Though movies usually use death as a tool with which to evoke feelings of sadness, anxiety, or fear, there are often times when it can have the exact opposite effect. Either by design or by the sheer ridiculousness of the circumstances leading up to them, some movie death scenes end up being downright hilarious for viewers.
The funniest deaths in movies span a wide variety of genres, from serious dramas to more light-hearted action-adventure flicks. They all have one thing in common though, which is their innate ability to force viewers to burst into laughter at a moment's notice, such is the absurd and comical nature in which they occur.
7 Vincent Ludwig - The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
The three movies that make up the Naked Gun trilogy are some of the funniest movies ever made, so it should perhaps come as no surprise to learn that they have a few hilarious death scenes in them. The pick of the bunch arguably comes at the end of the first movie though, when the movie's main villain, Vincent Ludwig, is attempting to assassinate the former Queen of England during a state visit to LA.
After foiling the assassination attempt, the series' bumbling hero Frank Drebin fires a tranquilizer dart at Ludwig, causing him to fall over a nearby railing and down to the ground far below. Just in case the fall wasn't enough to kill him, he's then hit by a bus, run over by a steamroller, and then trampled by the local marching band. This is made all the funnier by Frank having remarked that Ludwig would be "alright in a couple of minutes" in the moments after firing the dart.
6 Steve - Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Steamrollers are a great way to ensure that somebody is actually dead, but they're far from efficient when it comes to time. One might think that their slow speed would give somebody more than enough time to get out of the way of one before getting crushed, but this is sadly not the case for one of Dr. Evil's henchmen in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.
Viewers are shown a perspective shot of Austin and his love interest Vanessa driving the steamroller which reveals a couple of guards standing in their way. One of them quickly moves, but the other, Steve, freezes up and screams out in terror. The camera then cuts to a wide shot, revealing that the steamroller is in fact still miles away from him and is moving at a snail's pace. Austin and Vanessa urge the man to move, but he continues to scream until he is eventually flattened like a pancake.
5 Arab Swordsman - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
They may be action-adventure movies on paper, but the Indiana Jones movies are known for their wacky and comedic moments just as much as they are for their intense action scenes. This extends to quite a few of the series' deaths as well, but none more so than the demise of the Arab Swordsman in the marketplace scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The man approaches Indy and gives him an impressive yet intimidating display of his incredible skills with a sword. The intrepid adventurer takes a moment to consider his options, before pulling out his gun and shooting the man dead. For those wondering "Arab Swordsman" really is what Terry Richards was credited as, with some of the movie's other questionable roles including "Ratty Nepalese" and "Mean Mongolian."
4 Tadhg McCabe - The Field (1990)
Despite the morbid and depressing nature of death, it's not actually that difficult to make a death scene funny. Sometimes, however, a scene that was intended to be incredibly serious can end up being downright hilarious when it's viewed without the right context. This is definitely the case with the death of Tadhg McCabe in The Field, which is just one of the many memorable on-screen death scenes involving Sean Bean.
After being driven mad by an ongoing land dispute, Tadhg's father, Bull, begins herding his cattle off the edge of a cliff. Naturally, Tadhg tries to stop him, but ends up getting caught up in the bovine stampede and falling off the cliff and down onto the beach below. The movie ends with Bull mourning next to the corpse of his son, with a bunch of dead cows on the beach around them.
3 Russel Franklin - Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Sean Bean may be known as the guy whose characters always seem to kick the bucket, but there are actually quite a few actors with more on-screen deaths than him. One such actor is Samuel L. Jackson, who has now died in more than 33 movies throughout his illustrious career. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, some of these deaths have been much funnier than they have any right to be.
Those who've ever seen Deep Blue Sea will no doubt recall the scene in which Jackson's character Russel Franklin is devoured by a terrible CGI shark. Maybe if this had happened underwater it wouldn't have been quite so memorable, but the fact that the attack begins on dry land and right after Franklin has delivered a rousing speech to his team makes this one of the funniest death scenes in the history of modern cinema.
2 Danson and Highsmith - The Other Guys (2010)
While on the subject of hilarious Samuel L. Jackson death scenes, who could forget the one at the beginning of The Other Guys? The first part of the movie is spent bigging up Danson (Dwayne Johnson) and Highsmith (Jackson), who just might be the two most bad-ass police officers to have ever appeared on the silver screen. Out of nowhere, though, things take a pretty dark turn.
Danson and Highsmith find themselves atop a tall building only to realize that the suspects they've been chasing have escaped to ground level using a zipline. With the line now cut, the two men both jump to the same conclusion, which is that the best course of action is to aim for some non-existent bushes down beneath them. After a ridiculously long slow-motion shot of the two men falling, they land on the sidewalk and die instantly; all while My Hero by Nickleback blares out.
1 Zoolander's Friends - Zoolander (2001)
Ben Stiller appeared in plenty of great comedy movies around the turn of the century, from There's Something About Mary to Tropic Thunder. One of his more underrated appearances came as the titular character in Zoolander, which also happens to feature one of the most bizarre and funniest death scenes in movie history.
With Zoolander depressed, his friends decide to take him out and cheer him up. After grabbing some orange mocha frappuccinos, the friends stop to fill up their car after realizing that they're running low on fuel. While they're at it, they for some reason decide that it's a good time for a spontaneous gasoline fight, much to the bemusement of viewers. Then, perhaps predictably at this point, one of them decides to light up a cigarette, leading to Derek's buddies being blown to kingdom come.