Film comedy got a shot in the arm in the ‘80s, as the first cast members from Saturday Night Live transitioned to the big screen and filmmakers like John Hughes and the Zucker brothers were helming hilarious movies with the idiosyncratic comic sensibilities plastered all over them. Some of the greatest comedies of all time were released in the ‘80s, and a lot of them remain as funny today as they were back then.
Some of the comedy genre’s most legendary actors — Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Leslie Nielsen, John Candy, the list goes on — delivered hysterical performances in ‘80s comedies.
Michael Keaton As Betelgeuse In Beetlejuice
Before teaming up to bring the definitive on-screen incarnation of Batman to life, Michael Keaton and Tim Burton created a cinematic icon from scratch with the supernatural comedy Beetlejuice.
Keaton’s title character is a freelance poltergeist who haunts houses for hire. The comedian-turned-actor clearly had a ball playing the unabashedly sociopathic paranormal entity and nailed all his line deliveries.
John Candy As Del Griffith In Planes, Trains & Automobiles
At the start of John Hughes’ iconic road comedy Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Steve Martin’s travel plans are continuously scuppered by unintentional annoyances created by John Candy. Candy plays shower ring salesman Del Griffith, who appears at first glance to be an irritating loudmouth, but turns out to be a deeply troubled and emotionally fragile guy.
Hughes’ greatest achievement with the movie is rounding out these two characters as human beings. They could’ve been one-note stock characters like the mismatched duos in all the rip-offs that followed, but they’re real people with a real relationship.
Rodney Dangerfield As Al Czervik In Caddyshack
As the story of some teenage caddies spending a summer working at a country club filled with ultra-wealthy upper-class snobs, Caddyshack has a real eat-the-rich satirical undertone.
While the movie has some hilarious performances by actors like Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, the one who steals the most scenes and encapsulates that satirical message best is Rodney Dangerfield’s improv-heavy turn as Al Czervik, a business tycoon with working-class grit who gets Judge Smails’ goat (and destroys his boat).
Chevy Chase As Clark Griswold In National Lampoon’s Vacation
Chevy Chase captured the frustrations of every suburban dad in the role of Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation, desperate to give his family the vacation of a lifetime and failing miserably at every turn.
Clark’s explosive rant upon discovering that Walley World is closed is one of the most hilarious monologue deliveries in the history of comedy movies.
Nicolas Cage As H.I. McDunnough In Raising Arizona
After making their directorial debut with a blood-soaked neo-noir thriller, the Coens drastically changed pace for their sophomore filmmaking effort, a slapstick-filled crime comedy about a childless couple conspiring to kidnap a baby to raise as their own.
Nicolas Cage stars in Raising Arizona as H.I. McDunnough, a career criminal who wants to be a responsible parent, but finds himself constantly drawn back to his old ways. Cage nailed the physical comedy, playing H.I. as a human Wile E. Coyote.
Dolly Parton As Doralee Rhodes In 9 To 5
In addition to writing and performing the iconic theme song, Dolly Parton gives the funniest performance in 9 to 5. Her co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin both give fine turns in the movie, but Parton’s comic energy is on another level.
She plays a secretary who is looked down on by a lot of her female co-workers, who think she’s sleeping with the boss when, in actual fact, she rejected his sexual advances.
Bill Murray As Peter Venkman In Ghostbusters
Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote a very loose script for Ghostbusters, knowing they’d draw on their background in improv comedy and punch up the dialogue on the set.
Their co-star Bill Murray did the lion’s share of improv, bringing some of the movie’s funniest lines to the table in the spur of the moment.
Matthew Broderick As Ferris Bueller In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Sometimes an actor is so perfectly cast in a single role that they become inextricably tied to that character for the rest of their career. And so goes Matthew Broderick’s connection to the role of Ferris Bueller.
Broderick played every aspect of the character perfectly, from his chemistry with his co-stars to his fourth wall-breaking monologues to his palpable coolness and infinite likability.
Leslie Nielsen As Lt. Frank Drebin In The Naked Gun
When the Zucker brothers cast dramatic actor Leslie Nielsen to play Airplane!’s ridiculous dialogue completely straight, they changed the course of his career, discovering his previously untapped comic talents and turning him into one of film comedy’s all-time greatest stars.
After the success of Airplane!, the brothers cast Nielsen as bumbling detective Frank Drebin, the role he was born to play, in police procedural spoof Police Squad!. He later reprised the part in the masterfully crafted film adaptation, The Naked Gun.
Eddie Murphy As Axel Foley In Beverly Hills Cop
The script for Beverly Hills Cop was originally written as a darker, edgier straight action movie by Sylvester Stallone, who left the project when the producers decided to retool it as a comedy. He was replaced by Eddie Murphy, who gave the defining performance of his career as Axel Foley.
With a strong story in place from the original dramatic script, Murphy was free to ad-lib hilarious lines and take wildly unpredictable turns in each scene without fear of derailing the plot. Axel’s undercover antics impersonating people gave Murphy the chance to show off his range.