Cinema, particularly the comedy genre, is an important arena for producing and reproducing meanings concerning gender and women’s social roles. This study examines the relationship between social transformations in the status of women in contemporary Iran and their representation in comedy cinema, focusing on the gap between social changes and the persistence or rearrangement of gender stereotypes. Employing a qualitative approach, Fiske’s semiotics, and the constructivist theory of representation, the study analyzes nine commercially successful comedy films released between 2011 and 2024. The findings indicate that although some films reflect emerging forms of femininity, including greater social presence, relative independence, alternative lifestyles, and women’s verbal assertiveness, these changes have not necessarily resulted in greater female subjectivity or narrative agency. Women continue to be represented through beauty, the body, emotion, marriage, jealousy, and dependence, whereas men are more often associated with agency, decision-making, power, and economic provision. Moreover, gender stereotypes have not disappeared in recent films but have been rearranged into figures such as the troublesome, self-interested, consumerist, seductive, and jealous woman. Thus, a degree of asynchrony exists between women’s social transformation and cinematic representation. Overall, comedy enables new femininities while also contributing to the reproduction of the dominant gender order.