10 Hilarious Film Characters

Funny can be very subjective, so save yourself the trouble - if you don't find one of these guys funny, I get it, I know there's no accountability for taste. These are just 10 film characters that crack me it and make me lose it.


Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) Wayne's World, Wayne's World 2
What began life as a sketch-comedy character on SNL would be immortalised in film forever with the Wayne's World movies - two of the most pop-iconic films of the 1990s. Part meek-sidekick, part headbanger, and part mad scientist, Garth's interjections into the Wayne's World films are awkward gems of false bravado.

QUOTE (whilst playing with his food): Hey Mr. Donut Man, who's trying to kill ya? I don't know but they better not!


Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) Napoleon Dynamite
I realise Napoleon has been done to death and almost quoted into oblivion, but nothing will ever change the impact he had on me the moment I first saw him. Napoleon is a mixture of all the weird kids you ever met at school... kids unaware of things like embarrassment or the difference between 'cool' and 'uncool', kids who live in their own little world and deal with almost everything in an inappropriate manner. The collision of Napoleon with the real world is all too familiar for me, and I can't help but laugh with every 'GOSH' and 'IDIOT!'

QUOTE: You know, there's like a butt-load of gangs at this school. This one gang kept wanting me to join because I'm pretty good with a bo staff.


Grim Reaper (William Sadler) Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
One of the greatest characters of all time! Everything the Grim Reaper says and does pretty much cracks me up. At first he seems relentless, playing game after game against Bill and Ted in order to claim their mortal souls, but after losing too many times in a row he resigns himself to being in their power. He spends the rest of the film as their sidekick... at first unwillingly so, but then he gets into the swing of "being excellent to one another" and eventually he even joins their band on bass duties. The Grim Reaper (or Death, as Bill and Ted sometimes refer to him) so desperately wants to be cool that it's hard not to both pity and mock him.

QUOTE (on his contribution to the building of 'good robots' Bill and Ted): Don't forget me, I made the wigs.


Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Making an unlikely film debut here (he would seldom do comedy roles again) as class clown and all-round stoner Spicoli, Sean Penn steals nearly every scene he's in. He's the epitomy of the likeable stoner, and every smartarse answer he delivers seems so buzzed out and sincere that you can't help but smile. The right kind of school-days nostalgia.

QUOTE (asked the reason why he is late to class): I just couldn't make it on time.


Brick Tamland (Steve Carrell) Anchorman
Moments before he got his own successful comedy vehicle (The 40-Year Old Virgin) Steve Carrell was scene-stealing his way through Will Ferrell's own blockbuster, Anchorman. As the borderline-retarded weatherman Brick Tamland, Carrell's various unpredictable replies to fairly straight-forward questions continue to amuse me time after time when I watch this film.

QUOTE: Where'd you get those clothes from, the toilet store?


Johnny 'Spit' Spitieri (David Wenham) Gettin' Square
David Wenham's portrayal of gentle junkie Johnny Spitieri is just about the best thing in this Australian Lock, Stock-style gangster film. His memorably derro-fied delivery of lines, bewildered slack-jawed look, and snazzy thongs-and-stubby combos indented the character onto the consciousness of a country - even to the extent of winning the AFI award for Best Actor. Spit's court-appearance would have to go down as one of the funniest scenes ever committed to celluloid in Australian film history.

QUOTE: Your honour, who's gonna pay for my busfare?


Rodney Farva (Kevin Heffernan) Super Troopers
In a film chock-full of hilarious characterisations, Farva would have to be the biggest standout. The film builds up to Farva's appearance for the first half hour or so, eventually yielding to show us one of the biggest dickheads to ever get himself a police badge. We're told that Farva is on suspension for something involving a busload of school kids, and when his state trooper duties are finally reinstated they last all of a brief few hours. Despised by his colleagues, Farva throws away every chance to be liked, always taking things too far and always ready to act like a real prick.

QUOTE: Just cleaning out the old locker, she stinks like ass but I'll sure miss her... I guess you could say that about all my girls.


Otto (Kevin Kline) A Fish Called Wanda
Kline holds his own against two of the Python lads in this classic 80s comedy-crime caper. Otto is an intellectually-insecure glorified-thug amongst the Brits, an over-sensitive bully, imbecile, and all-round American egomaniac. Whilst it's not an entirely new feat, Kline's winning of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his inspired work here is nevertheless a vindication of great comedy-acting everywhere. Like most of the turns mentioned here, this is another scene-stealer.

QUOTE: You are the vulgarian, you fuck.


Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) Borat
No doubt there are some groans from some people reading this right now, but Cohen's comic creation is too good to pass over. I've been laughing myself silly at Borat's interactions with the public since I first saw him on an Ali G DVD more than six or seven years ago, and this film had me laughing so hard I thought I was going to hyperventilate. Borat brings out the worst in dumb rednecks everywhere, rampaging across America, poking fun at stereotypes and going where no comedian has dared go before. A-plus stuff!

QUOTE: Look, there is a woman in a car! Can we follow her and maybe make a sexy time with her?


Withnail (Richard E. Grant) Withnail and I
Richard E. Grant's breakthrough role remains one of his best. As the title suggests, Withnail drives a lot of this film and shines in every scene he is in (which is pretty much every scene). In this meloncholy comedy of displaced debauchery, Withnail is the comedy to the protagonist's (the 'I' of the title) meloncholy. A drug-addled, alcohol-fuelled, scene-chewing and cowardly force of nature... Withnail is one of the best characters to ever grace the screen, and one of my favourite things about one of my favourite films.

QUOTE: I have a heart condition. If you hit me, it's murder.

And that's 10!
Feel free to talk about your own funniest characters.