Comedy movies often have dance scenes to provide a hilarious change of pace, and the funniest dances can make their movies stand out. Dancing can be a language that everyone understands, which makes it perfect for comedy. It provides a great opportunity for physical comedy. Often, this is when dancers are laughably bad, but it can sometimes be even funnier to see a truly skilled performer in the right context.

Some of the best dance numbers in movies can make audiences laugh. It's a joy to watch talented dancers when they use their skills for comedy. This can be funny in and of itself, since it seems like such a humorous waste of time and talent. Comedic dance scenes also manage to break up the pace and tone of a movie, which is often hilarious. The funniest dance scenes are usually the ones which come out of nowhere.

10 Phoenix Buchanan's Prison Dance

Paddington 2 (2017)

Paddington 2 is a brilliant family-friendly comedy, and it features one of Hugh Grant's most memorable performances. Grant gets a chance to play a sort of pantomime villain, as the eccentric Phoenix Buchanan frames Paddington for theft and gets him sent to prison. By the end of Paddington 2, their fortunes are reversed, and Phoenix is the one who finds himself behind bars. He seems to make the most of it, however, as he leads the inmates in a song and dance.

Seeing such a joyous side to Phoenix at the end of Paddington 2 is a wonderful moment, and the dance scene also provides some closure for the story of the inmates. When Paddington first arrives, the prison is a grim place indeed, but he helps to establish a sense of community that allows the inmates to brighten up their home and band together. Phoenix's dance gives him some redemption, which is a key part of Paddington 2.

Kilmainham Gaol has been used as a filming location for many other movies, most notably The Italian Job (1969).

9 Nathan Tears Up The Dance Floor

Ex Machina (2014)

The dance scene in Ex Machina is one of the most divisive aspects of the movie, since it jars so harshly with the intense, oppressive tone. As Caleb tries to confront Nathan, he is dismissed. Nathan replies with the hilarious line "I'm gonna tear up the f*cking dance floor, dude. Check it out." He then starts a strange choreographed dance with Kyoko to Oliver Cheatham's "Get Down Saturday Night."

The immediacy of the dance number provides quite a jolt. With the moody red lighting and the immaculate synchronization of the two performers, it's as if Ex Machina flips into a different genre of film for a brief moment. The scene works so well because, while it's disarmingly funny, it also makes Nathan seem even more frightening. The dance is over just as abruptly as it begins, creating another bewildering tonal shift.

8 "You Can Leave Your Hat On"

The Full Monty (1997)

There are several hilarious dance scenes in The Full Monty, but the British comedy wisely saves the best until last. The story follows a group of men who respond to losing their jobs by forming a male striptease act. They face plenty of bumps in the road, but their big performance is a much bigger event than any of them had anticipated. The dancers walk out to a sell-out crowd which includes practically everyone they know from their local community.

Dave puts it best when he introduces the act by saying "We may not be young, we may not be pretty, we may not be very good, but we're here." The men aren't exactly in the typical shape that one would expect from strippers, but they give it their all nonetheless, even if Gaz needs a pep talk from his young son backstage. The dance scene is funny in isolation, but it's even more joyous within the full context of their personal stories and the hardships of the community.

7 Knights Of The Round Table

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Each Monty Python movie has a few scenes intended to surprise the audience. Life of Brian's alien scene is one example, but Monty Python and the Holy Grail's Camelot dance is just as unexpected. When King Arthur and his knights consider their next move, one of them suggests reconvening at Camelot. This is followed by a cutaway dance number that shows the knights of the round table in a chorus line.

From the contrived lyrics to the raucous slapstick, it's a much more rapid-fire type of humor compared to the rest of the movie.

The Camelot dance scene is already a great joke, purely based on how exuberant and surprising it is, but it also packs in a lot of smaller gags. From the contrived lyrics to the raucous slapstick, it's a much more rapid-fire type of humor compared to the rest of the movie. This scene provides a taste of the Monty Python stage musical Spamalot, which is a loose adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with original songs.

6 Les Grossman Busts A Move

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Tom Cruise performed one iconic dance scene early in his career in Risky Business, and Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder gave him a chance to step into a more comedic role once again. One of the funniest meta jokes in Tropic Thunder's Hollywood satire is that it's an action movie with the biggest action star on the planet, but Cruise is stuck inside an office wearing some heavy prosthetics that make him hard to recognize.

Tropic Thunder is an action movie with the biggest action star on the planet, but Cruise is stuck inside an office.

Cruise is mainly relegated to a ing role in Tropic Thunder, but he steals every scene he's in. Fortunately, the end credits are accompanied by footage of Les Grossman dancing alone in his office to "Get Back" by Ludacris. Scenes like this explain why fans have been calling for a Les Grossman spinoff ever since Tropic Thunder first came back. Although this idea seems dead now, it would still be fun to see Cruise in more comedic roles.

5 Ted Meets Elaine On The Dance Floor

Airplane! (1980)

Airplane is often brought up in discussions about the funniest comedy movies ever made, so it's no real surprise that it also features one of the funniest dance scenes. The dance scene is part of a flashback with Ted recounting the night that he first met and fell in love with Elaine. It's a parody of John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever, which had come out just three years earlier than Airplane.

The sudden shift from the rough-and-tumble bar into a stylish disco is a great gag.

Airplane is known for its hilarious quotes, but the comedy team of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker - known as ZAZ - often packed their movies with visual gags too. The dance scene has just as many jokes as any scene in Airplane, although there are barely any words spoken. The sudden shift from the rough-and-tumble bar into a stylish disco is a great gag, and so are the fighting girl scouts, Elaine dancing with a man with a knife in his back, and Ted's acrobatics.

4 Gutterballs

The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Big Lebowski is one of the best Coen brothers movies, even though it puzzled some critics and became a box office bomb when it was first released. It soon developed a cult following, and it's now recognized as a hilarious alternative comedy. The Dude's dream sequence provides a window into his mind, showing that his fantasies of sex and bowling seem to hold equal weight. Funnily enough, despite his obsession with bowling, the Dude is never shown playing the sport.

The Big Lebowski's dance scene lets Jeff Bridges show off some brilliant physical comedy, especially as he descends the staircase to shake his tool belt. It's the direction of the Coen brothers that elicits most of the laughs, though. Their psychedelic, Wagnerian dreamscape is so funny because it's taken so seriously. The operatic interlude is a jarring departure from the rest of the movie.

3 "Puttin' On The Ritz"

Young Frankenstein (1974)

The musical number in Young Frankenstein is one of Mel Brooks' funniest scenes, although it certainly isn't the only time he looked to the aesthetic of Broadway shows for humor. Beyond The Producers, obviously, musical interludes color Brooks' other works, like the dancing chestburster in Spaceballs and the titular song from Men in Tights. Young Frankenstein's performance is even funnier, thanks to two great physical comedians.

Musical interludes color Brooks' other works, like the dancing chestburster in Spaceballs and the titular song from Men in Tights.

Demonstrating his monster's dexterity and coordination, Frankenstein bursts into a rendition of "Puttin' on the Ritz". It's completely out of the blue, but the joke doesn't stop there. Peter Boyle's lumbering, awkward presence is great, but Gene Wilder completes the scene with his desperate attempts to keep up appearances. His frantic energy shows the panic behind Dr. Frederick Frankenstein's eyes.

2 "Make 'Em Laugh"

Singin' In The Rain (1952)

Donald O'Connor's performance of "Make 'Em Laugh" has gone down in film history as a shining example of physical comedy. Cosmo starts off by performing to lift the spirits of Don Lockwood, but it soon becomes clear that he's staring through the camera and putting on a grand show for the audience watching him in theaters. It's often the case that trying too hard makes a performance seem less funny, but O'Connor pushes through the other side, and the extreme exertion is part of what makes "Make 'Em Laugh" so special.

O'Connor pulls out a bag of tricks for "Make 'Em Laugh" which includes gurning, pratfalls and two backflips. It's probably the closest that a human has ever come to embodying the squishy physics of a cartoon character. The performance is exhausting just to watch, and, according to Hollywood legend, O'Connor had to stay in bed for several days after filming the sequence. He collapses at the end of the dance, and he deserves a lie down.

1 Napoleon Saves Pedro's Campaign

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

The dance scene in Napoleon Dynamite isn't just the most famous part of the movie; it's what makes the movie work. When Pedro is blindsided by the fact that his election speech is supposed to be accompanied by a performance of some kind, Napoleon steps in to help his friend. He risks complete public humiliation to help his friend, but the crowd end up loving his performance.

It would have been easy to get a laugh or two if Napoleon was a terrible dancer, but this scene stands out because it refuses to conform to the conventions of cringe comedy. Thanks to his tapes and LaFawnduh's help, Napoleon is actually a great dancer. He's ionate, creative and oddly sensual, and he strings together some completely original moves. The dance scene was largely improvised by Jon Heder, who had just three takes to make comedy history.