10 Movie Characters Who Make Us Laugh at Unemployment

For one reason or another, most people have been between jobs at some point and experienced the frustration, uncertainty, and various problems that come with unemployment. That’s why movies that deal with being out of work in a lighthearted way can be so appealing. Humorous depictions of what is normally such a stressful time may be therapeutic to watch during periods of unemployment and relatable to those who remember all too well the struggle of trying to land a new job.

The best comedy in these films often comes from the attitude of the unemployed character or characters and how they react to a situation, such as Jack Lemmon’s neurotic character Mel Edison from The Prisoner of Second Avenue or the immature Randy Dupree from You, Me and Dupree. These 10 movie characters make us laugh at unemployment.

Related: 10 Extraordinary Pairings That Made Unforgettable Films

10 Get a Job

While many movies feature main characters who are out of work, the 2016 comedy Get a Job, starring Miles Teller, centers on unemployment. The young aspiring videographer Will (Teller) and his friends struggle to find lasting jobs, experiencing humorous ups and downs along the way. There are also some interesting twists, such as Will’s ambitious girlfriend Jillian (Anna Kendrick) losing her job and his father (Bryan Cranston) getting fired from a company he’s been with for 30 years.

The efforts of these characters to secure employment sometimes prove to be disastrous, such as the time Will gets a job as the night manager of a sleazy motel that is raided by police after he lets a pimp use it for his prostitution ring. At one point, Will tries to help his father by filming a video résumé but ends up posting a drunken rant, which causes trouble with IBM, where his father had hoped to get a job. As the movie progresses, it looks like self-employment may turn out to be the best route for Will.^[1]

9 The Full Monty

The 1997 comedy film The Full Monty, which spawned the hit Broadway musical, follows six unemployed men who decide to earn money by forming a male striptease act. Gaz (Robert Carlyle) is one of the many workers at loose ends after the once-thriving steel industry of Sheffield, England, has virtually shut down. Owing child support and in danger of losing custody of his son, Gaz is desperate for money. So he organizes a group of men, including some of his fellow laid-off steelworkers, to form an irregular troupe of exotic dancers.

Much of the comedy comes from the fact that most of the characters don’t fit the mold of traditional male strippers, either in looks or ability. Their gimmick is that they are willing to show “the full Monty,” which means complete nudity.^[2]

8 About a Boy

In the 2002 comedy-drama About a Boy, Hugh Grant starts out as the type of charmingly roguish character that he has repeatedly played to perfection. Still, by the end of the film, he undergoes a meaningful transformation thanks to a child who helps this self-centered man finally grow up. Will is a shallow, deceitful, irresponsible guy who is unemployed by choice, content to live off the royalties of an extremely popular Christmas song written by his late father.

Some of the humor comes from Will’s efforts to fill his day, going to a salon to have his scalp massaged, watching a favorite daytime game show, and having a series of superficial flings. His failed attempts to add purpose to his life through volunteer work provide some amusing moments, such as a stint making calls for Amnesty International, which he uses as an opportunity to flirt with women over the phone.

He also lies about being a single father to pick up women, but when a lonely, awkward 14-year-old boy, Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), discovers the scam, he blackmails Will into hanging out with him. Despite his initial resistance to being a father figure, Will does become Marcus’s mentor, leading to significant changes in his life, including a serious romantic relationship with a single mother.^[3]

7 Mr. Mom

Sometimes comedies about people who are out of work focus as much on opportunities for a character to grow as a person and to re-evaluate their life while they are between jobs as the negative side of unemployment. It’s not easy for Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) to adjust when he is laid off from his automotive engineering job and struggles to find work in the 1983 feel-good comedy Mr. Mom. Forced to become a stay-at-home dad when his wife Caroline (Teri Garr) goes back to work, Jack is stressed out and humorously bumbling in his new role, keeping house and being the primary caretaker of the three small children.

Though he learns to cope with the help of neighborhood moms who befriend him, Jack succumbs to self-pity and lets his appearance go, along with some of his household duties. When Jack finally realizes he needs to shape up, he turns out to be surprisingly good, if somewhat unconventional, at his job as a homemaker. Things go so well that he’s not sure he wants to return to his old company when he is given the chance, while Caroline is quickly climbing the corporate ladder.^[4]

6 The Big Lebowski

In the offbeat 1998 buddy comedy The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges stars as the extremely lazy Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, who humorously embodies the stereotypical image of a stoner—an eccentric, mellow, unemployed slacker. His great passion in life is bowling, but “The Dude” is pulled into a wild and frightening adventure when he is mistaken for a man with the same name, played by David Huddleston, “The Big Lebowski,” whose wife is in debt to criminals. Instead of “The Dude’s” employment status being a major part of the plot, it goes along with his unconventional lifestyle, which provides a lot of zany humor.

This Coen Brothers movie, which Roger Ebert called “weirdly engaging,” has become a true cult classic. It also features an impressive ensemble cast, including John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and John Turturro.^[5]

5 Muriel’s Wedding

While the 1994 Australian comedy farce Muriel’s Wedding may not be a movie about unemployment per se, some very funny situations come out of the title character’s lack of gainful employment at the beginning of the film. Muriel (Toni Collette) is a socially awkward 22-year-old unemployed woman living with her parents and siblings who uses ABBA music to escape the reality of her dysfunctional family. Muriel’s grand ambition is to get married, and she appears to have little work experience. All we know is that she was fired from an office job because she couldn’t type, despite an expensive secretarial course. Her father humiliates her and his other unemployed children by publicly complaining about them being losers.

Muriel’s best prospect for a job is an interview to be an apprentice locksmith, but suddenly, her father’s mistress offers her the chance to work as a commission-based makeup salesperson. Muriel only pretends to have sold enough to take a vacation to an exotic island getaway but actually funds the trip with money she’d extorted from her parents’ bank account. Rather than facing her family again, she runs off to Sydney with a friend and begins a wild new life, though she still has plenty of soul-searching to do.^[6]

4 Fun with Dick and Jane

A frequent development in movies about out-of-work characters is when desperation to make ends meet leads the protagonist to extreme measures. One of the best examples of this is the 1977 crime comedy Fun with Dick and Jane, starring Jane Fonda and George Segal as the Harpers, an upper-class suburban couple, heavily in debt, who resort to armed robbery when Dick suddenly gets fired from his job as an aerospace engineer and neither of them can secure lasting employment. One of the most humorous things about this farce is what an unlikely pair of criminals the Harpers make.

Even though the two are developing a career out of breaking the law, Dick and Jane are sympathetic anti-heroes because of the circumstances that have driven them to a life of crime and because their guilt leads them to be selective in choosing their victims. The couple is actually cheered by a line of dissatisfied customers when they rob the telephone company. The hit film spawned a remake in 2005, starring Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni.^[7]

3 You, Me and Dupree

Owen Wilson was at his best playing flaky but lovable screwup Randy Dupree in the 2006 romantic slapstick comedy You, Me and Dupree. Newlyweds Molly and Carl are deeply in love, but they are struggling to adjust to married life. This isn’t always easy with interference from Molly’s father (Michael Douglas), who happens to be Carl’s boss. They soon have a bigger intrusion when Carl’s best friend “Dupree” suddenly loses his job as a copier salesman. Rather than letting him sleep on a cot at a neighborhood bar, Carl talks Molly into taking him in until he can get back on his feet.

Dupree drives Molly up the wall with his quirky, inconsiderate behavior. Walking chaos, he repeatedly wrecks parts of their home, even setting the house on fire during a wild, candlelit tryst, prompting the couple to temporarily kick him out. When Dupree finally wins over Molly, Carl feels threatened by their friendship. With inspiration from Lance Armstrong, Dupree turns his life around and ironically starts a career as a self-help author and motivational speaker.^[8]

2 What Happens in Vegas

The 2008 romantic comedy What Happens in Vegasfollows an overachiever, Joy (Cameron Diaz), recently dumped by her fiancé, and the fun-loving, immature Jack (Ashton Kutcher), who is fired from his furniture company job by his own father (Treat Williams) after messing up one too many times.

Jack and Joy first meet when the two New Yorkers both happen to be in Las Vegas, having gone there to temporarily escape from their troubles. Jack hasn’t been taking either his career or personal life seriously. Instead of dealing with the disappointment he feels after being cut loose from the family business and focusing on getting another job right away, he tries to lose himself in the party atmosphere of Vegas. He marries Joy during a crazy alcohol binge, with both regretting the hasty wedding. His irresponsible ways actually pay off when he wins $3 million in a slot machine, but Joy argues that she is entitled to half the money since he used her quarter and she is his wife.

When they try to end their union, a judge decides that they must stay together for at least six months and attend counseling. Knowing that if either of them breaks the court order, the other person will get all the money, they each try to trick one another into forfeiting their share.^[9]

1 The Prisoner of Second Avenue

The 1975 big-screen adaptation of Neil Simon’s play The Prisoner of Second Avenuestars Jack Lemmon as a middle-aged advertising executive who suddenly finds himself out of work and, despite diligent efforts, is unable to get another job. The neurotic Mel has so much trouble dealing with unemployment his mental health takes a downward spiral, leading to a nervous breakdown. When his longtime homemaker wife Edna (Anne Bancroft) goes back to work, it causes Mel to feel more emasculated.

Other problems like a robbery of their New York apartment in broad daylight, a heat wave, and feuds with neighbors add to their problems. While this sounds like a tragic story, it is filled with hilarious moments, partly due to Simon’s brilliance in writing dark comedy and the casting of Lemmon and Bancroft, who are ideal as these witty, outspoken characters. Efforts to improve their situation continue to fall flat, such as Edna’s appeal to Mel’s siblings to loan them money to start a summer camp. However, we get the sense that their genuine love and devotion will see the couple through. By the time Edna gets fired, the two begin to take their troubles in stride and join the audience in laughing at their plight.^[10]