Top 10 Funny Sports Movie Montages

This is a cheertatorship, not a cheerocracy. When a cheerleader is injured and can no longer fulfill her duties as a part of the team, Kirsten Dunst’s team captain and other members of the squad hold an open tryout. What follows is a group of misfits and wannabes’ sad attempts at impressing their judges in order to make the cut. If most of the auditioning applicants were the cream of the crop, we’d cut our losses and move on without them – they’re obviously not, by the looks of things; but they sure do make us laugh!

In this sports film, a group of Jamaican athletes decides to become the country’s first Olympic bobsledders, despite having zero experience in the sport nor any ice to actually practice on. So clearly, they have their work cut out for them. A dirt hill, a homemade “sled” with wheels and some helmets are all they need to approximate the sport they’re set to compete in. If only any of it worked at all. But their misfortune is our comedy gain.

Hockey may be a violent sport, but the players in the NHL are lucky they’ve never found themselves at the receiving end of a beating from the Hansons. This sequence, based on three real life siblings, actually manages to steal the focus away from the movie’s megastar, Paul Newman. Seeing men who look like nerdy bookworms beat the wholly hell out of their competition for three minutes is our idea of a good time. At least at the movies, it is.

Men who hate each other but put aside their differences in order to succeed is a staple of movies, and especially those that focus on sports. There’s just something entertaining about seeing people who were at one time enemies come to respect each other. And seeing two people like that, decked out in colorful spandex while dancing on ice, is a unique, hilarious twist on the cliché we’ve come to know and love. “Blades of Glory” nailed it here!

A combination of baseball and basketball that encourages unsportsman-like conduct, the made-up sport at the center of this comedy lends itself perfectly to the montage. During each play of the game, an opposing player has the opportunity to do nearly anything to distract or disgust the player enough to ruin his shot at the net. So cutting off fingers, chewing tin foil and Cartman impressions are just par for the course, and the results are simply hilarious.

The first of two golf movies to make the list, in this sports comedy, titular character Happy is a golfer unlike any seen before in movies or real life. With emotional outbursts ranging from furious anger to absolute jubilation, this particular sequence set to the nineties classic “Jump Around” by House of Pain, is chock-full of laughs from beginning to end. We’re just glad we’re not Happy’s caddy.

When this “Major League” sequel came out, we picked up the story of the Cleveland Indians after they’d managed to turn themselves around and become contenders and celebrities. Their newfound popularity led them to become soft in the off-season and now, they’re more concerned with looking cool than playing good baseball. For whatever reason, there is very little funnier than seeing a bunch of pro players absolutely suck at what they do.

When one of the most beloved sports comedies, if not one of the most beloved comedies, of all time features a montage, it’d be hard not to justify its inclusion on this list. And when the sequence in question also features some horrible golf by Chevy Chase, including his hitting a bird directly in the beak with his ball, then you know you’ve got a winner. Meanwhile, a horrible motivational speech in the middle of it all is the icing on the cake.

Who knew bowling could be so funny? We didn’t want to pull a “Munson” and leave this film off our list. An entire tournament relayed in mere minutes and hilarious throughout, this sequence from “Kingpin” perfectly advances the story while keeping us in stitches. Murray and Woody may have been an unlikely comedy duo, but they meshed together well, and this may be the best example of it.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- Looney Tunes Basketball
“Space Jam” (1996)
- Losing and Training
“The Ringer” (2005)
- Talking Hardball
“The Sandlot” (1993)
- Run Around Sue
“Little Big League” (1994)
- Skating Drills
“D2: The Mighty Ducks” (1994)

For many of us, looking back on playing this game in gym class provides us with quite a few chuckles. Seeing people get nailed in the face or a more sensitive area with a ball is just plain funny, which is why the decision to make this movie was a masterstroke. We’ll never, ever get tired of seeing Justin Long’s reactions to a seemingly never-ending barrage of balls and wrenches hitting him all over his body. It’s show time!

Do you agree with our list? What’s your favorite montage in a sports comedy? For more film Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.