Over the years, he's been fantastic as a dramatic actor and won his fair square of acclaim too. However, fans of Jack Black are more naturally drawn to his comedic talents, since that's how his true artistry is usually best deployed. Even when he's playing mean-spirited or antagonistic characters, his innately charming qualities always make him likable among audiences. It's safe to say he's been in a fair few comedies, many of which were memorably hilarious.
Black's proven many times just how wide-ranging his abilities can be, and it's not just in front of the camera that he excels. He's also well known for his musical abilities — his band Tenacious D even won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 2015. However, even when comedy is the main appeal, Jack's ability to subtly infuse dramatic elements into some of them has earned him the respect of Hollywood, critics, and fans alike. His brand of humor has varied from crude to sweet and charming in them. Either way, here's our take on Jack Black's best comedy films to date.
10 Saving Silverman
The film Saving Silverman saw Jason Biggs play a timid young man named Darren Silverman, who allows his highly domineering girlfriend to control every aspect of his life. Jack Black's character, J.D, and his other friends try their best to help him see that he should break up with her. As their nuptials creep ever closer, the friends try everything, including kidnapping his fiancé to keep them apart.
Determined to save Silverman, eventually they try to convince his ex-girlfriend to reunite with him. The problem — she's a woman who is about to take her vows as a nun. Between all this chaos, the film, and Jack Black's typically hysterical behavior in it made it a fun and goofy comedy with a sweet and romantic undercurrent to it and definitely one of his funniest.
9 Kung-Fu Panda
Jack Black has proven on many occasions that his comedic talents are just as lovable whether he's actually in front of the camera or not. In 2008, after having already voice acted in Ice Age and Shark Tale, Jack took on the role of Po in Kung-Fu Panda. It would go on to become one of his most successful projects as the film grossed over half a billion at the box office and led to two more sequels, other short films, and animated series.
Despite being primarily aimed at a younger audience, the film featured the kind of humor that adults could appreciate just as much. It was also another beautifully rendered animation from DreamWorks and was packed full of fun, adorable characters. Jack Black's voice acting was wonderfully expressive and suited his character, which often feels like a delightful animated version of him.
8 Year One
In the very racy and religiously controversial film, Year One, Jack Black starred alongside Michael Cera as a pair of mischievous young men who leave their village and venture out into the unknown world beyond it. The film was a comedic take on early biblical times, tracing through some of the Old Testament's most famous books. However, it was also panned and criticized for the insensitive way it mocked faith among Christians and Jewish beliefs.
Featuring everything from the glorification of Sodom and Gomorrah, Year One also took stabs at the Tree of Knowledge, and figures like Cain, Abel, and Abraham. If you're a fan of comedy and wouldn't be put off by these elements, it was a very funny movie. Aside from Jack Black's style of exaggerated physical comedy coupled with questionable morals, the film also featured Olivia Wilde in a tantalizing role, as well as an unforgettably funny appearance by the brilliant Oliver Platt.
7 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
The 2017 update of the Jumanji film franchise was a huge hit. Featuring Jack Black amid the talents of stars like Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle grossed close to a billion dollars at the box office. Unlike the Robin Williams's original which was a little darker, this time the infamous game took a modern approach as it transported its players into a virtual world through a video game cartridge.
Once there, the characters do face very real threats as they use adult avatars to navigate a vast and tricky game world full of deadly creatures and people. Despite its blockbuster appeal and pulsating action scenes, between Johnson, Hart, and Black, the movie was also a very funny one with plenty of comedy intermingling with its other elements. After returning for one sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level, another sequel is slated for a future release too.
6 Orange County
In an appearance that gave Colin Hanks his first starring role in a film, Orange County was a very funny film that often saw Jack Black overshadow him with his antics. Black was in top form in the film, playing the older step-brother of Hanks whose wacky efforts to help him get into the college of his dreams wind up causing him more distress than anything else.
If you're a fan of Jack Black's comedies, there were some truly iconic moments from him in this one. Playing the kind of moronic character he's known for, Black brought an extra layer of immaturity to this one that only made him funnier. A great film all-round, it was a classic performance from Black and a film that made it clear that acting talent certainly runs in the Hanks family.
5 Nacho Libre
In another one of Jack Black's most famous comedy films, Nacho Libre, he played Ignacio, a part-Mexican monastery cook with larger ambitions. Raised in the monastery's orphanage after his parents are killed, Ignacio is forbidden from being a luchador, even though he dreams of being one.
Events lead him to break the rule and use a mask to fight anyway as a way to help the ailing orphanage. His hilarious attempts often made for the kind of sidesplitting, racy humor that Jack Black has become so famous for. The film was a hit and remains one of his most memorable for its physical comedy, crude humor, and Jack's ability to use his body as a comedic prop.
4 Shallow Hal
It isn't often that Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow takes on off-beat comedies. However, in Shallow Hal, she picked a great one that saw her star alongside Jack Black. Of course, Paltrow as we know her doesn't really exist in the film since it features a narrow-minded man named Hal who is hypnotized to only see the inner beauty in people. This leads him to see the looks and figure of Gwyneth Paltrow when he looks at a much larger woman who has a kind heart, even if men like Hal never find her attractive in her actual form.
Learning that this ability was ultimately a gift since it allowed him to change his shallow ways and look for the best in everyone, Hal faces dejection after he pushes her away by initially fawning over the woman while hypnotized, but rejecting her when he sees her real form. A great film with some warm themes that temper its initially raunchy humor, the film was both funny and sweet.
3 Tropic Thunder
The 2008 hit comedy Tropic Thunder was co-written and directed by comedy legend Ben Stiller. It had an amazing cast that featured Jack Black, together with appearances from the likes of Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise, and Robert Downey Jr., to name a few. RDJ and Tom Cruise's comedic moments, in particular, remain legendary despite all the controversy the film drummed up.
Among all the craziness of RDJ as a white actor playing a white actor who plays a Black man in the film, and one of Stiller's characters mocking intellectual disabilities, Jack Black also played a movie star with a hilariously depicted drug problem. It was a movie that was laugh-out-loud funny, nothing if not original, and simply unforgettable, leaving behind a legacy of memes that still regularly does the rounds on social media to this day.
2 High Fidelity
After being confined to small roles in larger films, High Fidelity was the movie that saw Jack Black break out as a star in his own right. Based on a book, the original source has since also been adapted into a show that featured an amazing performance by Zoë Kravitz in a gender-swapped version of it. A wonderful mix of drama, comedy, and romantic angles, Black's performance in the movie version was praised and gave everyone their first glimpse of his true potential.
Black starred alongside John Cusack and Lisa Bonet (Zoë Kravitz's real-life mom) in the film, playing an employee in a record star who often steals the show with his quirky and hilarious antics. Roger Ebert himself had this to say about Black when he reviewed the film.
"I also recognize Barry, the character played by Jack Black; he's a type so universal it's a wonder he hasn't been pinned down in a movie before: a blowhard, a self-appointed expert on all matters of musical taste, a monologuist, a guy who would rather tell you his opinion than take your money. In real life, Jack Black is himself from this world; he's the lead singer of the group Tenacious D, and it is a measure of his acting ability that when he does finally sing in this movie, we are surprised that he can."
1 School of Rock
In a film that typified all of Jack Black's most famous talents, School of Rock, is now iconic among his other notable appearances. As a high-strung guitarist named Dewey Finn, Black is tossed from his own band and finds himself needing to find work. He makes his way to a private school and pretends to be a substitute teacher. Rather than teach the austere music the school would prefer, he instead introduces students to hard rock and the many icons of it he glorifies.
The fun and overzealous way he approaches this wins over his students as he leads them down a path that sees them compete in a battle of the bands, much to the disgust of the school's principal. A huge hit, the film holds a 92% approval rating and was nominated for various prestigious awards. Black himself earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for it. The movie also featured over 30 rock songs and has become a legendary film.
With Jack Black being an actor that's once again in the names of many fans and reviewers for the success that The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been enjoying, the brilliant and multi-talented star has found a way to remain relevant across different generations now. His career seems set to continue aging like a fine wine since he also has a new Kung-Fu Panda film in the works too.