1. Film: Young Frankenstein (1974)
We may have lost Gene Wilder last year, but the sheer joy of his comedy lives on in this endlessly rewatchable treat which he co-wrote with director Mel Brooks. The scene in which Wilder’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein and Peter Boyle’s Monster perform their top-hat-and-tails rendition of Puttin’ on the Ritz is quite simply one of the funniest things I have ever seen, while Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman and Teri Garr are all at the top of their game. Mark Kermode, chief film critic
2. TV: RuPaul’s Drag Race
A perfect concoction of dazzling costumes, bitchiness, and heartwarming stories of people overcoming adversity. It’s a bit like The Great British Bake-Off, replacing the choux pastry and mild innuendo with outrageous challenges and X-rated runway shows. As a bonus, celebrity guest judges range from Jackie Collins to Olivia Newton-John to Moby. Kathryn Bromwich, commissioning editor
3. Radio: Knowing Me, Knowing You, episode 6
Before Alan Partridge became a TV hero, he was a radio one, and my friend Louise and I used to listen to Knowing Me, Knowing You tapes in the car. Every episode is brilliant, but the end of the very last one, in which Lord Morgan of Glossop dies, is my favourite. Alan covers his head in a “Pringle shroud” and then lists motorway services during the minute’s silence… I laugh until I cry every time. Miranda Sawyer, radio critic
4. Books: Ladybird Books for Grownups Series, by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris
I’m normally fairly allergic to “high concept” humour and had resisted the outlandishly popular Ladybird series for adults until I found How It Works: The Mum in my Christmas stocking. The books are an ironic, retro update of the Ladybird books of the 70s British childhood, but instead of explaining big ideas to small people they explain in-jokes and states of being – The Hipster, The Mid-Life Crisis, Mindfulness – to adults. And I have to admit, they are very funny. Often gratifyingly dark, too I’ll leave you with my favourite page from The Mum:
“This is a mum.
A mum has two very important jobs to do. One is to look after her children.
The other is to do everything else as well.” Lisa O’Kelly, literary editor
5. Music: Blue Pepper by Duke Ellington
Even those who find jazz forbidding might find Duke Ellington’s Blue Pepper hard to resist. Imagine the Batman theme, only soused in serotonin – a lurid blast of joy, almost unsophisticated in its sassy, brassy excess. It is a mystery how this slinky breakbeat has not been sampled to death, and how the trumpeter doesn’t fly around the room like an uncorked cartoon balloon when he hits the high notes. Kitty Empire, pop critic
6. Art: Jeremy Moon, Hoop-La, Tate Britain
Hoop-La is pure merriment. The blue discs fly like a juggler’s balls, but never drop because the red holds them forever aloft – a wonderful sight gag achieved entirely by the optical offsetting of shape against primary colours. Moon was a great comedian: in theory this is poker-faced 60s abstraction, in practice this big painting is instant humour. Laura Cumming, art critic
7. Football: Jürgen Klopp’s goal celebrations
The Liverpool manager is a ray of sunshine in a game now ruled by money. His childlike enthusiasm, best witnessed during his exuberant goal celebrations or his frank and funny interviews (asked to sum up his team’s 3-0 victory against Manchester City, Klopp simply replied: “Boom!”), is both charming and infectious. Philip Adams, chief subeditor
8. Music: Dimitri from Paris’s remix of Prince’s I Wanna Be Your Lover
Music is the most sure-fire way to banish a bad mood and Dimitri from Paris remix of Prince’s I Wanna Be Your Lover never, ever fails. MS
9. Social media: daily quotes on Twitter
My Twitter timeline often gets overwhelmed by grim news stories, spittle-flecked rants and swivel-eyed spats. So accounts that simply tweet a classic comedy quote each day become like little rays of social media sunshine. So sign up for daily doses of Victoria Wood, Alan Bennett, Father Ted, Alan Partridge and Super Hans from Peep Show. There, that’s better. Michael Hogan, writer
10. Music: Perpetual Motion People by Ezra Furman
Songs about depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia may not sound particularly happy-making, but putting on this album by gender-fluid folk musician Ezra Furman guarantees an instant good mood. Peppered with insanely catchy melodies, every song could be a single, but particular standouts for rainy days are Ordinary Life and Lousy Connection. KB
11. Online: Hideaway music video by Kiesza (2014)
There’s something about the communal energy of synchronised dance scenes that always lifts my spirits. This video has it all: the subversive thrill of street dancing, the audacious single take, the body-snapping references to classic 80s moves, and the throwback sound of 90s house (another form of ecstatic togetherness). Joyous. Sarah Donaldson, deputy editor
12. Books: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
The image of naughty Max in his wolf suit, howling at the moon with a gang of shaggy-haired, goggly-eyed monsters, always makes me smile. Sendak’s little hero perfectly encapsulates the human impulse to let loose and run riot, while the story rejoices in the power of a child’s imagination. I cherish my dog-eared childhood copy so I was delighted when my dad called my rather boozy wedding reception five years ago a “wild rumpus”. Imogen Carter, commissioning editor
13. Music: Nothing But Flowers by Talking Heads
I had to have my wisdom teeth yanked just as the Naked album came out, and had this song on repeat like continuous morphine throughout the ordeal. Its coruscating mirth still gets me going – hypermalls returned to meadows, capitalism reversed: Eden in Trumpland – and those wonderful surging rhythms always raise my spirits. Laura Cumming, art critic
14. Film: Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Doo-doo-doot doo
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doot doo dee
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doot doo
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doot doo
Are you singing yet? And how are you feeling? Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s 1952 musical simply fizzes with joy. And no one summed it up better than the Observer’s former film critic, the late Philip French who, when writing about a work that transformed his world, promised that: “If I were the Minister of Health, I’d see that chemists were well stocked with cassettes of Singin’ in the Rain and encourage doctors to prescribe it for depressed patients.” Jane Ferguson, editor
15. Music: Washboard Sam
In an attempt to find common musical ground between us, my father bought me the complete works of American bluesman Washboard Sam (aka Robert Clifford Brown). Over the years, nothing has proved a more reliable pick-me-up than slapping Who Pumped the Wind in My Doughnut? on the stereo and turning everything up to 11. That rude, raucous rattle just makes the world seem better. MK
16. Online: Carpool Karaoke
When James Corden took over as host of CBS’s Late Late Show two years ago, the little-known Brit needed a killer feature to win over viewers. Boy, did he find one. Carpool Karaoke is an ingeniously simple format – celebrities ride shotgun and sing along to the radio – which has become a viral phenomenon and just been sold to Apple. The sight of A-listers such as Adele, Madonna or Justin Bieber joyously belting out their own hits while Corden conducts a cheeky interview is always an infectiously uplifting 10-minute treat. MH
17. Place: Port Sunlight, Merseyside
For all-round happiness, I recommend Port Sunlight, the model village built by Lord Leverhulme for the employees of his soap-making business on the Wirral between 1899 and 1914. First, take a stroll, admiring the some 900 listed buildings available for your delectation. Then duck into the Lady Lever Art Gallery, dedicated to the memory of the magnate’s wife. It’s full of wonderful pictures, but I’m especially fond of the portrait Jeunesse Doree (1934) by Gerald Brookhurst. What a face! What a cardigan! I could look at it all day. Rachel Cooke, writer and critic
18. Music: Pata Pata by Miriam Makeba
Growing up in South Africa, I didn’t listen to much Miriam Makeba: too obvious and ever-present a national soundtrack, perhaps. Now, this exuberant, syncopated slice of vintage township jazz – the title is Xhosa for “touch touch”, and that buttery rhythm demands some hands-on dancing – is a go-to: as warming and cheering a sonic memento of home as any I know. Guy Lodge, film critic
19. TV: The West Wing
Despite so much recent TV glory, I still hanker after The West Wing. Insanely, ambitiously, utopianly, it gave us a glimpse of how politics could actually work, if ever shorn of God or niggling boyish greed. The adjective Orwellian is savagely misused: this was the society he would have wanted. And then dissected. Euan Ferguson, TV critic
20. Podcast: Adam and Joe
Cornballs! Buckles! Maybe you shouldn’t be living heeeeeere! If you’re not familiar with these catchphrases, rectify that by delving into Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish’s podcasts, which compress their cult 00s radio shows on Xfm and 6Music into hour-long packages of free‑wheeling waffle that’ll make you double up laughing on the bus. They even reunited for a Christmas special recently, available on iTunes. MH
21. Music: Channel Orange by Frank Ocean
There is nothing happy-making – for me, at least – about my teenage son’s grime and hip-hop playlist pounding through the floorboards of his room at 11 o’clock at night. However, he knows how to get round me: just play Frank Ocean. I absolutely love him, especially anything from 2012’s brilliant Channel Orange. Thinkin’ Bout You, Lost and Forrest Gump are tracks guaranteed to bring some sunshine to the greyest of days. LO’K
22. Film: Holiday (1938)
Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story get more exposure, but this is the most blissfully perfect of all Cary Grant-Katharine Hepburn pairings. Airy and joyous, wise but seemingly written on a champagne buzz, this story of two society misfits finding saucy sanctuary in each other is everything a romantic comedy should strive to be. GL
23. TV: BoJack Horseman (Netflix)
This animated series for grownups about the stupidity of fame plumbs depths of bleakness that take your breath away. But, oh, the jokes! The series’ nihilism comes hand-in-hand with quite exquisite silliness. “I’m the only albino rhino gyno I know,” notes one character, deadpan. “Oh great,” says his date, eyeing the bottle he has just ordered, “you’re also a wine addict.” KE
24. Music: Prince of Peace by Pharoah Sanders
I’m not a believer, and musically I’m drawn to melancholy not rapture. Yet the deeply spiritual sound pioneered by John Coltrane in the 1960s, exemplified by his protege Pharoah Sanders’s soaring collaborations with vocalist Leon Thomas (see also The Creator Has a Master Plan), transcends such matters, leaving this heathen in a state of bliss. PA
25. Film: The Intouchables (2011)
This film broke French box-office records and the scene in which larger-than-life Omar Sy playing an unlikely carer takes to the dance floor to divert cultured paraplegic (Francois Cluzet) is unbeatable. Kate Kellaway, writer and critic
26. Books: I Want My Hat Back by John Klassen
There’s a special kind of delight in reading a funny picture book with a kid, and this deliciously deadpan tale of a bear on the trail of his lost hat is irresistible. The witty dialogue and illustrations are full of hidden meaning, and the outrageous denouement always has us shrieking. A masterclass in comic timing. SD
27. Place : Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
Take a trip to Kirkby Lonsdale, on the edge of the Lake District, find St Mary’s Churchyard, and then follow the signs to Ruskin’s View. Below you is the Lune Valley, abidingly green and gorgeous. Painted by Turner in 1816, this is the vista John Ruskin described as “one of the loveliest views in England, therefore in the world” – and who, honestly, could disagree? RC
28. Music: Prelude to 110 or 220 / Women of the World by Jim O’Rourke
Beyonce’s Who Run the World (Girls) is hard to beat for a blast of poppy female empowerment. But it’s O’Rourke’s Ivor Cutler cover, delivered as a soothing incantation with ecstatic orchestral bursts – “Women of the world take over / ’Cause if you don’t the world will come to an end / And it won’t take long” – that always makes me feel hopeful, like the world is full of possibility. IC
29. Book: The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam (1048-1131)
Translated from the Persian by Edward FitzGerald (1859 edition)
The Rubaiyat is steeped in melancholy and yet its rhymes intoxicate: “Awake! for morning in the bowl of night/has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight,/and lo! the hunter of the east has caught/the sultan’s turret in a noose of light.” KK
30. Music: Green Grow the Rashes by Michael Marra
A rare and grand and lovely man. And a Burns song that still thrills with its modernity. Listen, lasses, to the lyrics: world, translate them, it’s not that hard. EF
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