Sports have, and always will be, one of the most dominant parts of our modern-day culture. Whether it be America’s fascination with football, or the rest of the world’s love of actual football, it’s impossible to find a person who isn’t at least somewhat entertained by sports. In the world of film, that means there’s plenty of dramatic sports movies to give you thrills and satisfaction when you watch the underdog team finally win the big game. However, those sports movies are pretty serious and rarely have any lighthearted moments.
Unfortunately, Sports comedies aren’t as common as you may think, but when they’re good, like Happy Gilmore, they have a way of standing the test of time and becoming essential viewing for any sports fan. If you’re going to watch any sports comedies after Happy Gilmore 2 (2025), here are the 10 best ones to watch, with many of them available on Prime Video.
10. Speed Racer (2008)
The definition of “sports comedy” may be stretched a little bit here, but Speed Racer fits the definition for both a sports movie and a comedy, and therefore, deserves mentioning. The Wachowskis are nothing if not ambitious, and their attempt to turn a classic anime racing series into a live-action family-friendly sports comedy is very much that. Sure, the results were always going to be a bit messy given the transition, but for what it’s worth, the final product is still great.
The film feels like a cartoon brought to life and is perfect for fans of anime and racing. It blends the thrills of high-speed racing from movies like Gran Turismo (2023) with the excitement of a Saturday morning cartoon, and that’s before we talk about the special effects. Despite the film releasing in 2008, the editing and special effects are still striking and easily worth the price of admission alone. It’s an unconventional sports comedy to be sure, but if you want to see thrilling races and chuckle at some inoffensive and endearing comedy, give Speed Racer a shot, even if it barely counts as a sports comedy.
9. Space Jam (1996)
For many children of the '90s, Space Jam was impossible to escape. Michael Jordan was the biggest name in sports and having a movie where he starred alongside the Looney Tunes instantly made it a must-watch for children. Looking back, Space Jam holds up surprisingly well. A lot of the comedy still gets a good laugh, and the cartoonish antics of Bugs Bunny and his friends as they go up against the titanic Monstars remain engaging.
One of the big hooks of the film is how it’s a hybrid between traditional live-action and 2D animation. It’s maybe not quite as impressive as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), but it’s still very technically impressive, and it will certainly please animation fans. The film also assembles a great cast of voice talent and comedians to help play the animated characters, including Billy West, Danny DeVito, and Dee Bradley Baker. Space Jam is a movie that could have only existed in the '90s, which definitely dates it more than any movie on this list. If you’re down with that, then this is a solid sports movie for both kids and parents.
8. Cool Runnings (1993)
You would think that a movie about a Jamaican bobsled team would be a completely fictional parody of the sport, but Cool Runnings is anything but. Surprisingly, it’s based on the real-life story of how a ragtag group of Jamaicans came together to form a bobsled team to compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics. Of course, there are some creative liberties taken that make it a perfect fit for Disney+, but that doesn’t stop the film from being simple, yet effective.
In a lot of ways, it’s a sports film for younger audiences who liked The Mighty Ducks (1992), but it does have a few things that separate it from its peers. John Candy, who serves as the mentor figure for the bobsled team as they train for the Olympics, is great here, and the film serves as one of his final roles before his death. It’s also not as in-your-face as other sports comedies, giving the story a certain charm as we root for the team to succeed. It’s a wholesome movie that clocks in at just over 90 minutes, making it a smidge more entertaining for families than Space Jam.
7. BASEketball (1998)
Nowadays, you can trust that anything written by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park (1997), will probably be good. But back in 1998, that wasn’t entirely the case. Although Stone and Parker star, they didn’t actually write BASEketball, which was the brainchild of David Zucker. So people who love classic comedy parodies like Airplane! (1980) and The Naked Gun (1988) will be right at home with BASEketball.
The film channels a lot of wild, satirical, and physical comedy. That should be pretty obvious, given that it tries to mesh baseball and basketball together into one confusing sport—and the results go about as well as you would expect. Stone and Parker’s performance helps ease over some of the cracks, if only because of how much they commit to the bit, resulting in a vulgar comedy that isn’t afraid to be excessive in the best way possible.
6. Major League (1989)
In a lot of ways, Major League functions like a standard sports underdog story alongside Cool Runnings. The film follows the Cleveland Indians as the players try to stop their team from relocating to Miami despite the owner intentionally assembling one of the worst teams of all time.
It’s a great ensemble movie, but the stand-out performance belongs to Charlie Sheen, who would go on to star in plenty of comedies in the ‘90s thanks to his role as Ricky. If you’re a fan of Charlie Sheen and his tiger blood energy, then Major League is basically ground zero for his soon-to-be legendary sense of humor. The movie never takes itself too seriously but still has all the feel-good excitement you would expect from a baseball movie and a sports movie in general, just with a touch of silly jokes. If you just want a straightforward sports comedy that takes its game seriously, then Major League is for you.
5. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Some comedians are born to play clueless idiots, and no one does it better than Will Ferrell. While many may say that his best character is Buddy the Elf from Elf (2003), others would argue Ricky Bobby is better. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby has Ferrell at his best playing Ricky Bobby, an egotistical moron whose rise and fall from grace in the world of NASCAR is the stuff of legends.
At points, the film almost feels like a mockumentary, thanks to bizarre characters like Sacha Baron Cohen’s Jean Girard and Ricky’s even stupider, but well-meaning friend, Cal Naughton Jr., played by John C. Reilly. If you love mockumentaries like Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016), this captures that same energy, but with jokes ripped straight out of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004). Like the best sports comedies, Talladega Nights balances a love of the sport it's parodying with a respect for it, leaving viewers with a movie about NASCAR that feels unhinged and removed from reality but also authentic and faithful to the sport.
4. Happy Gilmore (1996)
A cult classic by every definition of the word, Happy Gilmore was the movie that helped a young Adam Sandler cement himself as a Hollywood comedy icon. It’s a very different golf movie than Caddyshack, with Sandler playing Happy Gilmore like an aggressive hockey player who's prone to violence. That being said, the film carries a lot of the same DNA as Caddyshack, with Sandler using his rage-fueled exploits to help shake up the stoic and snobby world of golf featured in the film.
There’s a lot more punching, throwing people out windows, choking, cursing, and alligators. This is the kind of comedy that fans of slapstick and crude humor will love, thanks to Sandler and the excellent supporting cast he assembled here. It’s also not quite as vulgar as BASEkeball, so that definitely gives the film a bit more of a wider reach. If you haven’t seen Happy Gilmore and you’re a diehard Adam Sandler fan, you need to fix that urgently.
3. The Sandlot (1993)
It honestly shouldn’t be all that surprising to hear that The Sandlot is a generation-spanning classic. Out of every sports movie on this list, there’s a good chance that this is the one your kids have probably watched at least once. The film is cute in the same way that childhood comedies like The Goonies (1985) and Holes (2003) are, with the kids feeling like actual kids and not like how adults think kids talk and behave.
More so than other sports comedies, you can tell there’s a real palpable love for baseball in The Sandlot. While other sports comedies are okay with lambasting the rules and regulations of their sports, everyone involved in the production of The Sandlot clearly loves the sport, more so than Major League. Major League is a comedy about baseball, but The Sandlot is a baseball movie that just so happens to be a comedy. Even if you don’t like baseball too much, you should definitely check it out if you’re nostalgic for the simpler days of childhood, where a dog in a neighbor’s yard is the scariest thing in the world.
2. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
A staple of Comedy Central in the mid-2000s, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, is the kind of stupid comedy like Balls of Fury (2007) that you can’t help but get invested in. Watching the Average Joes compete against the Globo Gym Purple Cobras is hilarious, if only because of how much Ben Stiller commits to playing the over-the-top and borderline insane White Goodman. His expressions sell every scene that he’s in, but seeing everyone slowly give in to the film’s insanity is just as funny.
Only in Dodgeball can one of the best character arcs revolve around a person realizing that he isn’t a pirate. Does it make a lot of sense? No, but when people are being hit hard with dodgeballs, you don’t need it to make sense. If you want a comedy where you can just turn your brain off and not think, Dodgeball is for you. Just remember, “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.”
1. Caddyshack (1980)
Caddyshack is the kind of comedy that’s rare because it is just as funny the second time around. The film assembles a who’s who of some of the best comedians of its time, ranging from relatively fresh talent like Chevy Chase and Billy Murray to stand-up legends like Rodney Dangerfield. It lampoons golf in all the right ways, putting in some physical comedy, plenty of sardonic wit, and one of the greatest running gags of all time involving Bill Murray’s increasingly maniacal mission to kill a gopher.
The best thing about Caddyshack is, for the most part, it plays everything perfectly straight, letting the cast’s jokes land all the harder. It’s not quite as ridiculous as 1941 (1979), but it’s channeling a lot of the energy of Spielberg’s underrated comedy classic by the time the movie reaches its climax. Many consider Caddyshack to be the best sports comedy of all time, and it’s hard to argue against them, marking a great directorial debut for the legendary Harold Ramis.
