Cameos are often used in movies to add a touch of humor – and as the contributor of this list (ThatGuy) pointed out, listverse is presently lacking a list of the best. So, here is our first (and hopefully not last) list of the best (and funniest) cameos in movie history. If you can think of other great cameos, be sure to tell us in the comments (include a youtube link if you can).
What really makes this cameo funny is not necessarily the lewd dialogue, it’s the story behind how the slacker duo got involved in Scream 3. They were both given 300 dollars per diem while on set, and a free shirt. Jason Mewes (Jay) was a bit more excited about it than Kevin Smith (Silent Bob), saying: “We should do this all the time. We can pop up in every horror movie, and get three hundred bucks a day and a shirt!” Smith told him he could make a lot more money in a starring role, and Mewes respectfully pondered the idea.
Dr. Gonzo appears very briefly in Terry Gilliam’s classic film that is based off Thompson’s book. During the flashback/Jefferson Airplane scene. Depp walks by him and narrates: “There I was… Mother of God, there I am. Holy fuck.” Fear and Loathing is known for many great cameos, including Gary Busey, Tobey Maguire, and director Gilliam.
There isn’t much I can say besides Thank You Chuck Norris.
In this war film parody, Martin Sheen steals his son Charlie’s thunder by interrupting his narration with a little voice-over of his own. It concludes with one of the funniest lines in spoof history.
Nick Cage appears as Fu Manchu in the fake trailer “Werewolf Women of the S.S.” directed by Rob Zombie for the movie Grindhouse. I don’t think I am alone when I say that the fake trailers were probably the best part of Grindhouse, and include such gems as Machete, Thanksgiving, and Don’t! Cage’s cameo is short and sweet, and it gets me every time.
This film is both greatly loved and severely detested. Those who support it point out its campy qualities, and claim that it’s so bad it’s good (like the Wicker Man remake, right? Or does it just suck?) Letterman’s cameo was his first role in a feature film and it is a lot like the rest of the movie, so bad it’s good. See for yourself.
The Muppet Movie is known for its parade of cameos, but Martin’s role as the ‘insolent waiter’ combines his bizarre sense of humor with the universal appeal of the muppets. What ensues is a fantastic fusion of dry humor and soaking wet slapstick.
The best part about this cameo is how Bob is in great shape. You really believe that he could kick some ass if taunted. Apparently Barker accepted the role after learning that he would win the fight. I’m sure he felt even more vindication after winning the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight. The best part of the clip begins around 00:58.
This cameo is as perfect as the movie itself. I wouldn’t say that Crystal and Kane make the movie, but they do serve as the cherry-on-top of a hilarious sundae. The decrepit yet spry married couple were so funny that Rob Reiner had to leave the set because he was laughing so hard.
Extras, a sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and his writing partner Stephen Merchant, is one of the funniest TV shows of all time. It was hard to believe that they could live up to the comedic brilliance that was The Office, but they did it with Extras, which aired on HBO. Every episode has at least one celebrity appearance, all of them playing themselves. The words that Gervais puts in their mouths are usually so insensitive and vain that it is unfathomable how they all agreed to it. To name a few: David Bowie, Ian McKellen, Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller, Chris Martin, Daniel Radcliffe, Robert De Niro.
This clip shows David Bowie’s hilarious cameo. My personal favorite has to be Ian McKellen explaining his stage play to Gervais. The timing and delivery is so spot-on it brought me to tears the first time I saw it. If you have not seen this show please, please, PLEASE try and watch it. It does not disappoint.
Contributor: ThatGuy
nice list! Cameos are very cool!!…
Bang on with extras as number one that show is great, its just not quite as good as the office but its brilliant. Happy gilmore is great too.
what about the cameos in friends they are pretty funny too
the simpsons would be in mine
Nice list. The bit with Steve Martin was a hoot, as was the scene from The Princess Bride.
Loved Steve Martin in “The Muppett Movie”
“Don’t you want to smell the BOTTLE CAP???”
tom cruise…tropic thunder.
Extras and The Office (in its English guise) are proof positive that English comedy is superior to the comedy of any other nation.
I think your forgot the funniest of all, Lance Armstrong in Dodgeball. Much better than the Chuck Norris one.
uhhm, as much as i ADORE billy crystal’s and carol kane’s performances in the princess bride, i don’t think they count as “cameos.”
both are credited for their performances, and both are on screen for more than a moment. i’d say this takes them out of the realm of “cameo’ and into “minor-or-supporting characters.”
hell, they both come up in the “name-over-the-face -shot listing of actors” before the “real” credits of text-over-neutral-screen with music even begins at the end of the film. (at least crystal does, have to watch it again to confirm if kane gets equal billing.) and both are on the imdb main page cast listing for the film.
so, yeah, more than a cameo. but awesome none the less.
I loved Kate Winslet on Extras, so screwed up and hilarious.
My favourite cameos are Bruce Campbell’s in Sam Raimi movies and some Coen brothers movies. He’s the cameo king!
Yeah you forgot Charlton Heston in Wayne’s World. This list is incomplete.
Didn’t Alfred Hitch*****make an appearance in all his films? Do they count as cameos?
Oh god, I love Sir Ian McKellen on the Extra “Wizard Wizard THOU SHALL NOT PASS.” every time I saw it, I would crack up. XD
One of my favorites was Neil Patrick Harris in “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.” Priceless!
Matt damon in team america?
You should do a list on the most cameo-filled movies. Like Around the World in 80 Days, Zoolander and The Pick of Destiny.
Clearly we will be able to make a second list based on the comments – and maybe a third or fourth!
You are so right about Ian McKellen,
It really is the funniest thing I have ever seen on TV/Film
“she tries frantically to cover up but I have seen everything”
7. donald
Not to mention Cruise’s appearance in the beginning of Goldmember.
13. Tony R
Also, in the 2001 Planet of the Apes where in a role reversal Heston plays an ape. “Damn you, damn you all to hell!” Well, ok, it wasn’t funny, but memorable.
A few more:
Dan Marino in “Ace Ventura”.
Brett Farve in “There’s Something About Mary”.
Kurt Vonnegut in “Back to School”.
Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach in “Austin Powers”.
BTW, I just recently viewed the segment from the Jimmy Kimmel Show that featured a clip of Sarah Silverman singing, “I’m F**king Matt Damon” featuring none other than Matt Damon. That was hilarious. It was meant as an anniversary gift.
But what really blew me away is Jimmy Kimmel’s video response called “I’m F**king Ben Affleck”. I just couodn’t believe how many cameos were in that video. Harrison Ford, Huey Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, Don Cheadle,Meat Loaf, Lance Bass, Joan Jett, and Josh Groden (of all people) all singing “I’m F**king Ben Affleck”. And check out who the FEDEX delivery man is.
My favorite Extras celeb appearance has got to be Patrick Stewart. He is brilliant!
I love Kate Winslet’s cameo on Extras. What I love more is that she won an Oscar doing exactly what she said in the show! Classic.
neddie – American comedy has pulled English comedy’s pants down and is laughing at it’s shame. Sorry pal, you have no match for George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Mitch Hedberg Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld or Bill Hicks. Only the Python boys come close. And even if you do come up with something funny, we’ll steal it, dumb it down, slap a label on it, make it more popular, and give you the finger while you ***** and moan about us stealing it.
Tricia – he’s going to rummage around my basement while I polish his Oscar.
Steve Martin in The Muppet Movie was during his very peak of brilliance. That scene was flat out the funniest part of the movie. Lots of other great cameo in that film as well.
Stephen Fry in A Fish Called Wanda.
Stan Lee (the creator of many classic Marvel comic characters) has done cameos in nearly every comic movie from Fantastic Four to X-Men
Sorry to correct you on #9 – Dr. Gonzo was a pseudonym for Oscar Zeta Acosta, not Hunter S. Thompson. He was the side kick in Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. Refered to as a 400lb Samoan, he was actually a Hispanic activist, played by Benicio Del Toro in the film, Depp of course was Thompson.
you could do several from the arrested development series.
julia louis dreyfus as the bling lawyer maggie lizer (as in maggie lizer ass off)
andy richter as a set of wildly different quadruplets
carl weathers as himself (add a little water and you got yourself a stew)
the entire save the bluths episode
what a brilliant comedy!!
Got ahead of myself – the cameo in the clip #9 is the real pre-suicide Hunter S. Thompson. Acosta disapeared in 1974 under strange circumstances. It is suspected he was offed by some coke smugglers and dumped at sea. Thompson put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger in 2005. As requested in his will, the funeral was a private party, the climax of which was the blasting of his ashes from a fireworks mortar atop a 150ft tower financed by Johnny Depp. Thompson was truly stranger than his fiction.
WIZARD YOU SHALL NOT PASS!
@Amber
Neil Patrick Harris’ role in Harold and Kumar wasn’t a cameo.
And The Princess Bride should be no. 1.
Bob Saget in the movie Half Baked was pretty hilarious.
Hearing the once beloved American TV dad admitting he sucked dick for coke had me rolling.
bruce willis in “four rooms”-not even credited
stephen king in many of his films-green mold guy in the original “creepshow”, truckdriver in “creepshow 2″, presiding priest in “pet sematary”
I thought the following cameo’s where great:
Matt Damon in Eurotrip
The A’nold in the rundown
damien_karras – have you seen his comedy special? Apparently people who recognize him say that to him all the time. He was walking down the street with his daughter one day and a van full of rowdy guys drove by and yelled that at him.
Scary Movie IV: Dr.Phil & Shaq.
buc: If you can find a vid of that it would make my weekend!
I looked on YouTube and I can’t find the clip.
Sorry, but Lo is correct. Billy Crystal and Carol Kane’s performances in The Princess Bride are not cameos.
However, Marshall McLuhan’s appearance in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, certainly is and I’m a bit surprised it wasn’t included.
Another funny example, though it predates all of these, is Marshall McLuhan’s cameo in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. You can find it on YouTube.
the extras one cracked me up – we love extras in this house – incredibly funny!
Pheral: is that the scene where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton are standing on line at the movies while the guy behind them is giving the film critique?
damien_karras – your weekend is made – Saget’s “That Ain’t Right”
That’s part one, I noticed there are other parts. I have no idea where that bit is in his routine. I suggest you watch the whole thing and report back to me personally with your *****ysis. Particularly the bit about ‘Nick Bag.’
peace.
14. scrumpy beat me to my favorite cameos. Everyone got to know that old Hitchie was going to appear sooner or later and would be watching the backgrounds and extras, not the main action, waiting to spot him. When he became aware of this, he started to make his appearance in the first few seconds of the movie, so the audience could pay attention to the movie.
Rob Reiner’s mother in When Harry Met Sally
I think the best cameo ever is Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein.
Thank you so much for the Extras Bowie skit! I always crack up watching it. Bowie is god. If you want to watch another funny Bowie parody find the Bowie Flight of the Concords episode from their first season.
Batman wall-climbing cameos:
http://tinyurl.com/deroby
(pssst. . . they weren’t actually climbing)
I see the argument is going to be – “what is the definition of cameo”.
I decided to go down the list and separate what was a brief appearance and what was a cast character – then it became time of appearance, scripted dialog – character part? – why a cameo? – relation of the cameo to the director, request of the performers for cameos, paid, not paid, credited, not credited??? Is it a cameo driven picture like the “Screams“, which means none are true cameos.
forget it
But I would remind the list title is “Funniest Cameos” – not just a cameo.
All time funniest cameo is Barbara Billingsley (AKA June Cleaver) Talking “jive” in the movie Airplane. “Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit”
Steve Martin was pretty good in The Muppett Movie
# 50 TEX – Good comment
Nice idea for a list that guy, looking forward to more of them.
Here is nicely put together clip of Hitchcock’s cameos in his own movies.
50. TEX: you are absolutely right…*funniest* cameo…I don’t remember if it was Rope or Strangers on a Train, but it was that period…Hitchcock, in his trademark bowler hat, with his portentous belly proceeding him, carrying an upright bass, entering a bus.
It was as if everything about him was round, and he was attempting to get into a rectangular bus. It was a wonderful sight joke.
ok, my comment is, for reasons I can’t imagine, awaiting moderation! egads!
toecutter – Just hang loose blood, she gon catch you on the rebound on the med side.
What it is big momma, my momma din raise no dummies, I dug her rap.
Cut me some slack Jack! Chump don won no hep, don get no hep. Jive ass doods anyhow.
Wow I found an even better clip Hitchcock’s cameos that goes way back to his early movies.
brilliantr list…i remember maverick when danny glover robbed the bank that mel gibson was in, they gave each other a quick glance , then glover left with gibsons cash, exclaiming “im too old for this *****”, one of his lethal weapon lines
its Hitchc*ck, got it? if ever in doubt about a word or part of a word putting comment into automatic moderation…use * in the part that might do it & np.
I’m disapointed in #5. Not that it shouldn’t be on the list but that anyone has actually seen the movie Cabin Boy.