9 Comedies That Capture The Full Spectrum Of Human Emotion

When I was making my way through The Second City’s improv and conservatory programs in Chicago, my instructors and directors kept telling us one thing to help improve our scenes—make a confession. When we went to a real, honest and emotional place with our scene partners, one that grounded our characters and got our audiences invested in the world we were creating, we would find the humor.

The truth is we’re just all walking around on this planet, each carrying our own baggage, and looking for ways to make our burdens a little lighter—laughter being one of them. We can’t force funny on command, but we can find it even in life’s hardest moments. These nine comedies have that knowledge built into their bones.

If you’re looking for poignant, thoughtful humor that mirrors real life, you’ve come to the right place!

The Four Seasons

Netflix’s latest mini-series is a remake of the 1981 film written and directed by M*A*S*H legend Alan Alda. The plot catalyst revolves around a divorce that rocks a group of couples with a long history of vacationing together, but we soon realize that ending a marriage is just one of the many ways adult relationships become strained. Every character is uniquely human and flawed, but never ignorant of their own complexities, and we get to see this hilarious and heartfelt exploration of happiness, love, trust, and mortality against a backdrop of friendship in your 50s.

Dying For Sex

This series is a love letter to female friendships, based on the real-life relationship and podcast created by Nikki Boyer and Molly Kochan, in response to Kochan’s diagnosis with terminal cancer. Written by Liz Meriwether of New Girl, the series depicts what is perhaps the most tragic reality that could occur within a friendship, but one that doesn’t change the way Molly and Nikki talk, tease, love, and play. It illustrates the critical support structure friendship provides that is different from romantic or familial love. One that means more to women than society perhaps ever recognizes.

Man On The Inside

Ted Danson is built for thoughtful comedy, and Netflix’s Man On The Inside tackles the heavy topics of aging, continuing life after losing a partner, and memory loss from the perspective of a man who goes undercover in a nursing home. His character, Charles, finds new community and purpose at Pacific View, and realizes that getting older doesn’t mean your need for individualism, fun, or productivity disappears. Life is meant to be lived until its very last moments.

The Good Place

What could be heavier fare for comedy than the moral examination and judgement of an entire life, or eternal afterlife? Especially when world religions have vastly different interpretations on the associated criteria and consequences. This cerebral series with a killer ensemble cast dared to go there, and did so in a way that shocked viewers with amazing plot twists, and snuck in generous doses of philosophy and ethics the same way you might sneak vegetables into a child’s spaghetti sauce. It was daring and beautiful and still made your ribs ache from laughing.

The Waterboy

Bobby Boucher is and will ever be one of our favorite comedic underdogs of all time. The loveable water boy who endured years of teasing, a difficult relationship with his mother, and a childhood of believing his father had died of dehydration in the Sahara became an archetype for characters who learn to find value in their own interests and pursuits. Even if no one appreciates the thing you do really well, it doesn’t take away from your dedication, mastery, or value. In this film, it’s the things that make us different, our quirks and accents, that make us who we are.

Never Been Kissed

Josie “Grossie” was essentially Carrie with a happy ending. By leaning and playing into the reasons why Drew Barrymore’s character was teased, she became all the more loveable and relatable. Everyone at some point in their life has struggled with insecurity, especially during their teenaged years, and depicting how our most awkward experiences come to shape the kind of adults we become was something so universal for audiences to find humor in. We all stumble and trip along our way to figuring out life, and if we’re lucky enough, we find the people and partners who appreciate us for who we truly are.

Kotaro Lives Alone

Kotaro Sato is a four-year-old soul with big Don Quixote energy you’ll become completely devoted to, and this series walks the amazingly fine tightrope of balancing themes of child neglect and abandonment with unabashed humor, in the same way David Blaine performs a magic trick. You’ll blink, and wonder in astonishment how you went from laughing to crying and back to laughing again in the span of a moment, like a playing card that changes suits right before your eyes with a subtle flick of the wrist.

Inside Out

The Pixar movie that felt like going to your therapist’s office, Inside Out is presented in the trappings of an animated children’s film, but tackles themes only older audiences will fully appreciate. After all, you can’t understand the loss of childhood innocence until you’ve done it yourself. It did a fantastic job of exposing the humor of our own internal monologues and the way different facets of our personalities push and pull for control over our emotions and the way we move through the world. It’s a full-blown fest for both laughter and tears.

Soul

After years of tip-toeing around implied off-screen parental deaths, Soul is perhaps the deepest a Disney movie can or will ever go, throwing audiences right into an examination of the purpose of life itself. Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey brilliantly portray the souls of a recently-deceased middle-school music teacher slash jazz musician and an unborn pre-existential entity, respectively. Where Foxx’s character is desperate to stop his life from ending prematurely, Fey’s keeps looking for excuses to keep hers from ever beginning. It’s hilariously spiritual and full of the very soul it’s title implies.