It isn’t easy to make an audience laugh, but these k-dramas 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 that have become a global phenomenon. 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. Within the comedy side of things, k-dramas are great for a number of different genres, like romantic comedy, dark comedy, family shows, and even fantasies that can make viewers laugh.
Netflix has embraced the k-drama boom in an exciting way over the past few years, and some of the shows they’ve brought to a global audience are side-splittingly funny. 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 plot, they all share similar themes of family, love, and friendship. Along with the comedic aspects, these shows often delve into budding relationships and growth. Finally, where some k-dramas here might veer into dramatic storylines in their second half, others remain as funny from beginning to end.
25
Love To Hate You (2023)
Starring Kim Ok-vin & Teo Yoo
- Release Date
-
2023 – 2023-00-00
- Network
-
Netflix
- Directors
-
Kim Jeong-kwon
Love To Hate You premiered in 2023, giving viewers a look into the life of Yeo Mi-ran (Kim Ok-vin), an independent lawyer with an interest in social justice. With a low opinion of men and some past difficulties in her love life, a switch up from her current law firm to a male-dominated space isn’t ideal. Regardless, Yeo Min-ran takes on the challenge and moves into the new job at a firm that specializes in dealing with celebrity scandals.
When one of their clients, Nam Kang-ho (Teo Yoo), makes some angry and misogynistic comments that Yeo Mi-ran overhears, she decides to get close to him and search for evidence of his wrong-doings. The battle of the sexes dynamic is what makes Love To Hate You one of the funniest k-dramas on Netflix. The series builds naturally from the characters’ personalities, and the actors’ chemistry is phenomenal.
24
Mr. Plankton (2024)
Starring Woo Do-hwan And Lee Yoo-mi
- Release Date
-
2024 – 2024-00-00
- Network
-
Netflix
- Directors
-
Hong Jong-chan
- Writers
-
Jo Yong
-
Rich Ting
Wang Chil-seong
-
Woo Do-Hwan
Hae Jo – Considering
Mr. Plankton is one of the huge number of K-dramas added to Netflix in 2024. While many of the K-dramas to join the streamer in 2024 were more action or thriller in nature, this one is absolutely a comedy. The series follows a man who learns he has a terminal illness as he takes one last journey. Forced into accompanying him on that journey is a woman the series dubs the “unluckiest bride-to-be,” a woman for whom nothing seems to go right. She also happens to be his ex.
While the premise sounds like a recipe for tragedy, it’s also a recipe for the comedy that can come alongside it. The trip is, of course, something of a disaster as hilarity and misfortune ensue. It’s the kind of show that makes the audience see how much life there is worth living even with all of the bad things that might accompany the good.
23
Doctor Slump (2024)
Starring Park Hyun-sik And Park Shin-Hye
- Release Date
-
2024 – 2024-00-00
- Directors
-
Oh Hyun-jong
- Writers
-
Baek Sun-woo
Stories about rivals finding common ground are very common in K-dramas. This one, however, takes the rivalry from school days into adulthood and allows the characters a new perspective to connect.
In Doctor Slump, two adults work in the medical field. They consistently competed for the top rankings in classes when they were in school, but as adults, they both find themselves suffering from dips in their careers at the same time. While one is actually diagnosed with depression and finds it difficult to find joy in their work, the other is sued for malpractice after a mistake made during surgery. Despite the heavy topics, the show is able to find the comedy in their situations and in their reconnecting.
There are frank discussions of mental health, but there are also awkward rom-com encounters that help to balance the darker moments of the show. These two sides of the relationship help to make the show feel more true to life even as outlandish situations crop up.
22
Love Next Door (2024)
Starring Jung Hae-in And Jung So-min
- Release Date
-
August 17, 2024
-
Jung Hae-in
Choi Seung-hyo
-
Jung So-min
Bae Seok-ryoo
With the influx of thrillers in K-dramas over the last few years, it might not be surprising to the audience that most of the comedies are of the rom-com variety. In the case of Love Next Door, the series leans heavily on the trope of friends to lovers with some fantastic results.
The central characters here have been friends for years but are separated by physical distance when one of them lives in the United States and the other in South Korea. When they both end up back in their hometown in Korea, they are able to quickly reconnect and go back to an easy friendship that they had as children. Of course, because this is a rom-com, that easy friendship is buoyed by romance just under the surface.
Viewers looking for straight-up comedy here should be warned that there are some heavier dramatic moments despite the show’s fun premise.
Starring Park Eun-bin And Kang Tae-oh
Extraordinary Attorney Woo follows a young attorney on the autism spectrum who has always had trouble connecting with others. When she gets her first big job at a law firm, she uses her unique point of few and her hyper fixation on marine life to help solve cases.
The show finds a delicate balance between comedy and drama incorporating rivalries between law firms, romance, and the struggle to fit in alongside a case-of-the-week format. Much of the comedy in the series comes from characters struggling to understand one another. The chemistry of the cast also helps feed into those more comedic aspects of the show.
The show has become so popular that several different countries, including the United States, have remakes in development. A musical version of the story is also in development in South Korea.
20
Chicken Nugget (2024)
Starring Ryu Seung-ryong And Ahn Jae-hong
- Release Date
-
2024 – 2024-00-00
- Network
-
Netflix
- Directors
-
Lee Byeong-heon
-
Ryu Seung-ryong
Building Management director
-
Ahn Jae-hong
Ko Baek-joong
Not all K-dramas lean into situational comedy or romance. Some take a more absurdist approach. For fans interested in that, there’s the interesting and slightly ridiculous Chicken Nugget. The series is inspired by the webtoon of the same name. It has elements of a mystery, a road trip comedy, and science fiction all rolled into one.
Chicken Nugget sees a young woman use a machine at her workplace, believing it’s a new invention meant to help alleviate fatigue. Instead, the machine turns her into a chicken nugget. Her father and an intern (who also happens to be harboring a big crush on her) go on a journey to keep her safe and return her to human form.
It’s got to be one of the most absurd premises for a K-drama in recent years, but it works. While there’s definitely some underlying sinister elements to the story, the adventure itself is wacky and hilarious.
19
Strong Girl Nam-Soon (2023)
Starring Lee Yoo-mi And Kim Jung-eun
This K-drama serves as a spinoff from the very popular Strong Girl Nam-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.
18
King The Land (2023)
Starring Lee Jun-ho & Lim Yoon-a
A series released in 2023, King The Land follows Gu Won (Lee Jun-ho), the heir to a luxury hotel conglomerate, and Cheon Sa-rang (Im Yoon-ah), a hotelier known for her incredible customer service and incessant smile. The series watches as their relationship develops as workplace pressures and family conflict works its way into the romantic comedy structure of the show. As one of Netflix’s most popular k-dramas, the series fully embraces its genre, looking for the comedy within its romantic elements.
With Gu Won being a socially awkward person with an inability to understand traditional workplace behavior, there’s a major contrast between him and Sa-rang’s perspective, which is grounded outside of the privileged upbringing Gu Won had. The show is more lighthearted than some others, and its romantic tone puts it in a league of its own.
17
Frankly Speaking (2024)
Starring Go Kyung-pyo And Kang Han-na
- Release Date
-
2024 – 2024-00-00
- Directors
-
Jang Ji-yeon
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.
16
Her Private Life (2019)
Starring Park Min-young And Kim Jae-wook
Inspired by a 2007 webnovel, Her Private Life 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.