The Dukes of Hazzard

If you are after a comedy that actually makes you laugh out loud, The Dukes of Hazzard is available in Australia on Amazon Prime Video, and in the US on YouTube TV right now. The length is exactly right for the story it is telling — nothing rushed, nothing dragged out. 1,332 viewers have already rated it on TMDB — the kind of consensus that does not happen by accident. Johnny Knoxville sets the tone, and the rest of the cast matches it scene for scene. Put it on tonight on Amazon Prime Video and see for yourself.

There is a reason The Dukes of Hazzard keeps coming up in conversation. The Dukes of Hazzard gets the fundamentals right first, then finds room to get weird with it. Cousins, Bo and Luke Duke, with the help of their eye-catching cousin, Daisy and moonshine-running Uncle Jesse, try and save the family farm from being destroyed by Hazzard County's corrupt commissioner, Boss Hogg. Their efforts constantly find the 'Duke Boys' eluding authorities in 'The General Lee', their 1969 orange Dodge Charger that keeps them one step ahead of the dimwitted antics of the small southern town's Sheriff, Roscoe P. Coltrane. Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott lead a cast with the timing to make it work. The Dukes of Hazzard came out in 2005. The real test of any comedy is whether it is still funny once you know all the jokes, and The Dukes of Hazzard holds up on rewatch in a way that separates it from one-off curiosities. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

Comedy fans looking for a reliably funny watch will find it in The Dukes of Hazzard. It does not lean on comparisons to make its case. It is a manageable watch, easy to fit into a single evening. Johnny Knoxville anchors an ensemble with real chemistry. Genuinely funny, consistently, across the whole run.