These days, with the potential of millions of deaths around the world from the COVID-19 pandemic, people are looking at death a little differently. But that doesn't mean you can't still laugh in the face of danger. And these funny comedy movies about death will help you do just that.
From the security of your social isolation, you can enjoy these off-beat takes on death, the final destination that awaits us all. But looking at this list, what's most surprising is how often these morbid comedies are truly life-affirming. Nothing reignites your will to live like taking a close look at death.
10 The Death Of Stalin (2017)
Usually, death is an intensely personal experience. But what happens when the dying person is the head of state, and not just any head of state, but one of the most ruthlessly controlling dictators in history?
Well, then you've got yourself the perfect setup for a madcap comedy of errors as people scramble to exploit the power vacuum to advance themselves. From its uproarious opening scene to its darkly ironic conclusion, The Death of Stalin is a well-crafted comedy machine full of intrigue and surprise, even though we all know the ending.
9 Ghost Town (2008)
Ricky Gervais made his name as David Brent, the boss in the original British version of The Office. In Ghost Town, Gervais shows the same discomfiting charm he did as Brent. Now he's Bertram Pincus, a misanthropic dentist who finds himself pursued by ghosts.
The main problem with ghosts: they're just like people, but dead. And they won't leave him alone until he helps them handle unfinished business from their lives. This movie reminds us that our death is likely to leave a lot of loose ends and that we should try to take care of as many of them as possible before we go. And for a different take on the same premise, try out the Robert Downey Jr.-led Heart and Souls from 1993.
8 Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
How's about this for a bleak comedy premise: when people commit suicide, they go to a limbo populated entirely by other suicides? This afterlife is just like normal life, but a little bit worse, especially considering the company.
Oh, and nobody can smile. The movie looks at how people feel about their decisions to commit suicide, and how they strive to get their life back once they've given it up. This is a humorously Freudian parable about the power of love (Eros) to overcome the drive toward death (Thanatos).
7 Harold And Maude (1971)
Harold and Maude was woefully underappreciated when it was released. Normally perceptive film critic Roger Ebert panned the film, seeing it as a failed story of Eros and Thanatos, where "the two seem so similar that life's hardly worth the extra bother."
However, that's part of the point. Better than any other movie on this list, Harold and Maude let you stare existential dread in the face, laugh, and walk away with a smile. Fortunately, the movie has become more appreciated with time. And it's hugely influential. Wes Anderson's Rushmore (1998), for example, feels like a simple turn of the screw on Harold and Maude.
6 Weekend At Bernie's (1989)
Up until now, most of the movies on this list have been fairly heavy, but Weekend at Bernie's is as light a movie about death as it's possible to imagine. The premise is that Insurance CEO Bernie is defrauding his own company until two low-level employees discover his embezzlement.
He wants them killed, but his mob partners kill him instead. Then the two employees discover Bernie's body and decide to use it to pretend he's still alive so they won't be blamed for the murder, and they can still party at his Hampton's beach house. It's silly and stupid but hilarious. It's also a metaphorical "eat the rich" scenario that's surprisingly cathartic.
5 Heathers (1988)
A movie that almost needs no introduction, Heathers felt like the perfect palate cleanser to the seemingly endless slate of John Hughes 80s rom-com. This movie takes a dark spin on the power of popularity in high school, as Veronica (Winona Ryder) gets lured out of the circle of popular girls named Heather by outsider J.D. (Christian Slater).
Ryder and Slater have perfect chemistry, showing the kind of love that starts pure but can turn toxic. Although funny, it has serious messages about teen anxiety, popularity, and the way often capitalize on the deaths of suicide victims with meaningless crusades, perpetuating the stressful system that spawned the suicide in the first place.
4 Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life (1983)
Monty Python has long been turning death into comedy gold. From the "Dead Parrot Sketch" to Life of Brian's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," to the Black Plague sequence in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the troupe has always found ways to make us laugh at the infinite abyss.
But The Meaning of Life represents their most extended series of jokes about birth, death, and all the nonsense that goes on in between. There are so many classic songs and jokes, it seems impossible that they all fit in just one movie. And it's so poignant you might very well cry if you weren't so busy laughing.
3 Beetlejuice (1988)
Tim Burton's true directorial debut, Beetlejuice reminds us we're powerless after death. We can't control our legacy or hold onto the material things that gave us joy in life. Recently dead couple Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam (Michael Baldwin) find that their rustic Connecticut house has been bought by urbanites who want to transform it into their gauche home away from home.
They enlist the services of the sleazy "BIO-exorcist" Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), only to find that they'd rather coexist with the family than hurt them, especially the sensitive daughter (Winona Ryder). The afterlife represented in the film is at once skewed and tolerable, and the movie's ending is well-earned.
2 Death Becomes Her (1992)
Death Becomes Her was the perfect parable for the plastic surgery age, and it remains relevant in the age of BOTOX. Two women (Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn), romantic rivals for the affection of a plastic surgeon (Bruce Willis, who artfully plays counter to type), rely on an immortality potion to guard against death.
The only problem: the potion doesn't work as expected, and the women continue to age and take injury, even though they cannot die. Streep and Hawn give depth to characters that could easily have been played as shallow types, and the groundbreaking effects have (mostly) held up.
1 Death at a Funeral (2007)
Funerals are for the living, an opportunity for those of us left behind to grapple with the emotional legacy of our loved one. Death at a Funeral shows us how hilarious this can be when we discover our loved ones were not who we thought they were.
Directed by Muppeteer Frank Oz and with a delightful comedic turn by Peter "Tyrion" Dinklage, this movie is full of cathartic laughs that can help you come to terms with even the most complicated lost loved ones. And while it's much-maligned, the 2010 American version is also worth seeing, though it's not as classic.
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