The 49 funniest movie insults of all time, from Avengers to Scarface

Jacob Stolworthy picks out the most savage lines from all of cinema. Don’t repeat these to your friends (unless you want to lose them)

Tuesday 14 March 2023 04:59 EDT

Con Air, Anchorman and Erin Brockovich (Touchstone Pictures / DreamWorks Pictures / Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International)

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Movie insults have been a part of cinema since the very beginning.

Despite the changing face of film over the decades, scriptwriters will always relish the opportunity to let their characters speak awful words they could never get away with in real life.

The truth is, everybody loves a movie insult. A well-timed put-down can make any film more memorable, regardless of genre.

Knowing where to find the best examples of insults can be an overwhelming task. There are the obvious – the ones whose quotability ensured a film’s legendary status – but dig deep, and there are an entire heap of gems to discover.

Featured in this list are films as early as 1933, ranging right through to 2019 (full disclosure: the insults from some of these films are better than the actual films themselves).

So, from the Avengers films and Star Wars to Erin Brockovich and Oscar-winning Yorgos Lanthimos film The Favourite, these are the 49 best movie insults of all time.

Click through the gallery below to see which insults made the list.