10 Greatest Action Comedy Shows of All Time

Image via Curtis Bonds Baker / ©Netflix Published Jul 31, 2026, 11:02 PM EDT Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV. Sign in to your Collider account When you put action and comedy together, it's entertainment magic for a TV show. You get a nice mix of intensity with high-flying fight and car chase scenes combined with funny moments to lighten the mood. It's a delicate balance that not every show gets right. The best action comedy shows of all time, including one series that dates back to the '80s and plenty of others from the 21st century, toe the line between the two genres wonderfully. They keep you engaged without feeling exhausted after watching only fight scenes with no reprieve. A healthy dose of laughter goes a long way to break up the intensity. 10 'The Tick' (2016–2019) Image via Prime Video The second live-action series based on the comic-book character, alongside the 2001 series, The Tick is one of the Prime Video shows fans felt were canceled too soon. The superhero comedy follows the invulnerable superhero, played by Peter Serafinowicz, as he fights crime in his city alongside his nervous sidekick Arthur (Griffin Newman). The buddy dynamic between these two men and the challenges they face trying to take down the supervillain The Terror (Jackie Early Haley) keeps things exciting. The Tick received rave reviews, praised for both the high-octane action and the tongue-in-cheek humor. It's a great balance for a show that didn't get enough viewers to keep going, even inspiring a fan campaign to bring it back after cancellation. Image via Peacock When you have a show where one of the main villains is a maniacal clown named Sweet Tooth voiced by Will Arnett (played by Joe Seanoa) and another (in Season 1) is Thomas Haden Church playing a former mall cop turned power-tripping agent, how could it not be funny? Twisted Metal leans heavily into humor through its story set in a post-apocalyptic world. John Doe (Anthony Mackie) is a delivery driver using his trusty car to travel through dangerous terrain and transport items back and forth among communities. When he meets Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz) and community leader Raven (Neve Campbell) gives him a highly dangerous assignment with the promise of entry into her community if he succeeds, the challenge is too tempting to pass up. Twisted Metal, one of the most underrated comedy shows of the 2020s so far, takes you on a wild ride, literally, though high-speed car chases and epic fight scenes among an eclectic mix of eccentric characters. With the addition of Anthony Carrigan as the villain Calypso in Season 2, it ups the ante to more dangerous, terrifying, and comical levels. The series, based on the Sony Interactive Entertainment vehicular combat video game franchise, wonderfully blends action with comedy. 8 'Ash vs Evil Dead' (2015–2018) Image via Starz Decades after the Evil Dead franchise movies, Bruce Campbell returns to reprise his role as Ash Williams in Ash vs Evil Dead. The story takes place 30 years after the events of 1992's Army of Darkness, Bruce is now working as a stock boy in a convenience store. His life has taken a turn as he's broke and alone. But he has the chance to be a hero again when the Evil Dead rises, and it's up to him to save humanity…again. Ash vs Evil Dead is a horror comedy, but there's plenty of action to mix things up amidst the funny and scary moments. The series lasted for three seasons, and it was filled with nostalgia for fans of the franchise, earning an almost perfect Rotten Tomatoes critics score. Campbell is a horror icon, and having him return as an older, messier version of himself alongside quirky new friends reminds you of why the films were so good in the first place. Another level of fun is added to the series with the use of old-school practical effects instead of computer graphics. 7 'MacGyver' (1985–1992) Image via ABC MacGyver is one of those action adventure series that is unintentionally funny in many ways. The title character, played by Richard Dean Anderson, is a secret agent who can fashion just about anything into a weapon or a tool to solve a problem. This is thanks to his vast scientific knowledge. But what he does at times is so far-fetched, it's no wonder the concept became fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch called "MacGruber," which ended up turning into movies and a parody show as well. Falling more into campy than traditional comedy territory, MacGyver made you laugh because it took itself seriously when some of the things MacGyver did were far from believable. You had no choice but to suspend belief and just go with it. A man using a Swiss Army knife, duct tape, and absurd science can't possibly be taken seriously. But was it entertaining? Absolutely. Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would BeYour Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. 🎖️Rambo 🍸James Bond 🏺Indiana Jones 🔧John McClane 🎭Ethan Hunt FIND YOUR PARTNER → 01 You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you. ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged. NEXT QUESTION → 02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission. AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of. ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead. NEXT QUESTION → 04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are. AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability. APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership. AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters. ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had. ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up. NEXT QUESTION → 09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together. AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked. NEXT QUESTION → 10 It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one. AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been. REVEAL MY PARTNER → Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse. RamboYour partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know. James BondYour partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing. Indiana JonesYour partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them. John McClaneYour partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay. Ethan HuntYour partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 6 'Peacemaker' (2022–2025) John Cena went from pro wrestling to acting, and his track record in the latter has been pretty good so far. But arguably no project is as big as Peacemaker, where he plays the title character from the DC Extended Universe, a vigilante who ironically believes that the only way to achieve peace is through violence. He's obnoxious and aggressive, showrunner James Gunn referring to him bluntly as a "piece of s**t" and the "world's biggest douchebag." Cena knows how to play the heel, so to speak, and he does it so well in this superhero series, bringing a comedic flare to even the most violent scenes. Ending after two seasons, Peacemaker is a superhero show even non-superhero fans can get behind. 5 'Barry' (2018–2023) Image via HBO Bill Hader proved his comedic chops in Saturday Night Live, and he carried that talent over to Barry, a tragicomedy crime series that combines heavy subject matter with intentional humor. He's the title character, a depressed former marine and veteran who works as a hitman but yearns for more from life. He stumbles upon an acting class and finds a hidden passion. Despite finally finding a sense of purpose, however, Barry's other job is catching up to him. And keeping his past a secret from his new friends isn't going to be easy. The very premise of Barry, one of the funniest HBO shows of all time, is hilarious. A hitman travels to Los Angeles to take out a target and ends up in a class of misfits hoping to fulfill their dreams of becoming an actor? It sounds so ludicrous, yet it works. There's a softness and vulnerability to the character that's juxtaposed by the violent things he does. As Barry interacts with others outside his usual realm, the messiness of life combined with the innocence of others he meets clash in the best possible way. 4 'Chuck' (2007–2012) Image via NBC The show that made Zachary Levi a star. He plays Chuck Bartowski in Chuck, a computer service expert at a consumer electronics chain store who took this low-level job after being expelled from Stanford on false charges. He's stagnant in his life until his former roommate Bryce (Matthew Bomer), who now works as a CIA agent, steals the CIA and NSA database and the only remaining copy accidentally gets downloaded to Chuck's brain via subliminal encoding. Suddenly, Chuck becomes a crucial asset, and the beautiful CIA officer Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) is sent to investigate and use him to thwart attacks. Chuck possesses the formula for a great action comedy with an unwitting protagonist thrust into the world of espionage and danger that's unlike anything else he's ever seen. This chain store IT guy is now fighting terrorists while being plagued with flashes of information that he can't control. You get it all with Chuck, which aired for five seasons and earned glowing reviews throughout its entire run. It's a modern-day spy comedy that's perfectly tailored to geek culture. 3 'Cobra Kai' (2018–2025) Image via Netflix Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) is the comedic gem of Cobra Kai, a 30-year sequel to The Karate Kid that reunites him with his former teenage karate rival Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) as they train a new generation of kids in rival dojos. You can't help but laugh heartily throughout the show, though it also has some dark and emotional moments too, especially in the final season. Of course, as a martial arts comedy drama and one of the greatest action shows on Netflix, there are tons of fantastically choreographed fight scenes, from one on one battles on the mat to huge house parties that break into fights. The story is heartwarming, too, not to mention filled with nostalgia. While Cobra Kai is a little campy, it's beautifully written from start to finish. 2 'Fallout' (2024–Present) Image via Prime Video I watched the first two seasons of Fallout to date without any prior knowledge of the video game franchise on which it's based. I was surprised by how charming, witty, and funny it is, especially in Season 1. The post-apocalyptic drama follows Lucy (Ella Purnell), a naïve young woman who leaves her underground bunker for the first time to venture out into the desolate wasteland above in search of her kidnapped father. She meets all sorts of dangerous people along the way, including the terrifying bounty hunter The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), who she eventually teams up with to achieve their mutual goals. There's lots of violence in Fallout as the characters fight enemies, from humans in mechanical Power Armor to mutated cockroaches known as Radroaches. Lucy's infectious optimism juxtaposed by The Ghoul's hardened, no-care attitude make for plenty of laughs. But there's comic relief at every turn thanks to other characters, too, like Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton), a squire who is turning into a ghoul and dealing with it as best he can, and Annabel O'Hagan's over-the-top performance as the villainous Stephanie. 1 'The Boys' (2019–2026) Image via Prime Video Arguably, no show captures the blend of action and comedy as well as The Boys, though it comes with a healthy dose of vulgarity, profanity, and gore as well. The satirical superhero show depicts a modern-day world where Supes with special powers are run by megacorporation Vought International. The company is out for its own interests and expanding its power, however, and not interested in having the superheroes be actual heroes. But not everyone realizes that. The Boys is as much political satire as it is a parody of superhero stories, so there's a lot of thought-provoking commentary behind its stories and themes. The action is heightened since it involves people being able to fly, run faster than the speed of light, shoot lasers from their eyes, even rip out someone's guts with tentacles from their stomachs. It's easy to see how this ties into a level of humor as well. The 10/10 Prime Video show isn't for everyone. But if you don't have a weak stomach and can appreciate the political commentary (it's not subtle), the five seasons will be worth your while. The Boys Release Date 2019 - 2026-00-00 Showrunner Eric Kripke Directors Erin Moriarty, Karen Fukuhara, Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Eric Kripke Writers Eric Kripke Franchise(s) The Boys Main Genre Action Seasons 5 Producers Eric Kripke, Neal H. Moritz, Jason Netter, Gabriel Garcia, Anslem Richardson, Karl Urban, Hartley Gorenstein, Antony Starr Creator(s) Eric Kripke Story By Garth Ennis Streaming Service(s) Amazon Prime Video Executive Producer(s) Eric Kripke, Neal H. Moritz, Seth Rogen, Pavun Shetty, James Weaver, Ori Marmur, Evan Goldberg, Philip Sgriccia, Nick Barrucci, Ken F. Levin, Jason Netter, Gabriel García Márquez, Garth Ennis, Michaela Starr, Darick Robertson, Craig Rosenberg, Paul Grellong, David Reed, Rebecca Sonnenshine, Jessica Chou, Hartley Gorenstein, Dan Trachtenberg, Meredith Glynn, Judalina Neira, Gabriel Garcia