History Main / RomanticComedy

*** ''Film/ShesTheMan'' (''TwelfthNight'')

Most of these feature two, roughly equal protagonists, with one of them slightly more roughly equal than the other. That's not written in stone, of course; ''LoveActually'' featured numerous characters and plot lines.

*** A similar situation is found in the '50s musical comedy ''KissMeKate,'' where the divorced protagonists falling back in love are, respectively, the director and leading lady in a modern adaptation of an earlier example of the RomanticComedy genre, Shakespeare's ''TheTamingOfTheShrew.''

** ''{{Film/Leatherheads}}'' was also a throwback. Except it didn't work too well.

** Indeed, {{Shakespeare}}'s own life got fictionalized for ''{{Shakespeare in Love}}''. Also, there's been a bunch of {{Recycled IN SPACE}} variations on his romantic comedies in recent years:
*** ''TenThingsIHateAboutYou'' (''{{The Taming of the Shrew}}'')

* ''NottingHill''

* ''FiftyFirstDates''

* ''Series/TheKing2Hearts''

* * ''TheUglyTruth'': Stars [[ThreeHundred Gerard Butler]] as a foul-mouthed, sexist TV personality and Katherine Heigl as his producer.
* * ''TheWeddingSinger'': One of Adam Sandler's more tolerable movies

* ''TheUglyTruth'': Stars [[ThreeHundred Gerard Butler]] as a foul-mouthed, sexist TV personality and Katherine Heigl as his producer.
* ''TheWeddingSinger'': One of Adam Sandler's more tolerable movies

''[[Film/FiveHundredDaysOfSummer (500) Days of Summer]]'' is a {{deconstruction}} of the genre.

* ''Film/AlongCamePolly''
* ''DownWithLove'' is a parody.

* ''Film/WhenHarryMetSally'' was far from the first RomanticComedy; it was filmed in 1989. But it has wit and humor and a nice soul, and as such is generally regarded as the model for the genre. Plus, it features Meg Ryan before she paid a surgeon to take The Hammer of Hephaestus to her face, so that's nice. Billy Crystal was good in this, too.
* ''SleeplessInSeattle'' - Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. A kid calls a radio talk show looking for someone to date his widowed dad and a woman on the other side of the country tunes in. She gradually becomes GenreSavvy and finally meets him at the end of the film.
* ''YouveGotMail'' - Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan again. This time she runs a small bookshop, he's one of the owner/execs of a big bookstore chain threatening Meg's store, and while they're hostile in real life, they're close friends online. A remake of a the Jimmy Stewart movie, ''TheShopAroundTheCorner'' (1940).
* ''InTheGoodOldSummertime'' - ''The Shop Around the Corner'' re-imagined as a musical.
* ''[[Film/{{IQ}} I.Q.]]'' - Meg Ryan again, as Albert Einstein's (probably historically inaccurate) niece, with Tim Robbins as an auto mechanic who winds up with Uncle Albert (hilariously played by Walter Matthau) and his buddies trying to help him get her away from her stuffy psychologist fiance (played by Stephen Fry).
* ''Film/MorningGlory'' - It's mostly a comedy about Rachel [=McAdams=] working as the producer of a morning show, but it still gets categorized as a chick flick. Like [[Film/{{IQ}} I.Q.]], it's story is bigger than just the romance.
* ''HowToLoseAGuyIn10Days'': With Kate Hudson and Matthew [=McConaughey=], [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex how could it go wrong]]?
* Film/ICouldNeverBeYourWoman

* ''LoveActually'': Multiple love stories going on around Christmastime in London. Stars Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy, and some other people.
** Slightly unique in that a few of the couples ''didn't'' get together.
* ''Film/ThinkLikeAMan'': The surprisingly well acted story in which Steve Harvey releases a book telling women how men think, women read, and men react.
* ''TheWeddingSinger'': One of Adam Sandler's more tolerable movies.
* ''ReturnToMe'': David Duchovny plays Bob, an architect whose wife dies in a car crash. Minnie Driver plays Grace, who has a heart transplant early on. About a year later, Grace is waiting tables at her grandfather's restaurant when Bob shows up on an abysmal blind date. Bob and Grace click and all seems to be going well, until Grace finds out just who her heart donor was... Carroll O'Connor (yes, a.k.a. [[AllInTheFamily Archie Bunker]]) gives a solid supporting performance in his final role, playing Grace's kindly grandfather, who proves quite helpful to both parties.
* ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'': Old school RomanticComedy.
** As is ''AMidsummerNightsDream'' and several other Shakespeare plays.
** Indeed, {{Shakespeare}}'s own life got fictionalized for ''{{Shakespeare in Love}}''. Also, there's been a bunch of {{Recycled IN SPACE}} variations on his romantic comedies in recent years:
*** ''TenThingsIHateAboutYou'' (''{{The Taming of the Shrew}}'')
*** ''Film/ShesTheMan'' (''TwelfthNight'')
*** Kenneth Branagh's version of ''Theatre/LovesLaboursLost'', which cross-breeds the original text with the songs and style of 1930s movie musicals.
* Jane Austen's ''PrideAndPrejudice'', where Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy start out acting contemptuously toward one another. Given the conventions of Romantic comedy, isn't the ultimate outcome of their relationship inevitable?

* The "Literature/{{Cinderella}}"-derived ''MaidInManhattan'' with Jennifer Lopez-- she's poor, he's rich, obviously.
* ''{{Amelie}}'' has many elements of the romantic comedy; probably it's not considered so by most people because it's a) foreign and b) so original in terms of not only its story but also its art direction and acting that it's hard to associate it with the romcom's reputation of formula.

* ''TheUglyTruth'': Stars [[ThreeHundred Gerard Butler]] as a foul-mouthed, sexist TV personality and Katherine Heigl as his producer.
--> This is madness!
--> Madness? THIS! IS! LOVE!
* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' is a "romantic comedy with zombies". (A "Rom-Zom-Com", if you will.)
* ''[[NyarkoSan Haiyore! Nyarko-san]]'' is "love(craft) comedy that '[[BoyMeetsGhoul boy meets a devil]]'". Yeah, a parody of CthulhuMythos.
* ''Two Weeks Notice'' (the quintessential Hugh Grant romantic comedy, stars Sandra Bullock, another Rom Com staple)
* ''NottingHill''
* ''Film/ThirteenGoingOnThirty''
* ''JustLikeHeaven'' (this and the above movie both starred Mark Ruffalo)
* ''WhileYouWereSleeping''
* ''ForgettingSarahMarshall'' At least one review for this movie referred to it as "A romantic comedy for guys"
* ''{{Serendipity}}''. It was in fact marketed with this tag line: "Destiny with a sense of humor."
* ''TheProposal'' (2009)

* ''BrideWars''
* ''Film/JustGoWithIt'' Seems a little more focused on the comedy portion than the romance though
* ''SavingFace''
* ''GrayMatters''
* ''EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' and ''[[Film/FiveHundredDaysOfSummer (500) Days of Summer]]'' are {{deconstruction}}s of the genre.
* Every bleeding KevinJames vehicle save ''GrownUps''.
* ''Film/WeddingWars''
* ''Film/OvernightDelivery''
* ''DirtyLove''
* ''Film/GoingTheDistance''
* ''GoodAdvice''
* ''Literature/ArashiNoYoruNi''. Only parts of the film are romantic comedy, like their first date.

* ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}''
* ''Film/ILoveYouPhillipMorris'' is a romantic {{dramedy}}.
* There are quite a few young adult books that follow this formula, Sarah Dessen's work being a good example. They usually are exactly like the countless movies in this genre, except that they take place in high school. Most of the common stereotypes of rom coms are translated into a high school setting, for example instead of them being not compatible the couple usually will be childhood friends, and usually the girl wants the most popular guy, but realizes she's in love with her best friend.
* ''Film/WhenInRome''
* ''Film/TiMER''
* ''Series/TheKing2Hearts''

* ''Film/CrazyStupidLove''

* ''EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' and ''[[FiveHundredDaysOfSummer (500) Days of Summer]]'' are {{deconstruction}}s of the genre.

* ''[[{{Nyarko-san}} Haiyore! Nyarko-san]]'' is "love(craft) comedy that '[[BoyMeetsGhoul boy meets a devil]]'". Yeah, a parody of CthulhuMythos.

* ''{{Anastasia}}'' might not be a Romantic Comedy exactly but it does have Meg Ryan voicing the lead who has a typically sparky Rom Com like relationship with the love interest Dimitri (John Cusack). Possibly the closest analogue in animation to this genre, though romantic subplots in contemporary Western animation often invoke its tropes (consider the ''{{Shrek}}'' films).

* ''WhenHarryMetSally'' was far from the first RomanticComedy; it was filmed in 1989. But it has wit and humor and a nice soul, and as such is generally regarded as the model for the genre. Plus, it features Meg Ryan before she paid a surgeon to take The Hammer of Hephaestus to her face, so that's nice. Billy Crystal was good in this, too.

* ''ShaunOfTheDead'' is a "romantic comedy with zombies". (A "Rom-Zom-Com", if you will.)

* ''ThinkLikeAMan'': The surprisingly well acted story in which Steve Harvey releases a book telling women how men think, women read, and men react.

* ''{{Amelie}}'' has many elements of the romantic comedy; probably it's not considered so by most people because it's a) [[TrueArtIsForeign foreign]] and b) so original in terms of not only its story but also its art direction and acting that it's hard to associate it with the romcom's reputation of formula.