Light-hearted, good-natured, and definitely thick-skinned, comedy is among the genres most impervious to bad reviews, with box office earnings not necessarily mirroring the critical consensus. This year's winner of the Golden Tomato Award for the best-reviewed comedy, however, arrives with an adjusted score of 76.82, a strong Tomatometer of 84%, and 7th-place ranking among 2005's wide releases. With a title that says it all, "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" proves that Steve Carell has the comedic chops to carry a movie and provide a good share of laughs. Raunch done right is rare, but James Berardinelli of ReelViews proclaimed, "If you're looking for a successor to 'There's Something About Mary' and 'American Pie,' look no further." Meanwhile, Tyler Hanley of the Palo Alto Weekly gave a "big salute to rookie director Judd Apatow and funnyman Steve Carell for reinvigorating the R-rated comedy."

While "Virgin" combines humor with sweetness, the runner-up in the comedy category serves up a darker, more wicked dish of laughs. "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," directed by the screenwriter of "Lethal Weapon," Shane Black, is both an homage to hard-boiled noir and a wink-wink, nudge-nudge satire, set on the streets of L.A. David Thomas of filmcritic.com said it "does for the action genre what 'Scream' did for the slasher flick." "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" has an adjusted score of 74.47 and rates an 83% on the Tomatometer.

You can perform comedy, you can dissect it, or you can do both at once. In third place is "The Aristocrats," with an adjusted score of 72.86 and a Tomatometer score of 80%. Various comedians take their turn riffing on an old joke, and the results are both obscene and enlightening. As Josh Bell of the Las Vegas Weekly pointed out about the movie, "It's funny and it makes you think; isn't that the definition of a good joke?"

For more results, check out the list below.

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