Highest-Rated Movies about 'Stand Up Comedy'

Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), This Filthy World (2006), The Big Sick (2017), Lenny (1974), Man on the Moon (1999), Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010), Human Traffic (1999) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Stand Up Comedy movies.

#1. Raging Bull (1980)

Storyline: When Jake LaMotta steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he's a prizefighter. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he's a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment. Though LaMotta wants his family's love, something always seems to come between them. Perhaps it's his violent bouts of paranoia and jealousy. This kind of rage helped make him a champ, but in real life, he winds up in the ring alone.

Plot Keywords: jealousy, rage, domestic violence, italian american, nightclub, underage drinking, brother brother relationship ...

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#2. The King of Comedy (1982)

Storyline: Rupert Pupkin is obsessed with becoming a comedy great. However, when he confronts his idol, talk show host Jerry Langford, with a plea to perform on the Jerry's show, he is only given the run-around. He does not give up, however, but persists in stalking Jerry until he gets what he wants. Eventually he must team up with his psychotic Langford-obsessed friend Masha to kidnap the talk show host in hopes of finally getting to perform his stand-up routine.

Plot Keywords: visual metaphor, new jersey, negotiation, memoir, life magazine, handcuffs, female bartender ...

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#3. This Filthy World (2006)

Storyline: At the Harry DeJour Playhouse in New York in the mid-2000s, John Waters emerges from a confessional onto a stage littered with trash. He tells stories. After a few about his childhood and early influences, he roughly follows the chronology of his career as a film director, relating anecdotes about the making of each film and letting those stories lead him to riffs on other topics. Gay references and wry observations about people's foibles and limits are constants. Waters' looks, too, are the butt of his jokes.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: baltimore maryland, gay interest, friendship, filmmaking, fashion, f word, drug humor ...

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#4. The Big Sick (2017)

Storyline: Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani), in the middle of becoming a budding stand-up comedian, meets Emily (Zoe Kazan). Meanwhile, a sudden illness sets in forcing Emily to be put into a medically-induced coma. Kumail must navigate being a comedian, dealing with tragic illness, and placating his family's desire to let them fix him up with a spouse, while contemplating and figuring out who he really is and what he truly believes.

Plot Keywords: interracial love, arranged marriage, stand up comedy, illness, family relationships, based on true story, hospital ...

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#6. Man on the Moon (1999)

Storyline: A biographical film on the late comedian Andy Kaufman. Kaufman, along with his role on Taxi (1978), was famous for being the self-declared Intergender Wrestling Champion of the world. After beating women time and time again, Jerry Lawler (who plays himself in the movie), a professional wrestler, got tired of seeing all of this and decided to challenge Kaufman to a match. In most of the matches the two had, Lawler prevailed with the piledriver, which is a move by spiking an opponent head-first into the mat. One of the most famous moments in this feud was in the early 80s when Kaufman threw coffee on Lawler on Late Night with David Letterman (1982), got into fisticuffs with Lawler, and proceeded to sue NBC.

Plot Keywords: comedian, breasts, prostitution, stand up comedian, prostitute, whorehouse, female nudity ...

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#7. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)

Storyline: This documentary follows one year in the life of Joan Rivers, who sees herself first and foremost as an actress, with her life as a comedienne/writer just an extension of being an actress. Now at age 75, Rivers has faced her ups and downs in her forty plus year career, the year leading up to filming being a down compared to what she would have wanted, which is a calendar full of engagements with several engagements each day. That want is in part to support her opulent personal lifestyle, but is more a need to bolster her own sense of self-worth as a basically insecure person who is probably best known now for her overuse of cosmetic surgery rather than her professional work. She feels that Kathy Griffin, who she admires, is now getting all the engagements she would have gotten in her prime. During this year, Rivers is seen going from engagement to engagement, some big - such as a Kennedy Center Honors for George Carlin, a double bill with Don Rickles in New York, and her own celebrity roast on Comedy Central (which she really isn't looking forward to) - and some not so big. But perhaps the most important of these to her is the opening of her new play, which she is testing in Edinburgh, important in that she wants to be seen as an actress; and an appearance on a celebrity version of The Apprentice (2004), important in that it will mark her first appearance on NBC since being blacklisted by them for her disagreement with Johnny Carson over the start of her own talk show on rival Fox back in 1989. Through the year, several long time supporters are at her side, including daughter Melissa Rivers, personal assistant 'Jocelyn Pickett', and manager Bill Sammeth, but all is not smooth even in this part of her life.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: heckler, mother daughter relationship, husband wife relationship, rehearsal, broadway manhattan new york city, plastic surgery, make up ...

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#8. Human Traffic (1999)

Storyline: The Cardiff club scene in the 90's: five best friends deal with their relationships and their personal demons during a weekend. Jip calls himself a sexual paranoid, afraid he's impotent. Lulu, Jip's mate, doesn't find much to fancy in men. Nina hates her job at a fast food joint, and her man, Koop, who dreams of being a great hip-hop d.j., is prone to fits of un-provoked jealousy. The fifth is Moff, whose family is down on his behavior. Starting Friday afternoon, with preparations for clubbing, we follow the five from Ecstacy-induced fun through a booze-laden come-down early Saturday morning followed by the weekend's aftermath. It's breakthrough time for at least three of them.

Plot Keywords: pot smoking, record store, remote control, party, partying, marijuana joint, male nudity ...

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#11. Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)

Storyline: Dino, the charming and lecherous Las Vegas singer, stops for gas on his way to Hollywood in Climax, Nevada. The oily gas station attendant is Barney Millsap, a would-be lyricist who writes pop songs with Orville Spooner, the local piano teacher. By disabling Dino's car, Barney contrives a scheme to have Dino sing one of their songs on an upcoming TV special. To entertain Dino, Barney contacts the village tart, Polly, employing her to pretend to be Orville's wife, Zelda, for a night. She doesn't like Dino, but does love being Orville's surrogate wife. Dino goes to a bar, where he meets the real Zelda, and they spend the night together while Polly spends it with Orville.—alfiehitchie

Plot Keywords: singer, based on play, on the road, songwriter, satire, foreign language adaptation, nevada ...

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#12. Jellyfish (2018)

Storyline: Fifteen-year-old Sarah Taylor exists in the eye of the storm. The sole caretaker of her family, including precocious twin siblings and a manic-depressive mother who spends most of her time in bed, Sarah runs from school to home to work each and every day. Yet, despite her Herculean efforts to put food on the table and keep the electricity on, she is still forced to engage with more dehumanizing ways to make a few extra bucks-so it's no wonder that her back is up among her peers at school. Jellyfish tells the story of Sarah's discovery of an unexpected outlet for her frustration and quick-tempered wit: stand-up comedy. First-time feature film director James Gardner paints a dark and hard-edged picture of life in this grey seaside British town, and, in newcomer Liv Hill, he uncovers a revelatory talent. Thanks to her fiercely evocative and vulnerable depiction of Sarah, Hill gives the audience truly remarkable insight into a young woman living a life far beyond her years.—Liza Domnitz

Plot Keywords: one word title, sibling relationship, animal in title, feature film directorial debut, teenager, manic depression, caretaker ...

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#13. Comedian (2002)

Storyline: Fresh from the success of his sitcom, comedian Jerry Seinfeld decided to do the unimaginable: he completely retired his stand-up act, electing to start over again by developing entirely new material. "Comedian" follows Seinfeld through this process, as he rehearses in front of small comedy club audiences, meets with fellow comics and finally appears before a national audience.—Shannon Patrick Sullivan <shannon@mun.ca>

Plot Keywords: taxi ride, cell phone, heckler, looking at the camera, talking to the camera, montreal quebec canada, newspaper ...

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#14. The Original Kings of Comedy (2000)

Storyline: February 26 and 27, 2000, the Original Kings of Comedy play Charlotte, NC. The themes are Blacks and Whites, men and women, old-school and hip-hop. Steve Harvey emcees, celebrates '70s music and lyrics of love, and pokes at folks in the front row. D.L. Hughley mines racial differences and talks about his marriage. Cedric the Entertainer riffs on a Black president and on being grown up. Bernie Mac, who says he expresses what's in the back of our minds, closes with reflections on being 42 (new aspects to his sex life and his attitude toward children). Spike Lee's camera takes us backstage and off-stage with the Kings and into the crowd where everyone's laughing.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: five word title, satire, spoof, pop culture, parody, live performance, actor playing himself ...

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#15. Sleepwalk with Me (2012)

Storyline: A burgeoning stand-up comedian struggles with the stress of a stalled career, a stale relationship, and the wild spurts of severe sleepwalking he is desperate to ignore.

Plot Keywords: three word title, father son relationship, mother son relationship, family relationships, husband wife relationship, wedding, adaptation directed by original author ...

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