The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Comedy Movie Sequels

Sequels to comedies can be very risky business, because only a select few have managed to be great. When a comedy captures the zeitgeist and becomes a hit, there are usually calls for a sequel immediately. But since the creators move on to other stuff, a sequel never gets made. Years later, when their careers are on the rails and interest in a sequel has kind of waned, they finally make a sequel. More often than not, it’s a crushing disappointment.

The same goes for sequels that are rushed out in the wake of the original’s success and just copy all the jokes from the first one with diminishing returns. Still, some comedy sequels have managed to be just as funny and feel just as inspired as the original movies. It’s rare, but it does happen. Here are the 5 best (& 5 worst) comedy movie sequels.

10 Best: 22 Jump Street

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s hilariously self-aware follow-up to 21 Jump Street avoids the pitfalls of comedy sequels by blatantly addressing them. Just like the first movie poked fun at itself for rebooting a TV show no one cared about, the sequel poked fun at itself for doing the same thing all over again after the first one was surprisingly successful.

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s on-screen chemistry remains the beating heart of the franchise, while the onslaught of sequel pitches in the end credits hysterically lampoons Hollywood’s tendency to squeeze every last penny out of intellectual properties.

9 Worst: Zoolander No. 2

For all of Ben Stiller’s promises that he wouldn’t make a sequel to Zoolander without a great script and he would definitely do something completely different with the follow-up, Zoolander No. 2 is a perfect example of everything that can go wrong with a sequel.

There’s another political conspiracy, another batch of celebrity cameos, and Mugatu gets out of prison for the final act, pretty much just so they could have him in the movie. All of the attempts to bring Zoolander’s humor into the modern day, with selfie sticks and Justin Bieber, falls completely flat and feels dated on arrival.

8 Best: Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey

Later this summer (on August 21, to be exact), the adventures of Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan will continue with Bill & Ted Face the Music, the long-awaited threequel.

After Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure took the hard-rockin’ duo to significant points throughout history, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey ratcheted up the surrealness by confronting them with evil mirror versions of themselves. Plus, it has to be the only teen comedy to spoof an Ingmar Bergman movie.

7 Worst: Hot Tub Time Machine 2

Hot Tub Time Machine was a lot smarter, sweeter, and funnier than anyone expected it to be, especially with a title like Hot Tub Time Machine. But it should’ve been left alone.

The original used the time travel plot device for its characters to reflect on their life choices, but the dreadful sequel – which didn’t even feature original star John Cusack – was just a light parody of Terminator in which the guys go to the future to track down Lou’s killer.

6 Best: Clerks II

Over a decade after he burst onto the indie filmmaking scene with his black-and-white comedy Clerks, Kevin Smith delivered a sequel that was bigger, bolder, and satisfied diehard fans of the cult classic original. The sequel is in color (Smith only shot the first one in black-and-white because it’s all he could afford) and it takes Dante and Randal away from the Quick Stop convenience store and into a Mooby’s fast food restaurant.

Instead of trying to recreate the original while ignoring that the actors are now a lot older, Smith leaned into that and used Dante and Randal’s aging to tell a new story about those characters at a different stage in their lives.

5 Worst: Horrible Bosses 2

The first Horrible Bosses movie became the highest-grossing dark comedy of all time when it hit theaters in 2011. The chemistry shared by the three leads anchored the pitch-black pastiche of Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, while supporting players like Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Aniston gave memorable performances to round out the movie.

The sequel, however, released in 2014, just felt like a third-rate attempt at an episode of It’s Always Sunny. Murder was swapped out for kidnapping and humor was swapped out for a total lack thereof. Somehow, Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine got roped into the proceedings.

4 Best: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

After National Lampoon’s Vacation gave moviegoers a relatable family road trip to a theme park, its first sequel gave us a weirdly crass and sexually explicit family trip to Europe that went over like a lead balloon.

But the third movie in the series returned to the kooky, identifiable suburbia of the original to show us, in hysterical fashion, how the Griswolds celebrate Christmas. This sequel is arguably the greatest Christmas movie ever made.

3 Worst: Caddyshack II

No one involved in the original Caddyshack wanted to do a sequel, but as long as the studio was going ahead with one regardless, Harold Ramis decided he might as well sign on and try to steer it in the right direction. But unsurprisingly, the studio jumped in and steered it in the wrong direction.

Chevy Chase returned, but Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, and Ted Knight didn’t, so from the off, the sequel only had a quarter of the comedy firepower of the original. Whereas the original pushed the boundaries of an R rating, the sequel was rated PG.

2 Best: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Mixing ‘60s swinger culture with James Bond parody was an outlandish premise, but Mike Myers made it work with Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and he proved it wasn’t a one-off gimmick by elaborating on the concept in the sequel, The Spy Who Shagged Me, which took Austin back to the ‘60s via time travel.

Heather Graham made for a bubbly foil to Myers’ antics, while Fat Bastard was a welcome addition to the star’s repertoire of characters.

1 Worst: Dumb And Dumber To

1994’s Dumb and Dumber is a timeless comedy classic that more or less holds up today and never leaves you more than a few seconds away from a big laugh. Dumb and Dumber To, the unwanted sequel that hit theaters 20 years later, is difficult to watch. It’s filled with outdated, exhausted, and culturally insensitive gags that fall flat on their face.

As Harry and Lloyd set off on another road trip in the same van dressed like a dog, Dumb and Dumber To substitutes a sense of plot with nostalgia triggers. It even has a “second most annoying sound in the world” joke.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

More From Ben Sherlock