It isn’t easy to make an audience laugh, but these k-dramas, currently streaming on Netflix, are some of the funniest to watch on the platform. K-dramas also known as Korean dramas, are television series made in South Korea. These series come in a variety of genres, from romance to action to coming-of-age, and often tell stories that are unique and sometimes representative of Korean culture. Even within the comedy genre being explored here, the following k-dramas offer many genres including romantic comedy, dark comedy, family shows, and even fantasies.
With Netflix embracing k-dramas, these are the funniest k-dramas available to stream on Netflix at the moment. These series make audiences cry with laughter over their wacky situations, complete misunderstandings, and slapstick jokes and bits. While these k-dramas may differ in story and plot, they all share similar themes of family, love, and friendship. Along with the comedic aspects, these shows often delve into budding relationships and personal growth. Finally, where some k-dramas here might veer into more dramatic storylines in their second half, others remain as funny from beginning to end.
For more streaming recommendations, be sure to check out the best movies on Netflix and the best TV shows on Netflix.
20 Strong Girl Nam-Soon (2023)
Starring Lee Yoo-mi And Kim Jung-eun
One of the most interesting aspects of the show is examining all three generations in a family of strong women.
This K-drama serves as a spinoff from the very popular Strong Girl Bong-soon. While the series has elements of a superhero storyline, it also is a family drama, and has some very funny storylines.
The series follows a woman who disappeared as a child. As an adult, she returns to South Korea and sets out to track down her family. When she finds her mother, a successful businesswoman, and her grandmother, she doesn’t get long to reconnect with either of them before all three of them end up embroiled in a drug case that’s being investigated.
One of the most interesting aspects of the show is examining all three generations in a family of strong women. Each of the women gets their own storylines throughout the series. The tone is also much lighter than its predecessor, acting closer to parody than simple comedy.
19 Cinderella And The Four Knights (2016)
Starring Park So-dam And Jung Il-woo
Also called Cinderella With Four Knights, this K-drama is adapted from a 2011 webnovel. It gives a new twist on the commonly known Cinderella story. Here, the main character still has a stepmother who essentially forces her to support the family after her father’s death. She also takes the young woman’s college fund, leaving her in a tight financial spot. The twist in the story is that this Cinderella, Eun Ha-won, isn’t just cooking and cleaning the family; she’s also taking on a series of odd jobs to pay the bills.
One of those jobs leads to an encounter with an older man who is in charge of a large corporation. He sees something in her and convinces Eun Ha-won to move in with his three grandsons and help keep them in line. The three are a bit rebellious, but heirs to the family fortune, and Eun Ha-won finds herself in the middle of more than just a love triangle as a result of their interactions.
Park So-dam was nominated for Best New Actress at the APAN Star Awards after the series debuted.
18 Frankly Speaking (2024)
Starring Go Kyung-pyo And Kang Han-na
While Frankly Speaking is technically classified as a melodrama, the series also has a lot of laugh-out-loud moments prompted by situational comedy. The series originally aired on JTBC two nights a week in South Korea before making the move to Netflix for international markets.
It follows a radio announcer who develops a disorder that essentially means he has no filter when speaking. He speaks whatever comes to mind, no matter how much it might make other people uncomfortable or how inappropriate it might be. An entertainment writer becomes fascinated by him and agrees to appear alongside him on a love and dating variety show.
The series offers an interesting perspective on reality and competition television as well as the tendency to want to make other people comfortable in what could be uncomfortable conversations.
17 Her Private Life (2019)
Starring Park Min-young And Kim Jae-wook
Though Park Min-young is a K-drama darling today,
Her Private Life
is often seen as one of her best romantic comedy roles.
Inspired by a 2007 webnovel, this K-drama is just as much of a romance as it is a comedy. It follows a woman who is a curator at an art museum by day and a huge fan of K-pop groups by night. She’s such a big fan that she even runs her own fansite. When she gets a new boss at the art museum, she struggles to keep her personal and professional lives separate with some hilarious results.
Though Park Min-young is a K-drama darling today, Her Private Life is often seen as one of her best romantic comedy roles. Though most of the awards she was nominated for in 2019 were for the series she completed right before this one, she did receive one award that showed how far her reach was for this series. She was awarded Best Female Asian Star following her work on the show at the StarHub Night Of Stars, an award given in Singapore.
16 Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo (2016)
Starring Lee Sung-kyung And Nam Joo-hyuk
This K-drama has a focus on competitive sports as the main character lifts weights and her love interest is a swimmer, but at its heart, it’s a romantic comedy. While Kim Bok-joo is chasing her dream of becoming a weightlifting champion, she’s also falling in love with her best friend’s brother. The trouble is that her best friend, who has been steadily supporting her endeavors, is also falling for her. It creates a love triangle, but also room for plenty of moments that would be right at home in a comedy-of-errors.
Though Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo didn’t have sky-high ratings during its run on television, it’s developed a dedicated following since finding a home on streaming. It also won two of its three nominations at the MBC Drama Awards in 2016, including an Excellence Award for Actress in a Miniseries for Lee Sung-kyung.
15 Hospital Playlist (2021)
Starring Jo Jung-Suk And Jeon Mi-do
At its heart, Hospital Playlist is more of a drama than a comedy. Set in a hospital, it has more in common with shows like Grey’s Anatomy than it does other k-dramas as a result of the core cast of characters being doctors who all work in different departments of the same hospital, but who also became friends years earlier in med school. That being said, the show is still full of hilarious moments.
The hilarity comes largely from the chemistry of the main cast. Even while dealing with a broken marriage or a massive career change, the group of friends still has time to attempt to form a band with their pretty terrible lead singer. Hospital Playlist is both a heartwarming and funny k-drama. It also received a slew of award show nominations in South Korea, winning most of its accolades for its original soundtrack performances.
14 So Not Worth It (2021)
Starring Park Se-wan And Han Hyun-min
K-dramas are known for being about an hour long. That runtime is sometimes longer for shows exclusively made for streaming. They are not, however, typically created in a sitcom format. So Not Worth It happens to be the first Korean sitcom made for Netflix and it’s been helping to revive interest in the sitcom format in South Korea with its 35-minute episodes.
The series, set in a university, features a group of students from several different countries who live and learn together. Combining elements of traditional American sitcoms and K-dramas worked in the show’s favor as it received comparisons to Friends for the seemingly effortless banter and chemistry from its cast. Many of the cast who were not originally from South Korea had to speak Korean for their roles as well, which impressed a lot of critics.
13 Prison Playbook (2017)
Starring Park Hae-soo And Jung Kyung-ho
Prison Playbook is very much a darker comedy than most of the other k-dramas here. The series centers on a man who ends up in prison after trying to protect his sister from an assault. Complicating matters is that he’s actually a famous baseball player who ends up in prison right before he was about to leave South Korea to play for an American team and the prison guard monitoring him is actually one of his best friends.
The comedy in the series comes from the main character being such an accomplished baseball player, but being bad at pretty much everything else in his life. His attempts at making it a year in prison are clumsy and hilarious. The fact that he and his best friend attempt to hide their relationship so that everyone thinks they are just prisoner and guard is the icing on the comedy cake.
12 Behind Your Touch (2023)
Starring Han Ji-min And Lee Min-ki
This funny k-drama fuses comedy with a police procedural for fun results. A woman who dreams of being a vet in a small town typically ends up doing the errands out to farms – like delivering calves. On one of those trips, however, she finds herself suddenly with psychic powers, but there’s a catch. She has to be touching the backside of someone in order to get their history in a psychic vision.
A big city detective transfers into town just in time for her to get this ability and for a murder case to need solving. The two are very different, but team up to solve the crime at hand, giving an odd couple vibe to the series as they slowly fall for one another as well. The show might not have won any accolades after its 2023 debut, but it will certainly keep the audience laughing.
11 Business Proposal (2022)
Starring Kim Se-jeong And Ahn Hyo-seop
A funny k-drama with a fake dating plot that turns into real feelings would be enough to make any rom-com fan happy. That’s exactly what Business Proposal offers the audience, and fans of the romance genre will know exactly how fun that storyline can be.
In this series, a young woman takes the place of her friend on a blind date, only to discover that the man her friend has been set up with is actually the boss of the company she works for. The mistaken identity aspect of the plot only becomes more intriguing when the friends pretend she is an actress, hired to take the other woman’s place. Rather than be put off by the circumstances, the company CEO decides to employ her as his fake girlfriend to get his family off his back.
10 Crash Landing On You (2019)
Starring Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin
Crash Landing On You
is a good starting point for those wanting a mix of comedy and drama.
Although 2019’s Crash Landing On You is best known for being a romantic k-drama, its comedic elements shouldn’t be discounted. The series follows a Korean heiress whose paragliding trip goes terribly wrong when she crash lands in North Korea. In dangerous territory, she must rely on a kind guard to protect her and get her back to the South.
While this series definitely has its sweet moments and dark, tense scenes, it all relies on the weird k-drama storyline the protagonist finds herself in: accidentally paragliding into North Korea. The fish out of water jumping off point for the story, and the need to hide who the young woman is, lean toward comedy. In this way, Crash Landing On You is a good starting point for those wanting a mix of comedy and drama.
9 Hometown Cha Cha Cha (2021)
Starring Shin Min-a and Kim Seon-ho
Another iconic k-drama romance that still offers plenty of laughs is 2021’s Hometown Cha Cha Cha. It tells the story of a young woman who moves to an idyllic village after the death of her mother. Originally working as a dentist in a bigger city, she tries to settle into her new life with the help of a local handy man and establishes her own practice while falling in love.
Once again, this series may have a heavy emphasis on romance, but that does not take away from the genuine comedy that comes along with it. Overall, the quirkiness of Hometown Cha Cha Cha’s village and the interesting characters gives it a pleasant sense of comedy. The series was nominated for several different awards on the Korean award show circuit, winning six of them.
8 Be Melodramatic (2019)
Starring Chun Woo-hee and Jeon Yeo-been
Be Melodramatic is a 2019 k-drama that follows the different lives of three best friends who also happen to live together. While one is a screenwriter starting an unlikely romance with her director, another is a documentarian getting over the death of her fiancée and the other is a single mother who excels at her job in marketing. Each of the friends is at very different stages in their lives.
This is a highly underrated drama that balances effortlessly between serious topics and light-hearted, quirky humor. The series is relatable and wholesome. Plus, it stands apart for its TV series within a TV series, making it especially unique as well and doubly entertaining for the audience. Jeon Yeo-been received a Best New Actress nomination from the Baeksang Awards for her work on the show.
7 Reply 1988 (2015)
Starring Lee Hyeri and Go Kyung-pyo
A part of the anthology Reply series, Reply 1988 is a 2015 family k-drama following a group of five childhood friends who face their adolescent years together. The series is beyond heart-warming as it depicts the highs and lows of being a teenager, and more than that, having close friends and family around to support you. Furthermore, the show is incredibly funny with uniquely silly comedy elements attached to it.
The magic of Reply 1988 is its honesty and ability to offer a “slice of life” portrayal of its main characters. The series is really akin to American shows like Boy Meets World or The Wonder Years, which were able to blend the dramatic elements of growing up with the comedic elements of still being a kid. Nominated for a whole host of awards across South Korea after it aired, it was also one of the highest rated Korean cable series at the time.
6 Welcome To Waikiki (2018)
Starring Lee Yi-kyeong and Kim Jung-hyun
When three inexperienced young men open a guest house in order to raise money for their film, it seems more than likely that some sort of chaos will ensue. 2018’s Welcome to Waikiki follows an aspiring filmmaker, an actor, and a writer, who start running a guest house named “Waikiki” in order to fund their film careers. If only they knew what kind of trouble that could bring them.
The series is well-loved for its relatability and genuine humor, providing sitcom antics without entirely being a sitcom
A full-fledged comedy K-drama, Welcome to Waikiki is a hilarious watch that avoids using awkward moments as comedy. Instead, the characters are pushed and pulled into situations where they must prove themselves and inevitably make fools of themselves as well. The series is well-loved for its relatability and genuine humor, providing sitcom antics without entirely being a sitcom. It’s also one of the rare comedies among k-dramas to get a second season.
5 My Only Love Song (2017)
Starring Shn Bo-Hyun and Lee Cheol-min
Some wackiness will inevitably occur when it comes to a time travel k-drama. My Only Love Song is a 2017 k-drama following a spoiled, money-obsessed actress who accidentally time travels to the 6th-century Goguryeo kingdom. While there, she meets a man who desperately seeks money but also ends up giving it away due to his naturally kind heart.
Although this show obviously has many heart-warming aspects of personal growth and love, the situation the protagonist finds herself in is undeniably comical. The fish out of water nature of time travel makes that a guarantee even in the more series shows in the k-drama subgenre. Plus, the supporting cast adds more hilarity with their distinct personalities. Though they might not have gained traction on the award show circuit, the cast has impeccable timing and performances.
4 Mad For Each Other (2021)
Starring Woo Jung and Oh Yeon-Seo
The enemies to friends to lovers trope of more traditional romantic comedies doesn’t get more chaotic than this. In 2021’s aptly named Mad For Each Other, a man and a woman who have both reached the breaking points in their lives can’t seem to escape one another as they discover they are neighbors and also share the same therapist.
Explores important topics like mental health in a light-hearted and pleasant way
The intense feelings of the characters in this series, along with the silly situations they are put in, make for a very well-balanced and enjoyable watch. Mad For Each Other not only makes audiences laugh but also explores important topics like mental health in a light-hearted and pleasant way. The story is entertaining and fun instead of bogged down in its drama. At only 13 episodes, the series makes for a quick and funny k-drama watch.
3 Vincenzo (2021)
Starring Song Joong-ki and Jeon Yeo-been
Vincenzo is a 2021 dark comedy and crime k-drama series about a Korean man who was adopted by an Italian family and later joins the mob. Later, pursued by a rival mafia boss, the main character must return to Korea to collect money he has hidden away and gang up with another lawyer to fight the company keeping his fortune.
Despite Vincenzo’s edgy storyline, the series is one that has especially goofy and unique humor. It stands out from other comedy k-dramas. Its distinct tone is what makes it so enjoyable. International audiences thought so too. According to Forbes, it was one of the top five most viewed Korean series around the world in 2021 thanks to its availability on Netflix. It also won for Top Excellence Korean Drama at the Seoul International Drama Awards.
2 The Sound Of Your Heart (2016)
Starring Lee Kwang-soo and Kim Dae-myung
The most purely comedic series on this list is the 2016 comedy k-drama, The Sound of Your Heart. Unlike most of the other k-dramas listed here, this is a sitcom full of slapstick and hilarity and lacking in seriousness or drama that aired as a web series before it became a full-length TV show. The first 10 episodes were released online and garned over 40 million views.
Based on a long-running Korean webtoon, The Sound of Your Heart concerns the lives of a cartoonist, his girlfriend, and his eccentric family. The series definitely has a bawdier sense of humor than other k-dramas and is also lighter on the plot as well. In this way, it is an easy, light watch that is sure to make audiences laugh through its wit and physical humor.
1 Mr. Queen (2020)
Starring Shin Hye-sun and Kim Jung-hyun
Finally, the silliest concept is 2020’s Mr. Queen. The k-drama is about a modern-day chef who inexplicably becomes trapped inside the body of a queen in the Joseon era of Korea. Obviously, this leads to incredible chaos as a man has to adjust to not only the new time period, but a whole new body. It leads to some very funny situations, including a historical figure twerking.
While many historical k-drama series can sink too deep into the history of the time period in which they are set, Mr. Queen lightens up the genre with its strange concept and funny gags. All in all, the k-drama is clever and well-done, even despite how odd the story truly is. The series still ranks among the top 10 highest rated in Korean cable history.
