There were a couple of mentions of certain films being too long and others that had their moments of brilliance in the thread on Funniest Movies – does that suggest that comedy is best suited to a shorter running time ?
Thus, as a companion to Twang’s thread on funniest movies. how about a complementary thread on Funniest TV Shows….. ? So are you a Terry & June fan or a Young Ones affecianado ?
My list would have to include…
– Police Squad (as mentioned in the comments about Naked Gun)
– Fawlty Towers
– Blackadder
– The Young Ones (a bit dated but I think still stands up, with enough moments of silliness to carry it – “Amazulu ? Is that right – I’m a Glaswegian….”
– A League Of Gentlemen
– A Very Peculiar Practice (I have a real soft spot for this…..)
Many others that could have made the list, so over to you………….
Soap.
Exemplary American nous.
Taxi. Ditto.
Taxi was incredibly bleak for a primetime show, I thought. Not complaining…
I think the English equivalent is probably Nightingales. Any fans of that on here?
Thanks Moosey for the reminder. Nightingales was excellent.
I recall one of them had stone clad the inside of the house to reap the full benefit of it.
Such a strange show, actually more like something from the noughties than the early nineties. At the time I only new Robert Lindsay from Wolfie Smith and was totally mystified.
“There’s nobody here but us chickens.
Nightingales was one of those shows where you both knew the general public was oblivious to its existence and you revelled in the fact. Brilliant comedy.
Currently being shown at weekends on Forces TV in the UK.
I watched a couple of Young Ones episodes not long back and they seem to have dated quite badly. Either that or I’m not 15 any more. I demonstrated how many times I watched them as a teenager though, by quoting loads of the final episode, despite not having seen it for over 30 years, but I did the same when I listened to Monty Python’s Previous Record for the first time in over 30 years recently too. Yet I forget I’ve put a pizza in the oven. Funny how your memory works isn’t it.
But as for the funniest TV shows…
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Rising Damp
Whatever Happened To the Likely Lads
Porridge
Fawlty Towers
The Muppet Show
Blackadder (mainly series two)
Police Squad
Father Ted
The Simpsons
The League of Gentlemen
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Office (US) – I like the original version, but I think the US version topped it, from series 2 onwards
Family Guy
The Thick of It
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Peep Show
Arrested Development (before they brought it back)
Toast of London
What We Do in the Shadows
Fleabag
The Detectorists
Stath Let’s Flats
Does Rudy Giuliani’s speech count?
Rudy got bail.
I bought The Young Ones on DVD a couple of years ago for my daughter, then 15. She loves it and I still find it funny although series 2 is definitely better. Another show, like the oft mentioned Fawlty Towers, where less was more. Incidentally, I was amused to note that the costume designer on the most recent Line Of Duty put one of the minor villains in a leather jacket with “VERY METAL” in studs on the back.
@davebigpicture
That’s ace!
Remarkably, this is the first shout for The Simpsons – I forgot about it myself.
For laugh out loud moments, the first 9 – 10 seasons are probably the funniest ever made.
It’s easy to forget because the Simpsons has been crap for twice as long as it was good. But in the second half of the 90s it was quite extraordinarily good.
“We’re done-diddly-done for….”
The most enjoyable Twitter thread I saw all week was people’s favourite Simpsons lines.
My nomination was the time when Burns was weeping in the bathtub as Smithers washed his hair.
What’s the matter, sir. Did I get some in your eyes? The bottle specifically said, “no more tears.”
Ah, a lovely promise, but one beyond the powers of a mere shampoo.
“Cease that infernal tootling!”
Wiggum: “Stop saying ‘Hawaii’ in there!”
I put some onions down my trouuuu-sers
Me fail English? That’s unpossible
You ‘FORGOT”
Thin Blue Line
Open All Hours
One Foot In The Grave
Ab Fab
& what about “Coronation Street” what a scream that was/wasn’t
Thin Blue Line? Really?
YES dai – Very indicative of how the PLODS think & work!!!!!!!!!!!!
Got to be Frasier. Plenty of other faves – Reggie Perrin, Blackadder, IT Crowd, Farty Towels, Rising Damp, Porridge – always happy to watch them. But when I need to laugh, it’s Frasier every time.
Old fella relaxing into the comedy that makes him feel alright with the world. I’m okay with that.
Yes, Frasier for me too. Long running series are much better vehicles for comedy than movies. Series allow nuance and character to build up over many episodes and events, and I feel the comedy tends to be richer as a result.
Let’s not forget there were some wobbles, most notably around the time that Niles and Daphne finally hooked up. I remember one season where the scripts took a nose dive and things seemed out of place. But overall, a stunning achievement.
I’d put Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show on the podium too.
Prefer Flowery Twats* to Farty Towels.
(*The First Offence album. If that isn’t the most obscure music reference on The Afterword I’ll eat me…chips)
Blackadder
I still love The Young Ones
I remember Jerry Sadowitz’s show with great affection.
There was a period of time that Only Fools and Horses was the gold standard.
Oh, to add:
Father Ted.
Drop the Dead Donkey.
The Pall Bearer’s Revue was the Jerry Sadowitz show, wasn’t it? I’ve heard speculation that the BBC might have been influenced by Savile to drop it after one series due to Sadowitz airing his strong beliefs about Jim’ll’s extra curricular activities. I can’t remember the show well except that his act was a bit diluted for a broader audience. His Channel 5 chat show was quite entertaining and genuinely unpredictable.
Very little, if any, televised comedy ages well. Therefore currently it’s all pretty new and all American
Parks & Rec
Community
Schitts Creek
Parks and Rec.
Yes, absolutely.
Especially seasons 2 and 3: consistently hilarious.
add Party Down to that list
The IMDB synopsis of that certainly sounds promising.
“A group of actors move to Los Angeles to make it big, but end up working as caterers.”
On the Buses, Love Thy Neighbour and Mind Your Language?? They still portray admirable values as promoted by our wonderful government.
Great series all.
In keeping with their theme who was the most fanciable?
Olive or Francois Pascal?
Since of my faves:
Frasier
Fawlty Towers
Blackadder
Upstart Crow
Friends
Cheers
Porridge
Parks and Rec
Most recent discovery is Call My Agent which oozes French appeal, very funny and an clever twist is each week’s guest star acting themselves against type (eg Audrey Fleurot playing unambitious slightly unwashed earth mother).
Was watching Call My Agent/Dix pour cent last night. Excellent. Including one of the best-ever dog performances by “Jean Gabin”. Formidable!
I’ve never seen Call My Agent but having noted that amongst the actors who appear in specific episodes are not only Ms Fleurot, but also Nathalie Baye, Isabelle Adjani, Isabelle Huppert, and Juliette Binoche I suspect I may have to investigate.
It’s very funny the way they juxtapose real people who play a fictional version of themselves. Natalie Baye and real daughter Laura Smet for example. I won’t do spoilers but it’s hilarious.
The Juliette Binoche episode where she hosts the Cannes film festival was manifique.
Thanks for the heads up for ‘Call My Agent’ as I have now caught it on Netflix and it is dans mon domaine.
As repeatedly noted already comedy dates badly. I’m recording the reruns of Cheers which are being shown in the early mornings at the moment and although there are some brilliant lines the jokes tend to follow the same format, and I really didn’t care about Sam and the drippy Diane, certainly not at that length. When I read rewatched Friends in the same way the other year it had fared better, In another decade it’s might charm may fade too.
All of those long running Americans series stumbled when they decided to tackle bigger emotional issues within the format of a comedy. They decided, wrongly to my mind, that the audience would get emotionally involved in whether Chandler and Monica could have a surrogate baby, or buy a house.
Frasier, Seinfeld and, my current comedy viewing, 30 Rock still stand up.
Off the top of my head, 4 which will make me laugh out loud
30 Rock
Black Books
Father Ted
The IT Crowd (these last three all involved Graham Linehan of course, before he retired from comedy to commit himself to Twitter battles on trans issues)
I think that’s right about Friends and Cheers. Still lots to make me laugh though. Python was only ever funny in parts.
I agree regarding Python (which is why I didn’t include in any initial suggestions) – it was certainly groundbreaking and the best bits are up there with the best ever comedies, but it was inconsistent. I think the films (and spin offs – e.g. Fawlty Towers, Ripping Yarns) were much more focused and funnier.
MASH has dated very badly and if ever you approach an episode “directed by Alan Alda” you should seek sugar-free alternatives.
Mrs Brown’s Boys
Started drinking early today?
Still going from last night
Arf!
A recent Irish comedy I did enjoy a lot was The Young Offenders, set in Cork. Much better than Derry Girls, I thought. (The worst of that sort of teenage comedy was The Inbetweeners, which I thought was puerile, homophobic shite.)
I’m suprised no one’s mentioned the rather brilliant This Country.
I love This Country but it’s more wry smile than laugh out loud.
The Inbetweeners was about teenagers? How come it was full of thirty-year-olds? Some kind of Blue Remembered Hills deal?
This Country, yes. One of my favourites of recent years.
The Young Offenders scores 8.1 on !MDB.
But it’s the fact that you mentioned it, Gary, that really makes me interested.
There seems to be a feature film too.
Looking at the dates, it seems the TV show was a spinoff from the film.
I guessed right. The film came first. And reading this interview make me even keener to see both. I do like it that they have kept it all very Cork-y and not diluted the local references.
https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2018/0210/939726-there-was-no-softening-young-offenders-for-uk-viewers/
I liked the film too, but if you do manage to get hold of it, be warned that the Christmas special at the end of the first season is terrible. The only misfire in an otherwise great programme.
Ripping Yarns
Rutland Weekend Television.
Black pudding’s very black today, mother
https://youtu.be/lpuJBtcMMp8
True Story: My brother, on business and staying at a modest Sheffield hotel spied Michael Palin at breakfast. He sidled up to him at the hot buffet and suggested he try the black pudding. ‘So black … even the white bits are black’. Michael seemed genuinely amused apparently. But then he would. Such a genial chap.
Whistle Test
I bought a DVD box set of Black Books in a charity shop – probably the best 2 quid I ever spent.
Red Dwarf is consistently good.
And I know these 3 inside out but still makes me laugh like a fool:
Young Ones
Filthy Rich and Catflap
Bottom
Linehan’s imperial period still sparkles:
Father Ted (especially the Graham Norton episode)
Black Books
The IT Crowd (the one imperfection being Noel Fielding’s character)
Green Wing was genius (the recent tragic death of music composer Jonathan Whitehead revealed that much of the music was written before the filming, with the actors reacting to it)
Friday Night Dinner delighted me and mine all the way through, right up to its glorious ending. Anything with Mark Heap is likely to be good anyway, but the ensemble here was spot-on.
Schitts Creek, obv. Lotta episodes, mind.
Arrested Development – too many episodes in the end (see also Dexter in the crime genre) but early doors perfection.
Oh yes, and This Country. And The Detectorists.
I’m glad F R & C gets the props it deserves now, because it tanked at the time.
“Desist, I say, or it may be the worst for you…”
Father Ted
I hadn’t seen one episode of Father Ted until about 2015, when I bought the DVD box set, to see what all the fuss was about.
It was worth the wait.
One of the first pieces of library music I worked on (but didn’t write) was with Keith Mansfield for an album of War themed music. That piece ended up being used during the Father Ted scene where they’re trying to escape the lingerie section.
Leading my list of shows that still reliably make me laugh like a drain are Seinfeld, The IT Crowd, Father Ted, and The Phil Silvers Show, which I was surprised not to see anyone else mention. I was also shocked to discover that my top table features not one but two Graham Linehan shows.
I’ve not seen either in a while but I’d be very surprised if Parks and Rec and The Office (US) didn’t still tickle me every bit as much as they did first time round.
Two shows that I remember thinking were the funniest things ever are Arrested Development and 30 Rock. I’ve not seen either of those in a while either but I suspect they wouldn’t have worn quite so well.
My FAVOURITE comedy is The Thick of It. But it’s more caustic and witty than funny.
I think the FUNNIEST show has to be Father Ted. It set a very high bar for quotability and belly laughs.
I tend to favour British over American comedy. And I think British comedy is in a healthy place at the moment. The last few years have brought us This Country, The Detectorists, Lee and Dean, Back, Stath Lets Flats, …. oh I can’t be bothered listing them all!
Father Ted
Blackadder (series 2 onwards)
I love a list.
INPO
OFAH
How do you want me?
Happiness
Seinfeld
Rising damp.
Fawlty towers
Cheers (haven’t watched it in 30 years & suspect it may not seem as good to a grumpy 64 year old).
Frasier (my love of this went downhill when I found out that Kelsey Grammar was a big Trump supporter).
This country
Inbetweeners
Larry Sanders
Porridge
The Office (never seen the US version)
Extras
Fawlty towers
Vicar of Dibley
The thick of it
Curb your enthusiasm
Whatever happened to the likely lads
(I fancy being a long distance lorry driver & go to Belgium – why Belgium? – it’s where they go… )
Simpson’s
Fleabag
Father Ted
Family guy
In other words, just about the same as most folk here.
Channel 4 started showing all of Cheers a couple of months ago, with two episodes every weekday at around 9.00. I thought it would be disappointing, but it’s still very funny. They manage to keep the Sam and Dianne story moving, without it becoming dominant, and the other characters all have snappy dialogue as well.
They’ve just got to the series where Dianne has left and Rebecca joins. I remember thinking at the time it went off then, because her storylines were a bit contrived, but I’ll give it a go.
When it was first on, I thought all of the bar characters were well into middle-age, but one episode turns on Norm having a birthday – he’s only 36! as was George Wendt at the time.
For consistency, longevity and overall rat-a-tat fabulousness, Cheers has my vote. Still stands up remarkably well. Just rewatched the episode where Sam is introduced to Rebecca for the first time. His reaction had me falling off the sofa all over again, thirty years later. Hope you enjoy it!
I always found most enjoyment in Cheers in the supporting characters. The Sam/Diane/Rebecca stuff got in the way of Norm, Cliff and Frasier.
You should watch the US version of the Office. The first few episodes, where it copies episodes from the original version are a bit of a letdown, but get past those and you’re in for a treat. The original version focuses on the four main characters, but the US one fleshes out all the others. You’ll be a bit irritated by Dwight to start with, and Andy later on, but that soon wears off. And Pam is gorgeous. But Steve Carell is just perfect.
Too many to list, so I’ll just go with the very best.
Seinfeld
So many, but I go for
Seinfeld
Frasier
Community – the most inventive
Modern family
Normally the early years are the best, and most shows overstay their welcome, seinfeld excepted.
A very peculiar practice is a great shout, and I would mention the Beiderbecke Affair series, both had Barbara Flynn which is always a good thing.
Mrs Cracker (in more ways than one)
Modern Family is excellent but Twang Jr watched it constantly for months and now i can’t stand it.
I love Community. Even the gas leak year.
I was worried for Donald Glover when he left to be a rapper. I mean how could that go well?
The Phil Silvers Show (a.k.a Bilko) – you’d never guess I’m a big fan, would you?
The first series is now nearly 70 years old, but it remains an absolute gem of comedy writing and performance.
Yes, it was the best. Would go with Cheers (and/or Frasier) in 2nd place, Seinfeld 3rd. A US clean sweep. Reginald Perrin gets 4th then Dads Army 5th for me.
And I forgot Hancock or Hancock’s Half Hour
The “Super Chicken” segments of “George Of The Jungle.”
They are all on Youtube – hadn’t seen them in 50 years, but they crack me up every time I watch.
Roger Ramjet still rules supreme, though.
A lot of my favourites are already taken. In particular Frasier. The father sons dynamic is brilliant and Niles is one the great comedy characters. I’ve been catching up on Steptoe and Son, father / son again and similar to Frasier in some ways, following a similar discussion on Twitter. My god it’s good. The episode with Leonard Rossiter as escaped con is about as good as situation comedy gets.
Detectorists
Corner Gas
Schitts Creek
Seinfeld
Frasier
The Office (US)
Babes in the Wood
‘Orrible
Some more not yet mentioned all Antipodean
Kath and Kim – though Kimderella is I would contend the worst
Film ever the 30 minuters are genius. Woine toime!
Summer Heights High – full of triggers but the drama teacher Greg Gregson…
Flight of the Conchords
Summer Heights High is fantastic.
My first thought was Bilko aka the Phil Silvers Show. It was so consistent and, with Fawlty Towers, was one of the few programmes my father, brother and I used to watch and laugh through together.
I’ll add my agreement with many above…
Father Ted
Bottom
Black Books
The IT Crowd
Some I haven’t seen mentioned above unless I missed them are…
Spaced
Big Train
Alexei Sayle’s Stuff
Shooting Stars
early Red Dwarf
A Touch of Cloth (Charlie Brooker’s “tribute” to Police Squad)
Duckman was a brilliantly funny animation series that seems to have been forgotten.
Stuff…. Steamboat Fattie, The Film Critics Strike, the now-unbroadcastable “Who’s a Jew” sketch… brilliant
Surprised no-one has mentioned Brass yet.
Spaced.
Frasier. He really should have married Ros at the end of it all.
Porridge
Flowery Twats
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. ‘Morning Joan, 12 minutes late. Elephants on the line at Woking’
Having gone down to the shed yesterday and fished out 3 rather damp Reggie Perrin books, can I point out (having started reading Volume 1) that Reggie’s train was always 11 minutes late, not 12.
Much as I loved the TV series, I have to say the books are better. I’m currently feeling Reggie’s pain as he tries to make sense of his existence.
@salty
Wish I still had the books in a damp shed. Think I borrowed them from the library…just fabulous
I got them from the library also (probably a different one), there were some fairly dodgy side plots IIRC.
Recent outings have been patchy, but the first series of I’m Alan Partridge was a masterpiece. 6 perfectly realised episodes.
https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fall_and_Rise_of_Reginald_Perrin
Likely Lads/Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads.
Even the film was brilliant.
It’s really 50% post-war documentary, 50% comedy. Should be taught in schools.
I remember really liking “It Takes A Worried Man.” I think I was the only viewer.
Every episode was the same:
We see a middle-aged man, depressed at home, depressed in his job, being depressed in the first 15 minutes, and, after the ad-break, he goes to see his psychiatrist (the wonderful Nicholas Le Provost) who, like Doc Morrissey in Reggie Perrin, is more screwed up than he is.
I remember liking worried man, but the only thing I remember in detail is his psychiatrist complaining to him about his clients and saying, ‘some of my patients are bloody lunatics!’
Key line in the Likely Lads film from Rodney Bewes: “…..I couldn’t give a shit”. Top-notch weltschmerz.
“I’d offer you a beer, but I’ve only got six cans”
That’s my favourite.
If I’d gone to the cricket (fishing, in Terry’s case) with 6 cans and/or bottles and someone, anyone, even a member of the family, presumed they could have one of them, I’d be really pissed off!
I saw a repeat on a Sky Channel a few years ago, and the “I couldn’t give a shit,” and “It’s the only time this evening, I’ve known what he’s had in his hand” lines had both been edited from the film.
Why? Neither line, even in the afternoon, is that offensive, surely?
With the shit line, it’s not the “expletive” that’s offensive, it’s the cosmic bleakness. You don’t want to be presenting that idea to people watching TV in the afternoon who may not have much to live for.
(Not talking from personal experience, obvs)
Terry: ‘It wasn’t my fault, Thelma. It wasn’t my fault’
By the cringe….
Did Thelma call?.
No
Are you sure?
Positive. We haven’t got a phone.
(Fireman have had to rescue Bob from a roof who had gone up to fetch a football)
‘We’ve got better things to do with taxpayers money’
‘Keeps your hand in, doesn’t it? Better than polishing your bell all afternoon’
Yes, the sequel is wonderful. Original series not as good though.
Any love for Early Doors? That made me laugh, and the Laurence Llewellyn Bowen gag was brilliant.
Also Green Wing.
Nighty Night – available for a few more days on the iplayer.
Since watching it, Marillion’s Lavender has been renamed by me “Love theme from Nighty Night”.
To be fair, anything from Julia Davis is splendid. Ok, probably deeply worrying but ever so, ever so funny, closer to more knuckles than Frankie.
re Early Doors, the actor who played Tommy passed away earlier this year, and this clip was doing the rounds in tribute. Absolute comedy gold
Brilliant.
Yeah, I’ve got time for that.
Also, that Craig Cash comedy about a non-league football team called “Rovers.”
When the girl in leathers says to the guy who lives with his mum, “I’m not wearing any underwear,” and he says, breathily, “Neither am I.”
Believe me, that is pure, undiluted, Essex Senior League banter.
And I thought I was the only one who watched Rovers – ‘Emperor!’
Yes, was going to mention this. Great gags, characters and warm hearted above all. The final episode was great.
The Royle family was good for the first two series, but lost its way
Bilko – brilliant.
When I were a lad we used to watch Hogan’s Heroes, set in a POW camp. It’s very silly, but great fun.
Twenty Twelve and W1A are superb.
Ripping Yarns – favourite one is still the Eric Olthwaite one. So boring his miner father pretended to be French to avoid talking to his son.
I have been all the way down this thread looking for a mention so chuffed to bits someone beat me to it.
For my money it is pretty much flawless & holds the crown for the best opening scene of any comedy. Ken cleaning the toilets while singing The Greatest Love of All
You won’t take away myyyyyyyyy digniiittttyyyyyyy
I’ll go for Father Ted.
My teenage girls watch Friends and they love it.
In NZ we have Golden Boy, which is a comedy set in a tiny, remote rural NZ town. Their one claim to fame is that an astoundingly unintelligent young All Black comes from there. He is by no means the main character though. The cast is basically a roll call of young NZ comedians, including Rose Matafeo.
I agree with those above who opted for Bilko. It’s ancient in TV terms, but Phil Silvers et al are absolutely timeless – & it was live!
Loads of others, but for all their greatness, I think they are also rans behind the master.
So, in no particular order,
Frasier,
Father Ted
I’m Alan Partridge
Community
The Larry Sanders Show
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Titus Andromeda is one modern comedy’s great creations)
Warty Towels
Bob’s Burgers
& once upon a time, Rosanne (pre racist lunacy era obvs.).
Oops, forgot The Mighty Boosh – at its best (Tony Harrison & Kirk) it had me struggling to breathe.
Oops Pt 2- Brooklyn 99 – fantastic!
Yup
100%. Rewatching them slowly over lockdown & they are even better 2nd time round. One of the few comedies that gives me a genuine belly laugh every episode
Any love for Monkey Dust?
Apart from a single mention of Shooting Stars, I’m surprised that Vic & Bob have not been mentioned (although I think Bob is at his best as a guest on Would I Lie To You)
Taskmaster has been the most consistently funny British TV show in the last few years. There’s generally one moment in every episode that has me howling and every series is a slow burn as the hidden characters of the participants come to the fore.
Having recently discovered and devoured Stath Lets Flats I’m relieved to have found a classic British comedy that’s being made right now; nothing had quite hit the spot for me for some time now.
Human Remains and Marion & Geoff were two slight bit mighty series, which suggested that Rob Brydon was destined for great things. I think he’s never quite made good on that early promise, although he’s done plenty since.
Master Of None was very enjoyable, but you probably had to get it all watched before Aziz Ansari got himself cancelled. Same goes for Louis; I thought it was brilliant but the memory of watching it is a touch uneasy now that you know he was knocking one out in front of every aspiring young female comic in Manhattan for years. And refuses to be repentant for that behaviour.
On Louis CK, he is repentant. Very much so. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/louis-ck-statement-read-in-full-sexual-harassment-masturbation-allegations-latest-a8048946.html
I’m afraid some of his work since has been not quite so contrite. A bit of victim mentality creeping in to the special that I saw, post allegations and revelations. He’s an incredibly gifted comedian and I have reservations about the extent to which cancel culture seeks to decide who we can and can’t watch/listen to, but he’s been tone deaf and inconsistent on his predicament as far as I can see.
However, he has plenty of time and no little opportunity to redeem himself for as long as he is motivated to get up and speak into a microphone.
Yes. Taskmaster. It’s got funnier as the series have got longer. The editing is masterful and the additional clips on YouTube suggest that some episodes could be much longer and retain (or add to) the humour quotient. The other main game show that Alex Horne was involved with (We Need Answers) certainly had it’s moments as well.
My favourite British sitcoms of recent years are Man Down & Game Face.
I enjoy Taskmaster too. Some great tasks. “Impress this Mayor” (S2E3) and “Get to 11 Points as Fast as Possible” (S1E4) are my two favourites so far. Lots of great guests too. I partcularly liked Phil Wang in his ridicuous outfit. Bob Mortimer, obviously. And James Acaster always ignoring Alex Horne made me smile every time. Did you know there’s been a US version too? Pretty crap according to this chap:
How could I forget?
I love/loved Episodes & recently binged on it on Netflix.
Watching Olivia Coleman as Her Maj reminds me of first seeing her on Green Wing.
A wonderfully wacky show which also launched the careers of Tamsin Grieg and Mark Heap of Friday Night Dinner among others.
Priceless.
The Smack the Pony team were a driving force behind it according to IMDB.
That was a wonderful show.
Mark Heap was well-known already to viewers of Brass Eye.
“You gay sod!” was his catchphrase.
Fiona Allen. The proverbial on a stick.
Just watched the first Smack the Pony episode…that had two of the funniest things in it I have seen this year.
The lost child police interviews and the women in the hairdresser sketches are absolutely brilliant.
As someone who is rather out of touch with the latest in British TV comedy, this thread is very useful.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
No love for Futurama? A wonderfully witty show bursting with ideas.
Very please to see all my agent getting a mention. French comedy on both the small and the large screen is on a roll.
I was a huge fan of Not the Nine O’Clock News. Seemed to be a Python successor at the time, although a lot of the comedy was rooted in contemporary news and current affairs. Their songs really did shine through though and many of them – The Ayatollah Song, Gob On You, I Like Trucking etc remain earworms to this day.
Also a shout out for ITV’s Only When I Laugh. Existential gloom and stellar performances from James Bolam and Peter Bowles.
Howard Goodall wrote a lot of those songs as I recall.
Amazing that Kate Bush gave them permish to use Them Heavy People when their version was so merciless.
So that dude who made those very informative series about 20th century music etc may also have written Nice Video – Shame About The Song..? V. cool!
In the sketch show Man Stroke Woman they had a running gag about an unfortunate baby with over-tired parents. Each one ended with one of them saying “where’s Josh?”
A lot of the shows already mentioned plus ‘Fairly Secret Army’ starring Geoffrey Palmer playing a character similar to Reggie Perrins brother-in-law Jimmy, planning to overthrow the British government.
Also ‘Operation Good Guys’, a spoof documentary about the police.
No love here for the recent Mandy?
This is a great thread. Reminding me of so many forgotten classics.
I would love to see reggie Perrin again.
I’d vote for Harry Hill’s TV Burp in its best days as the funniest tv show – I can’t remember being in so much physical pain from laughing at anything else.
But I think I would pick Peep Show as the best comedy. Almost every just-passing-through character is brilliantly drawn and played and the P.O.V. idea which seems like a gimmick turns out to be the only way you could possibly plumb the depths of self-loathing and self-delusion of the main characters. Also, I think all the will they/won’t they relationships take away from many (especially U.S.) sitcoms. On Peep Show we know there’s no way these guys will ever escape but we and the writers get to enjoy torturing them with the possibility..
Has anyone mentioned Cardiac Arrest or Scrubs?
Nurses anyone?
I think I’m following a theme….
Cardiac arrest was a comedy? I thought it a ducumentary. Jed Mercurio’ s first flight, written when he was an SHO at Brum’s QE hospital. Terrific.
No Offence is doing sort of the same for police tropes.
Well, it made me laugh!
It was fantastically and fabulously dark. Great TV but a bit much for the public, I suspect.
Do not Adjust your Set
Marty
I often wonder if it was my love of Do Not Adjust Your Set that has forever skewed my comedy tastes or if it was made for people like me. I went to a fancy dress party at my Junior school when I was about 9 or 10 dressed as a Blip Man and couldn’t really get to grips with the fact that only one other person knew what I was supposed to be when it was pretty much my favourite show a the time.
Apparently no mention yet of Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister. Not only funny but mostly still relevant despite its age.
Been devouring lots of old favourites recently, Peep Show, The Office, Phoenix Nights, Partridge, Curb, Royle Family etc. Thank God for streaming
A few I don’t think have been mentioned yet;
Veep – Some of the best dialogue ever written IMHO. Check out the YouTube ‘best veep insults’ for proof
Malcolm In The Middle – It lost it’s way for quite a bit, but when it is at it’s best not much comes close.
A Touch of Cloth – Charlie Brookers love letter to Airplane (clip below)
Him & Her – Lot’s of really unlikeable characters played brilliantly & really well written
Mum – Same writer as Him & Her but more heartwarming
Yes to Him & Her – even bigger yes for Mum. Wonderful from start to perfectly judged finish.
Anything Partridge related, but especially The Day Today, Knowing me Knowing You, 1st I’m Alan Partridge and Mid Morning Matters.
Watched The Thick of It many times, love it.
Marion and Geoff, Brydon is superb, laugh out loud funny, brilliantly plotted and genuine pathos.
As a panel show Would I Lie To You is great entertainment.
Peep Show and IT Crowd as mentioned by many others.
And as for one off series Nathan Barley, but the funniest TV of the last 20 years for me would be the fantastic Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
Anything Partridge related – words to live by
People like Us, which was one of the first comedies to pick up on the fly on the wall documentaries which were around in the nineties and use the style for comedy. Each week, the reporter followed around someone to see what their job was about – an estate agent, an actor and so on.
It predated The Office, but there are some similarities, the sudden awareness that they are on camera, awkward pauses and the characters saying more than the realise they are. Chris Langham played the reporter, who is heard but not seen except a couple of times as a reflection in a window. The subjects were played by well- known names like Bill Nighy and Tamsin Greig. Sadly, never repeated, I suppose due to Chris Langham’s participation. Very funny in a deadpan way.
One of my favourites, and one of those Radio 4 transfers that managed to work equally well in both formats. Created by John Morton before Twenty Twelve and W1A. Apparently the budget didn’t stretch to both a third series of PLU and the first series of The Office, and the rest is history.
Young Ones
The Office (UK version)
Extras (season 1)
Frasier
I’m Alan Partridge (Season 1)
Blackadder (2,3 & 4)
Inbetweeners
Not the nine o’clock news
Early Doors
Phoenix Nights
Curb your enthusiasm
Vic Reeves’ Big night out
The thick of it
VRBNO is why I can often be found darkly muttering the words “very poor…. very poor indeed” and find the word “harness” funny after all these years.
Recently there was that detectorist who found a “complete brass horse harness”. The news items it generated had me laughing long after they’d moved onto the usual earthquakes/terrorism/new Ed Sheeran album disaster stories.
Mrs M’s eyes narrowed. Narrowed I tell you.
I was listening to I am the Walrus and wondered if they had ever done the Man with the Stick bit featuring scenes from the song.
Semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower,
Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog’s eye,
Bono in a boob tube hiding peanuts in a glove
Very poor indeed.
My favourite was “Spandau Ballet laughing at an orphan who’s fallen off his bike…these pop stars, it doesn’t surprise me”
Kick Up The Eighties, just for the Kevin Turvey bits. I don’t remember anything else about that series. And Rik Mayall’s ‘Man Behind the Green Door,’ his Kevin Turvey special, still makes me laugh.
Another fan of the Turvmeister here, and I’m one up on you because I can remember precisely one other bit from Kick up The 80s – Robbie Coltrane playing a Russian who says, “Political jokes? I will tell you a political joke – Michael Heseltine, aa-aa-aa”
Dad’s Army
Porridge
Fawlty Towers
M*A*S*H
Cheers
Frasier
Roseanne
Oh yes, Dad’s Army!
Has anyone mentioned “15 Storeys High”?
That was pretty good.