of a siege at the local radio station where he’s employed, he rises to the occasion, even if only because he thinks it will secure him the coveted breakfast show slot.

While most of the cast is a who’s who of early 2010s comedy, the canniest move here is bringing in proper actor Colm Meaney to play Pat Farrell, aggrieved host of late-night folk music show Roll Out The Farrell. While the laughs keep coming, he provides some real pathos – and a certain amount of physical threat – as the hostage-taking D-Jock.

You may also like:In the Loop – political comedy from Armando Ianucci, who co-wrote Alpha Papa. Features some very advanced swearing from Peter Capaldi.

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