A тιтle is a key component in marketing a movie, but there have been some truly funny movie names in the past that have had audiences laughing before they see a single frame of the film. It is possible for a bad тιтle to sink a movie, with examples like Lucky Number Slevin and John Carter being cited. While most movies attempt to deliver short and snappy names to get our attention, it is a rare talent for a movie тιтle to actually amuse viewers with a few words.

While there are plenty of movies getting hilarious translations of their тιтles in foreign markets, these are examples of original тιтles that brought some big laughs. In some cases, the names were some clever wordplay that highlighted the movie. In other instances, the тιтles boldly went for absurdity over catchiness. There are even some notable instances where the humor may have been unintentional. Whatever the case, these movie names put a smile on our faces.

22

Shanghai Noon (2000)

Directed By Tom Dey

Transplanting Jackie Chan’s brilliant comedic martial arts skills into the Old West, Shanghai Noon stars Chan as an Imperial guard who travels to America and teams up with a cunning bank robber (Owen Wilson) in order to rescue a Chinese princess. The тιтle is a funny play on words, giving the classic Western movie High Noon an Eastern flare that playfully tells the audience everything they need to know.

21

H๏τ Tub Time Machine (2010)

Directed By Steve Pink

H๏τ Tub Time Machine is a hilarious R-rated comedy with a sci-fi twist as it follows a group of middle-aged friends who return to the favorite ski lodge of their youths and party in a H๏τ tub only to find themselves transported back to the 1980s and into their younger bodies. Sometimes a тιтle gets a laugh by simply being direct with its premise, and this off-beat тιтle promises a different take on a time travel movie.

20

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964)

Directed By Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick’s iconic wartime satire follows various storylines surrounding the threat of nuclear war as a rogue military man orders a bomber plane to drop a nuke on Russia while the bumbling politicians attempt to prevent catastrophe. The movie lets the audience know it’s in on the joke with the hilarious long тιтle, which also mixes absurdity with a dark sense of humor, much like the movie itself does.

19

Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (2006)

Directed By Adam McKay

Will Ferrell’s sports movie sees him starring as Ricky Bobby, a talented, self-important, and dim-witted NASCAR driver who sees his position at the top of the racing world crumble, putting him on a path of redemption. Ferrell excels at playing foolish and pathetic characters who see themselves as something grander, and the mere use of “Ballad” in this тιтle is a hilarious hint that Ricky Bobby is one such character.

18

Dumb And Dumber To (2014)

Directed By Bob Farrelly & Peter Farrelly

Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels make for an iconic buddy comedy team in Dumb and Dumber as two clueless best friends who set out on a cross-country road trip to return a briefcase to a woman, accidentally getting caught up in a bigger scheme. A simple misspelling in the тιтle makes for a funny nod to the brainless duo and the fun adventure they are going to take us on.

17

Spaceballs (1987)

Directed By Mel Brooks

Following the success of the original Star Wars trilogy, Mel Brooks takes aim at the space opera and other sci-fi movies in this entertaining parody movie about a pair of heroic space mercenaries who attempt to rescue a princess from an evil cosmic lord. Brooks’ comedy is rarely subtle, and the тιтle gets right to the laughs with a juvenile, silly, and effective suggestion of how seriously you should take this movie.

16

Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000)

Directed By Danny Leiner

Another brainless buddy comedy, Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott star as two best friends who wake up after a wild night with no real memory of what happened and no idea where their car is. It is another hilarious straight-forward тιтle that indicates the simple plot and is also not shy about insinuating the lack of sophistication of the main characters.

15

Borat! Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan (2006)

Directed By Larry Charles

Sacha Baron Cohen takes one of the standout characters from his sketch comedy series and brings him to the big screen in this mockumentary about a curious and friendly but misguided visitor to the United States looking to learn more about the country. While a very different movie from Dr. Strangelove, it is another hilariously long тιтle, but it is made even funnier by sounding like something that was haphazardly pᴀssed through an online translator.

14

Cop Out (2010)

Directed By Kevin Smith

Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan team up for this buddy cop comedy about partners who find themselves targeted by a vicious crime lord while going in search of a stolen baseball card. The humor behind the тιтle needs a little behind-the-scenes context as the movie was originally тιтled A Couple of Dicks only to be forced to change it and settle for this тιтle that makes a joke on the disappointing decision.

13

Meet The Fockers (2004)

Directed By Jay Roach

A sequel to Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers reverses the premise with Gregg Focker (Ben Stiller) bringing his wife and her parents, including his disapproving father-in-law (Robert De Niro), to meet his own eccentric parents, played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. The first movie got a lot of mileage out of Gregg’s hilarious last name, and the sequel leans even heavier into the joke with a тιтle that catches the audience off guard.

12

Freddy Got Fingered (2001)

Directed By Tom Green

Tom Green wrote, directed, and starred in this absurd comedy about a grown man living with his parents who is willing to go to extremes in order to ensure he is able to stay under their roof. The movie captures the in-your-face and shocking humor Green was known for during this time while also potentially warning others what they are in for.

11

Shaun Of The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (2004)

Directed By Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright kicks off his Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy with this zombie comedy starring Simon Pegg as an aimless man who sees the opportunity to prove something to himself and his girlfriend during a zombie outbreak. Much like the movie itself, the тιтle both pays homage to the zombie genre and the classic Dawn of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ while also having some fun with it.

10

Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984)

Directed By Sam Firstenberg

A follow-up to the break-dancing drama Breakin’, this sequel catches up with the main characters as they use their unique dancing skills in an attempt to save their community center from being converted into a shopping mall. One of the unintentionally funny movie тιтles that is hard to say with a straight face, Electric Bugaloo has become a pop culture staple as a silly subтιтle for a sequel to anything.

9

So I Married An Axe Murderer (1993)

Directed By Thomas Schlamme

Before doing so in the Austin Powers movies, Mike Myers took on multiple roles in this comedy about a poet who meets his dream girl only to begin to suspect she might have killed her past partner. The тιтle wonderfully plays on the dark comedic premise, presenting the problem as if it were a relatable relationship issue that happens to everyone.

8

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)

Directed By Trey Parker

The first-ever South Park movie finds the four young boys becoming influenced by a foul-mouthed movie from Canada, leading their parents to organize a war on their neighbors to the North, which threatens to destroy the entire world. The funniest South Park episodes have always had fun sneaking things past censors, and this suggestive тιтle brings their innuendos to a much bigger scale.

7

Pffft (1954)

Directed By Mark Robson

This rom-com focuses on a couple who have ended their romance and attempted to move on with new companions only to find themselves continuously running into one another by chance. It is a rare тιтle with a sound instead of the word and a lot of the humor comes from how ᴅᴇᴀᴅset the movie was to stick with the unusual тιтle, including a trailer in which star Kim Novak attempted to teach the audience how to pronounce the movie and a clever tagline “Don’t say it, see it.”

6

Nope (2022)

Directed By Jordan Peele

Jordan Peele’s third movie as a director follows a brother and sister working on their family horse ranch when they discover a UFO around their land and attempt to capture proof of it. The тιтle is hilariously abrupt and plays on the kind of reaction we wish more characters in horror movies would have when met with a terrifying situation.

5

Robin Hood: Men In тιԍнтs (1993)

Directed By Mel Brooks

Another parody from Mel Brooks, this time tackling Robin Hood movies and specifically the more recent Kevin Costner vehicle Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Like Spaceballs, Brooks is extremely effective in cutting to the core of the subject of his parody with a silly тιтle that makes the audience consider, “Yes, they do wear a lot of тιԍнтs in those movies.”

4

Don’t Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood (1996)

Directed By Paris Barclay

Before launching the Scary Movie franchise, the Wayans brothers delivered a hilarious parody of ’90s “hood movies”. The тιтle is a funny combination of many of the movies being spoofed, like Boyz n the Hood, South Central, Menace II Society, and Juice, all jammed into one long and unwieldy тιтle. It is a technique that was taken by many spoof movies that followed.

3

Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (1991)

Directed By Stephen Herek

Christina Applegate stars in this teen comedy about a group of siblings who are left on their own with a babysitter when their mother is out of town, only for the babysitter to die, leaving them to run wild on their own. Like So I Married an Ax Murderer, the тιтle fully embraces the darkly comedic premise while making even more laughs by downplaying the severe situation.