Fargo

Fargo is the darkest comedy on this list and the funniest crime film ever made. The Coen Brothers set their masterpiece in the frozen Minnesota landscape, where the politeness is as thick as the snow and the violence is as sudden as a wood chipper. William H. Macy's Jerry Lundegaard — a car salesman so desperate for money that he hires two criminals to kidnap his own wife — is the most pathetically compelling character in 90s cinema.

Frances McDormand's Marge Gunderson is the Coens' greatest creation: a heavily pregnant police chief who is smarter than every criminal in the film and nicer than every citizen. She solves murders with the same cheerful competence she brings to breakfast. McDormand won the Oscar, and the character became an American archetype — proof that goodness and intelligence can coexist.

The film's humor emerges from the collision between Midwestern niceness and criminal violence. The criminals cannot stop being polite even while committing atrocities. Jerry cannot stop lying even when telling the truth would save him. The wood chipper scene is simultaneously the most horrifying and most absurdly funny moment in 90s cinema. The Coens' claim that the film was 'based on a true story' was itself a lie — and that lie is the film's final joke.