Comedy is just tragedy plus time. But knowing how to accurately solve that equation is an art. Last night, the Writers Guild of America honored the 101 screenplays that they thought masterfully made audiences and critics laugh until they cried. Woody Allen took the highly coveted top spot for his Academy Award–winning script to the 1977 classic Annie Hall, but that was far from being his only appearance on the list—the writer/actor/director had seven films make the cut including Manhattan, Bananas, and Sleeper.
The top 101 also featured hilarious screenplays from absolute classics (The Graduate, The Jerk, Animal House, Young Frankenstein, This Is Spinal Tap) and new favorites (The Royal Tenenbaums, Bridesmaids, Waiting for Guffman, Office Space) among so many others.
Check out the top 20 below, and peruse the entire list at Variety.
1. Annie Hall (1977)
Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
2. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Screenplay by Billy Wilder & I.A. L. Diamond, Based on the German film
Fanfare of Love by Robert Thoeren and M. Logan
3. Groundhog Day (1993)
Screenplay by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis, Story by Danny Rubin
4. Airplane! (1980)
Written by James Abrahams & David Zucker & Jerry Zucker
5. Tootsie (1982)
Screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal, Story by Don McGuire
and Larry Gelbart
6. Young Frankenstein (1974)
Screenplay by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, Screen Story by Gene Wilder
and Mel Brooks, Based on Characters in the Novel Frankenstein by Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley
7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Peter George and Terry Southern
8. Blazing Saddles (1974)
Screenplay by Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard
Pryor, Alan Uger, Story by Andrew Bergman
9. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Written by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle,
Terry Jones, Michael Palin
10. National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)
Written by Harold Ramis & Douglas Kenney & Chris Miller
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Written by Christopher Guest & Michael McKean & Rob Reiner & Harry Shearer
12. The Producers (1967)
Written by Mel Brooks
13. The Big Lebowski (1998)
Written by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
14. Ghostbusters (1984)
Written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis
15. When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Written by Nora Ephron
16. Bridesmaids (2011)
Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
17. Duck Soup (1933)
Story by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, Additional Dialogue by Arthur
Sheekman and Nat Perrin
18. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Screenplay by John J. Strauss & Ed Decter and Peter Farrelly & Bobby
Farrelly, Story by Ed Decter & John J. Strauss
19. The Jerk (1979)
Screenplay by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb, Michael Elias, Story by
Steve Martin & Carl Gottlieb
20. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
Screenplay by John Cleese, Story by John Cleese & Charles Crichton
