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With Judd Apatow’s highly-anticipated (and very promising) Funny People (due out on July 31) poking its obnoxious head over the horizon, I thought it only fair to set the general public’s expectations higher by listing the 53 funniest characters the screen has seen since 2000 in two parts. If Judd and Co. are as funny as they’re advertising themselves as (and it wouldn’t be hard to believe with Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jason Schwartzman, and Jonah Hill at the project’s forefront), the characters listed below should be acknowledged as nothing less than a fraternity that’s about to expand. (Note: Because some actors [Will Ferrell] had more comedic roles than others [Thomas Haden Church], only two characters per actor are eligible.) Here are nos. 27-1 of the 53 Funniest Characters of the Decade:

27. Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fogell, a.k.a. “McLovin’” (Superbad, 2007)

I loved Superbad. I thought it was both a terrific film with depth and one of the funniest movies of the 21st century. And I as well found McLovin’ to be a genius inclusion. But the cult obsession with his character began etching away at his legacy after his name (or his face, or his anything) was plastered on every T-shirt and spoken of in every social circle. Even still, he’s one of this generation’s most distinguishable profiles—and he truly is hilarious.

26. Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander (Zoolander, 2001)

Because Zoolander pushed the limits of pee-brain humor while simultaneously making biting satire, it is a movie that should be considered high comedy by more; but there are an array of scenes in the film, particularly ones including Derek, that could grate a laugh (or at least a devious grin) from the hardest of cynics (“What is this? A center for ants?!”)—and that’s not to be said of every comedy, not even every funny one.

25. Seth Rogen as Dale Denton (Pineapple Express, 2008)

Dale Denton is the “main protagonist” in David Gordon Green’s stoner actioner, but he’s not the funniest. He’s rather a brilliant supplementary character to the ones that make us laugh the most; Rogen contributes the cherry on top of his co-stars’ cake stacks with more focus on absurd movements and expression acting than dialogue. And the result is utterly ab-singeing.

24. Nick Frost as Polics Constable Danny Butterman (Hot Fuzz, 2007)

Danny is a simpleton whose intellectual capacity holds no competition to that of an average 9-year-old. But in all other ways, he is equal to a 9-year-old. He is much too eager (“Sometimes I feel like I’m missing out…on gunfights, car-chases, proper action and sh*t”), much too interested (“Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?”), much too naïve (when asked why a passerby has his hat pulled down over his face, Danny obliviously replies, “’cause he’s f***-ugly”; said passerby subsequently steals from the local supermarket), and oh! so funny.

23. Paul Rudd as Brian Fantana (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004)

Brian Fantana is Channel Four News’ playboy and right-hand man to lead-anchor Ron. He has a hall-of-fame mustache, names for his genitalia, and a hidden collection of cologne, which includes the mythical Sex Panther by Odeon, “…made with bits of real panther, so you know it’s good.” He’s a classic cheeseball of the silliest sort.

22. Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, 2003/Dead Man’s Chest, 2006/At World’s End, 2007)

Unquestionably the most eccentric pirate in the lifetime of moving pictures, Jack Sparrow is also the most entertaining, likely the most riotous, and assuredly one of the overall favorites of the general public. He also happens to be one of only four characters on this list to garner an Oscar nomination for the actor playing him (along with nos. 43, 17, and 4)—and that’s a heavy exploit for such a farcical oddity.

21. Paul Rudd as Chuck, a.k.a. “Kunu” (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 2008)

Chuck is more a rib-rattler than a rib-tickler; he fiends for goofy, and I got addicted quickly. A surfing instructor at Hawaii’s real-life Turtle Bay Resort, Chuck has been smoking away his mind, and the effects are becoming more and more obvious: he gives incomprehensible (and horribly confusing) lessons, as well as “Hawaiian names” to his customers (He’s Kunu; and he names the film’s main character, Peter, “Peopi”), and he’s a tad slow responding to stress calls and beach injuries (“Ou soun’ lie ya from London!”).

20. Vince Vaughn as Jeremy Grey (Wedding Crashers, 2005)

A charismatic womanizer, Jeremy has no problem believing he can do anything (“First team All-American in high school; I can put the ball wherever I want”) and have anyone. Yet despite his arrogant qualities, he’s got lasting ones (such as his loyalty to his best friend), persuasive ones (“The real enemy here is the institution of marriage”), crazy ones (“I had an imaginary friend when I was a kid, and his name was Shiloh!”), and softer ones (“That’s not how you cut a cake. You gotta treat cake like a lady”). All those individual qualities build an unforgettable zany, attention-commanding prowess that Vince Vaughn embodies perfectly.

19. Russell Brand as Aldous Snow (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 2008)

Russell Brand, UK’s controversial radio personality, made a distressingly large American debut with his flamboyant pop icon character Aldous Snow in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. A “lothario”, as he’s heralded in the film, Snow’s most resoundingly facetious moments have something to do with sex—and Brand whips them up to scintillating peaks with his comedic talent. If it’s not too shocking or awkward, it’s hilarious.

18. Vince Vaughn as Bernard Campbell (Old School, 2003)

Much like his other famous characters (Trent Walker, Swingers; Jeremy Grey, Wedding Crashers, #20), Bernard is a strong-minded, confident, sardonic man who wants a lot and gets most of it. In Old School, Bernard wants to help his buddy Mitch get over a recent break-up…by starting a fraternity in Mitch’s house. And, as I alluded, he gets what he wants. Bernard is also a successful entrepreneur: he built a chain of electronic stores called Speaker City, and he is credited with the coinage of “earmuffs” as a filter for profanity.

17. Chris Cooper as John Laroche (Adaptation, 2002)

Chris Cooper’s mixture of summit comedic timing and luminous acting for his performance as peculiar (and ultimately tragic) flower expert John Laroche in Adaptation earned him an Academy Award statuette and recognition as one of the funniest characters of this decade. Like the film, there’s as much about John that will touch—and crush—you emotionally as there is to laugh about, but there’s a lot to laugh about. (Yeah, Adaptation is pretty affecting cinema.)

16. Pierce Brosnan as Julian Noble (The Matador, 2005)

Whiny hitmen with deep-rested insecurities aren’t exactly unique in cinema nowadays (Panic, You Kill Me, In Bruges, etc.), but seldom have I seen one that cemented my total consideration as both a pitiful person and a devilishly amusing one so easily. Julian Noble is absolutely an essential on this list, yet, with the opportunity, I’d also like to state that he’s a manifestation of Pierce Brosnan’s finest work as a professional. Julian Noble isn’t solely for jokes; he’s for transporting viewers into the realm of motion pictures.

15. Ben Stiller as White Goodman (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, 2004)

How many quotable one-liners could one steal from Dodgeball? Well, how many lines does White Goodman have? I suppose that I could answer that question myself with a little field research, but the correct response isn’t even relevant. The point is that nearly every word that comes out of White’s handlebar mustached-bordered mouth is in cahoots with the ones that came before it or are to follow to create poignantly silly phrases that riddled every bit of social space—from junior highs to corporate offices—in 2004 and the years that came shortly after. “I know you, you know you, and I know you know that I know you.” Just one of an endless number, dear friends.

14. Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum (The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001)

The unfortunate centerpiece of the Tenenbaum family, Royal’s a once-successful lawyer by trade, but a shamelessly negligent and tactless father by trademark. Hackman’s Royal varies from similar characters (such as Gary Cole’s Reese Bobby, #41) because of the particular care and specific intent with which he’s portrayed: Reese Bobby is a symbol of pity and failure, but one of preplanned drollness; Royal is a symbol of living tragedy and heartbreak for those around him and a fallen magnate whose exhibition is firstly saddening for drama’s sake. And through the realism of the drama he and, consequentially, his family go through, his overwhelming personality becomes hysterical.

13. Sacha Baron Cohen as Jean Girard (Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, 2006)

As is the nature of his characters, Cohen’s Jean Girard is a walking manifesto of stereotypes and hasty generalizations, inflated to ridiculous proportion for the ease of social and cultural recognition. Whether American societies and its vast culture let themselves aware of his objectives doesn’t make his French import Nascar driver (who, at one point, sips a Macchiato mid-race) any less clever or bombastic. (And once audiences start appreciating his characters for their true functions, they may end up being deemed quintessential to the world in general, not only of its movies.)

12. Tom Cruise as Les Grossman (Tropic Thunder, 2008)

Covered in last month’s feature, 15 Worst TV/Movie Bosses of the Decade, Les Grossman is a vile, filthy-mouthed movie executive with nothing but evil beneath his baldhead. He’s also one of the most hilarious in-your-face screamers since Kevin Spacey’s Buddy Ackerman in 1994’s Swimming with Sharks.

11. Danny McBride as Red (Pineapple Express, 2008)

As a bone- (or pot-) headed weed peddler named Red, Danny McBride gets an opportunity to show off his goobertastic quirks to mainstream audiences for the first time in his career. And I’d say he was mighty successful. Characters who deal drugs yet shave their armpits (“It makes me more aerodynamic when I fight”), bake cakes for their dead cat’s birthdays, and reminisce about making fish tacos for their clients are pretty rare—and, when they’re played by McBride, they’re singular in existence.

10. Jonah Hill as Seth (Superbad, 2007)

Seth has one thing on his to-do list: get laid. But this is a much more contemporary “I need to have sex before I go to college” character than, say, American Pie’s kindergarten (by comparison) Jim Levenstein; Seth has an opulent way of describing his hormones. I’d like to give you an example, but: 1) I’d be using more asterisks than letters; and 2) if you haven’t seen Superbad by now, knowing how to sound incessantly gross-minded (and, indeed, extremely funny) won’t help you find a social life.

9. Dermot Mulroney as Randall Hertzell (About Schmidt, 2002)

This guy’s a picture of perfection for redneck extraordinaires. Good ol’ Randall, a chipper but dumb-as-springs bed salesmen whose face is in famed American rabbi Harold Kushner’s books, and whose mind is on a pyramid scheme partnership with his fiancé’s father (Jack Nicholson). Another weighty gold bar from Alex Payne, another up-to-task comedic turn by one of his actors.

8. John C. Reilly as Dewford Randolph “Dewey” Cox (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, 2005)

Yes, he is. Don’t argue. Dewey Cox is a “gas”—his legend is as silly as that saying, and his legacy is as rapturous as any musician in American history. Indeed, he’s fictional (he’s actually the summation of a handful of influences, including those in the film he meets—The Beatles, Elvis—and the idol he represents—Johnny Cash); but the laughs are real…and they’re often. Like I said, a gas.

7. Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004)

He’s a legend in the San Diego area, a news screen personality with the ability to make a headline out of any event, be it a cannonball at a pool party, the one-thousandth dumbbell curl he just counted, a relationship he’s having with a co-worker, or a simple dinner at a local jazz-lounge. He is a true anchorman. Ron Burgundy, ladies and gentlemen.

6. Brad Pitt as Chad Feldheimer (Burn After Reading, 2008)

He works at a gym, is both motivated and very motivational, runs on endless fumes of spirit and enthusiasm, and…well, and he has no more room left for intelligence. But he tries. It’s just his personality. Chad might be Pitt’s most innocent role to date, and he’s such an endearingly less-than-sharp man. The laughs he creates are laughs that are comforting to have, because he’s the kind of dude who’d laugh along with you until exhaustion quelled the chuckling. It’s a shame of his fate, though.

5. James Franco as Saul Silver (Pineapple Express, 2008)

Saul Silver is probably the most loveable paranoid reefer-hound on the face of the planet (or in movies, rather). That’s certainly a bold statement, as there are a great share of bud-hippies in cinema, but how many can you remember liking more than Saul—or, better yet, remember, period? When a hitchhiker slips his thumb through the peek-hole in the front of his pajamas pants, it’s disgusting and off-putting. When Saul does that very thing, it’s hilarious. Why? It’s nothing substantial, nor physically discernible; it’s just him.

4. Robert Downey, Jr. as Kirk Lazarus (Tropic Thunder, 2008)

White guys playing black guys in movies is a three-quarters-century-old method (this used to be the norm for African-American characters in and before the ’50s). But Robert Downey portraying a white guy (Kirk Lazarus, the greatest actor in Hollywood history; he’s got 5 Oscars and is looking for a sixth) who’s portraying a black guy in a faux war epic is transcendent genius—especially the part about Robert Downey doing the portrayal of the guy doing the portrayal.

3. Will Ferrell as Jacobim Mugatu (Zoolander, 2001)

Mugatu represents Ferrell at his most refined in comedy. Because an ever-rolling resource of mockery isn’t necessary from Ferrell with the focal lights being shone on veterans Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, Jacobim (what a revolutionary name!) is stable cinder of glee and silliness rather than over-the-top childishness. And he’s funnier for that. But he’s Top Three funny for reasons that, in fact, go beyond the natural skill of Will Ferrell: Mugatu is an allusion to a race of antagonistic primate in the television version of Star Trek.

2. Bruce Campbell as Elvis (Bubba Ho-Tep, 2002)

Bruce Campbell is a model actor for seething black comedy galore. And while I can’t justly call this his funniest performance, I feel comfortable putting it at the top of his career. Bubba Ho-Tep is an off-handed story of Elvis, past the time of stardom and in the time of retirement facilities, and his fight against three things: identity, others’ insolence, and, of course, a mummy. Campbell’s version of Elvis is a masterstroke of comedy. As is co-star Ossie Davis’ turn as Jack, who, like Elvis, is someone very important (JFK…after having been surgically dyed brown for safety’s sake). I’m beginning to wonder why I didn’t list Ossie’s Jack now. Oh, well. Consider this my acknowledgement of his radiance, too.

1. Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Sagdiyev (Borat, 2006)

You should have known. Especially after Jean Girard appeared at no. 13. The fact is this: never in my life—or, to my knowledge, movie history—has a single character caused such a public response of outcry, obsession, and/or outright mania. And he did so with indiscretion and racism at the foundation of his incarnation, not comedy. Sure, he’s funny. He’s the funniest character of the decade and maybe ever, but he’s so funny because of America’s cultural single-mindedness and its unfailing ability to be dismissive of “outsiders”, not because of any humor norms or techniques he was created in the thought of.

I’ll be back with another list on August 10. Until then, read a book. And please share your opinions on the comment board below. Tell me whether I got it right or wrong, in case I forget who I am and begin to listen to strangers.

Missed Part 1? Read it now.