The 25 Best Political Comedies in Movie History

Greta Garbo plays Soviet diplomat Nina Ivanovna “Ninotchka” Yakushova in her first-ever full-fledged comedy. Sent to Paris to oversee the sale of valuable jewels, Yakushova ends up falling for the debonair Count Leon d’Algout (Melvyn Douglas).

Mistaken for a member of the upper class, a slow-witted gardener (Peter Sellers) rises to the top of Washington society in this socio-political satire. Author Jerzy Kosinski adapted his own novel when co-writing the screenplay. It won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Melvyn Douglas.

Satire meets slapstick in this WWII comedy from director Ernst Lubitsch, which takes place in Poland during the Nazi invasion. When an important list gets into the wrong hands, an acting troupe must use their unique skills to save the day. It holds the #229 spot on IMDb’s list of the Top 250 Movies.

Chaplin’s first full-blown talkie film stars the multi-hyphenate as both a Hitler-like dictator and a Jewish barber. It puts a comic spin on the horrors of war and builds toward one of the most famous monologues in movie history.

Kubrick’s pitch black satire was originally conceived as a dramatic adaptation of a 1958 novel about global nuclear destruction. As the screenplay progressed, the director found a nightmarish comedy of errors instead. The rest is cinematic history.