Best Comedies on Netflix, From Red Notice to Ricky Gervais

Red Notice is the most-watched comedy with real actors in it. It sits second on Netflix’s own all-time list of English-language films, and the only film above it is a cartoon. For a series, Nobody Wants This is the romantic comedy and Wednesday the dark one, and Wednesday’s first season tops the same list for shows. For stand-up, Ricky Gervais: Mortality and Ali Wong: Single Lady are the two most recent Golden Globe winners. The award went to Netflix in 2024, 2025 and 2026: Gervais twice, Wong once.

Netflix’s catalogue differs from country to country, and the titles and age ratings here are the ones it serves in Nigeria. Netflix says ratings vary by region, and Nigeria’s run high: six of the ten series below are marked 18+. Click a title and its page tells you if your country lacks it. Netflix’s own productions are the safest picks, because Netflix says it holds worldwide rights to most of its originals. Each title that opens a paragraph below is Netflix’s own unless it says licensed.

Comedy films

Red Notice (2021, 13+). An FBI profiler chasing the world’s most wanted art thief ends up as his partner, because a third crook keeps getting there first. It is an action comedy from director Rawson Marshall Thurber, with Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. Only one film sits above it on Netflix’s all-time list of English-language films.

Don’t Look Up (2021, 18+). Two astronomers go on a media tour to warn that a comet is about to wipe out the planet, and the world shrugs. Adam McKay directs Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep. Netflix tags it a satire and a Golden Globe nominee, and it is fourth on that all-time list.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022, 16+). Detective Benoit Blanc travels to Greece to untangle a mystery around a tech billionaire and his circle of friends. Daniel Craig plays Blanc, with Edward Norton and Janelle Monáe, and Rian Johnson directs. Netflix tags this one a Golden Globe nominee as well. The follow-up, Wake Up Dead Man (2025, 16+), is there too.

Happy Gilmore 2 (2025, 16+). Adam Sandler’s short-tempered golfer comes back to the game to make his child’s dream come true, with Julie Bowen and Christopher McDonald. Director Kyle Newacheck also made Murder Mystery (2019, 16+), a Netflix film with Sandler and Jennifer Aniston as a New York policeman and his wife caught up in a killing on a billionaire’s yacht.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024, 18+). Eddie Murphy is Detroit policeman Axel Foley again, back in Beverly Hills forty years after his first case there. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige and Kevin Bacon are in the cast.

Leo (2023, 7+). An animated musical about the last year of primary school, seen through the eyes of the class pet, a lizard voiced by Adam Sandler. Bill Burr and Cecily Strong also do voices. KPop Demon Hunters (2025, 10+), the cartoon at the top of Netflix’s all-time list, is filed under comedy as well. It follows three pop stars who use secret powers to protect their fans, with the voices of Arden Cho and Ken Jeong.

The Incredible Jessica James (2017, 18+). A struggling New York playwright, fresh from a bad breakup, makes an unlikely connection with a divorced app designer she meets on a blind date. Jessica Williams, Chris O’Dowd and LaKeith Stanfield star.

The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter (2018, 13+). A star of hunting videos takes his 12-year-old son into the wilderness to bond with him. Josh Brolin and Danny McBride star. Netflix lists it as a drama first.

Hindi comedies such as Maa Behen, Toaster and Laapataa Ladies are in our list of the best Hindi movies on Netflix.

Nollywood comedies

In Nigeria, the first row on Netflix’s comedy films page is African films, and it opens with Nollywood.

A Naija Christmas (2021, 13+). A mother’s Christmas wish, and the prize she attaches to it, sets her sons competing with each other. Kunle Afolayan directs Rachel Oniga, Kunle Remi and Segilola Ogidan. It is a Netflix film, so it is the Nollywood comedy most likely to be in your catalogue wherever you are.

Oversabi Aunty (licensed, 2025, 13+). A self-righteous church usher tries to fix everyone around her and throws her own family into chaos just before her daughter’s wedding. Toyin Abraham directs and stars, with Mike Ezuruonye and Enioluwa Adeoluwa. It is the newest of these, and it leads that African row.

The same row has two more licensed films. In Chief Daddy (2018, 13+) a rich patriarch drops dead and everyone around him scrambles for the fortune, with Joke Silva, Falz and Funke Akindele. Aki and Paw Paw (2021, 13+) has Chinedu Ikedieze and Osita Iheme as brothers who move to Lagos and chase social media fame.

Comedy series

A series’ year is the one on its Netflix page, which follows the newest season.

Wednesday (2025, 2 seasons, 18+). Wednesday Addams, sharp-tongued and gloomy, investigates mysteries at Nevermore Academy. Jenna Ortega plays her, with Gwendoline Christie and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Netflix tags it a dark comedy. Its first season is the most-watched English-language season on Netflix’s all-time list, and its second is sixth.

Nobody Wants This (2025, 2 seasons, 18+). A woman who hosts a podcast about sex and a newly single rabbi fall for each other, and their families and very different lives get in the way. Kristen Bell, Adam Brody and Justine Lupe star, and Erin Foster created it. The Golden Globes’ own site lists six nominations for it over two years.

A Man on the Inside (2025, 2 seasons, 18+). Ted Danson plays a retired professor whom a private investigator sends undercover to crack a case, and Mary Elizabeth Ellis also stars. Its creator is Michael Schur, whom Netflix also credits as a creator of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

The Four Seasons (2026, 2 seasons, 18+). Three married couples have gone on weekend trips together for decades, and the habit is tested when one couple divorces. Tina Fey, Will Forte and Colman Domingo star, and Fey is one of its three creators.

BEEF (2026, 2 seasons, 18+). Each season tells a new story. The second has two couples whose blackmail war turns a country club upside down, with Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and Charles Melton. The Television Academy’s site credits the series with 11 Emmys. Netflix tags it a dark comedy.

Grace and Frankie (2022, 7 seasons, 18+). Two women who are not friends are pushed together when their husbands leave them for each other. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Martin Sheen star. It is the longest Netflix series here. One of its two creators, Marta Kauffman, also co-created Friends.

Man Vs Bee (2022, 9 episodes, 10+). Rowan Atkinson is a father house-sitting a mansion and losing a war with a bee. The nine chapters run 10 to 19 minutes each. Atkinson’s follow-up, Man Vs Baby (2025), has four episodes and a 7+ rating.

Olóládé (2023, 6 episodes, 13+). Two friends get rich overnight and find themselves inside a deadly money laundering scheme. It is a Nigerian Netflix series in Yoruba, with an English audio track, and Netflix tags it a dark comedy. Kunle Idowu, Femi Adebayo and Mide Martins star.

The Great Indian Kapil Show (2026, 5 seasons, 13+). A Hindi variety talk show. Kapil Sharma hosts celebrity guests with his regular supporting cast, and Sunil Grover and Archana Puran Singh are also in it.

Friends (licensed, 2003, 10 seasons, 16+). Six friends in their twenties get through work, life and love in 1990s Manhattan. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow star. The Nigerian catalogue also has The Big Bang Theory (12 seasons), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (8), Seinfeld (9) and the American version of The Office (9), all licensed.

Stand-up specials

Every special here is Netflix’s own, and most are rated 18+.

Ricky Gervais: Mortality (2025, 18+). Gervais on life, death and the state of the world, his own death included. The Golden Globes’ site lists it as the 2026 winner for stand-up comedy on television. His earlier special, Armageddon (2023, 18+), won the same award in 2024.

Ali Wong: Single Lady (2024, 18+). Wong on dating again after her divorce. It won the Golden Globe in the year between Gervais’s two.

Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones (2019, 18+). Chappelle on gun culture, the opioid crisis and celebrity scandals. The Television Academy lists three Emmys for it, including the one for pre-recorded variety special. His newest on Netflix is The Unstoppable… (2025, 18+).

Bo Burnham: Inside (2021, 16+). A musical comedy special that Burnham shot and performed alone over the course of a year. It also has three Emmys: for directing, writing and music direction.

Trevor Noah: Joy in The Trenches (2026, 16+). Noah’s subjects run from a row on social media to a hard truth from a therapist. Netflix tags his 2023 special, Where Was I (18+), a Golden Globe nominee.

Kevin Hart: Acting My Age (2025, 18+). Hart on the mishaps of middle age. The Golden Globes’ site lists it as a 2026 nominee and calls it his fifth Netflix special.

Your Friend, Nate Bargatze (2024, 10+). Bargatze’s third Netflix special covers ordering pizza, wanting a second dog and leaning on his responsible wife. Netflix puts it in its “Clean-Cut Comics” row, and it has the lowest rating of the specials here.

Papa Yaar by Zakir Khan (2026, 13+). Khan’s memories of his father and his childhood. The audio is Hindi, and the page lists English subtitles.

Comedies to watch with children

With children in the room, Leo is the film, Man Vs Bee the series and Nate Bargatze the stand-up. At 7+ Leo has the lowest rating of any film here, and Man Vs Bee and Bargatze are 10+. Man Vs Baby (7+) and KPop Demon Hunters (10+) are the other low ratings.

Comedies missing from your Netflix

Netflix licenses most films and series country by country. It has pages for Baby Mama, Billy Madison, Catfight, Don’t Think Twice, The Edge of Seventeen, Hot Fuzz, I Love You, Man, The Informant!, Kicking and Screaming and Life of Brian, but marks them not available in Nigeria. They may be in your country. Our guide to searching Netflix explains why a title you know exists may not appear.