{"id":520987,"date":"2026-04-09T07:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/520987\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T07:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:14:13","slug":"paramount-just-added-an-underrated-80s-comedy-classic-its-one-of-the-funniest-movie-ever-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/520987\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount+ Just Added an Underrated \u201880s Comedy Classic (& It\u2019s One of the Funniest Movie Ever Made)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paramount+<\/a> is delivering laughs this April, the streamer stocking a criminally underrated \u201880s comedy<\/a> classic in its content catalog. The decade was a golden era for the genre<\/a>, defined by teen-focused comedies like The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles, alongside high-concept comedies like Back to the Future and Ghostbusters. While many of those movies remain ingrained in pop culture, another \u201880s comedy remains a hidden gem from the era.<\/p>\n

That movie is Top Secret!, and it started streaming on Paramount+ on April 1st. Created by the team behind Airplane! and The Naked Gun\u2014Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker (ZAZ)\u2014 the movie parodies Elvis Presley musicals and Cold War spy thrillers. It stars Val Kilmer in his breakout performance as Nick Rivers, an American rock-and-roll singer who travels to East Germany for a cultural festival and becomes entangled in a zany, high-stakes resistance plot to rescue an imprisoned scientist.<\/p>\n

Top Secret! Is a Laugh-A-Minute Cult Classic<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll be struggling to catch your breath with the back-to-back laughs Top Secret! delivers. The movie is widely regarded as having one of the highest joke-to-hit ratios in comedy film history, setting a relentless pace that packs jokes into almost every frame. Very few, if any, fall flat even on repeat viewings, and it\u2019s the type of film that offers a little bit of comedy for everyone\u2019s taste. The movie features plenty of visual gags and puns, parody, wordplay like \u201cI know a little German,\u201d and surreal scenes like the backwards bookstore, essentially perfecting the laugh-a-minute formula and leading to plenty of scenes that are now considered comedic classics.<\/p>\n

Much of that relentless, high-density humor is anchored by the deadpan delivery of Kilmer, who fully committed to the absurdity of the role and film. The actor also did an amazing job with the Elvis-style musical numbers, like \u201cSkeet Surfing,\u201d and the high-effort physical gags, such as the underwater bar fight scene. The rest of the cast, including Peter Cushing, Omar Sharif, and Michael Gough, are just as committed in their ridiculous roles, which makes the humor land all the better and helped Top Secret! secure a \u201cCertified Fresh\u201d 77% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> and a lasting, albeit understated legacy, as an underrated comedy great.<\/p>\n

Other Comedy Movies Now on Paramount+<\/p>\n

Top Secret! is not the only new movie now streaming on Paramount+<\/a>. The streamer has been keeping busy with adding new titles to its content offerings all month long, including plenty of comedies. So far this month, Paramount+ has already added Airplane! and Airplane! II, Catch Me If You Can, Cheech & Chong\u2019s Still Smokin\u2019, I Love You, Man, The Truman Show, and both Wayne\u2019s World and Wayne\u2019s World 2. On April 20th, the streamer will become the exclusive streaming home for Cheech & Chong\u2019s Last Movie.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount+ is delivering laughs this April, the streamer stocking a criminally underrated \u201880s comedy classic in its content…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[181231,96,2839,3770,1092,3842,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-520987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-comedy-genre","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-paramount","12":"tag-regular-news","13":"tag-streaming","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}