My last post about Community got me thinking about my personal list
of favorite comedy programs. I'm not really a fan of drama on TV. Of
course, there are exceptions (The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Good Wife,
Deadwood), but I would rather laugh than cry or be tense. Comedies also
usually have less staying power than Dramas, so it is interesting to see
how many of my favorite comedy programs lasted few years. So, here is
my initial power rankings of my favorite comedy programs. A few notes
about this:
1.) I'm only ranking comedy programs of
which I have seen a majority of episodes or enough to basically
understand the show fully; therefore the following are invalid: 30 Rock,
The Office, Parks & Rec, The Big Bang Theory, Eastbound
& Down, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Entourage, Will &
Grace, Scrubs, Sex and the City, Frasier, other random old shows not
listed and many others. Of course, this means I like every show on the
list. That makes sense since if I didn't like it, I wouldn't keep
watching it, and therefore wouldn't watch it enough to have it qualify.
2.)
I'm ranking past shows and current, and for the current, I'll indicate
if that show is trending up (has a chance to get higher) or trending
down (the opposite). I haven't seen much comedy pre-Seinfeld, so nothing
from there (I Love Lucy, Cheers, etc. is ineligible).
3.)
I've specified 'comedy programs' because this is more about any show on
TV where the point is to make the audience laugh. So live shows are
included, fake news shows, sketch shows. It isn't limited to just
sitcoms.
Anyway, let's get to the list.
20.) Saturday Night Live (since 2004 - when I started watching)
Obviously,
the show has been going on long before I started watching TV, and there
have been numerous "golden eras" of the show before 2004, but that is
when I started watching. Saturday Night Live to me has always been an
enigma. Individually, the people are almost always really talented. Bill
Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte and Darrell Hammond could do about
anything and I would laugh. The other players during this time (Fey and
Poehler in the beginning, Rudolph, Samberg, Wiig, Keenan, Armisen) have
all been talented. But to me, this era of Saturday Night Live has been
less than the some of its parts, always underserving talented cast
members, rehashing unfunny stuff and not being original enough. If I had
one suggestion to Lorne and the rest of the SNL guys it would be to
play original sketchs and not rehash and re-do so many old sketches.
Even the good ones eventually get tired. That said, the best part about
this era of SNL was the advent of the digital short (which might be on
the way out with Samberg reportedly leaving). From their breakthrough
with 'Lazy Sunday' to seeing Natalie Portman rap, to 'Dick in a Box'
through the iconic 2008-09 season which saw the Lonely Island bros.
knock out 'Jizz In My Pants', 'Like a Boss' and the best 'I'm On a
Boat.' Saturday Night Live in that way adjusted to this new exciting
medium. Along the way, there have been memorable characters and moments,
but this SNL era for me is represented by the digital short, Tina Fey's
Palin (and an all-around great 2008 election season) and way too many
actors as hosts. And of course, Peyton Manning's brilliant turn as the
host.
19.) Modern Family (Trending Down)
I'll
admit that I did find the first season of Modern Family to be mostly
brilliant. The representation of Cam and Mitchell was well done,
Gloria's eccentric Venezuelan-ness was still new and hilarious, and I
could look at Julie Bowen all day. What irks me about Modern Family is
that it hasn't tried to grow at all (other than having Lily, well,
literally grow). Mitchell and Claire are even more self-righteous.
Gloria is still loud. Manny is still a man trapped in a kid. Haley is
still a ditz and Alex is still the smart one. All of these traits and
characterizations seemed fresh in the first season but now seemed
tiresome. Modern Family is still capable of brilliant moments, and they
mostly are in scenes and episodes where the entire family is together,
but individually its becoming pretty weak. Nothing is worse, though,
than Cam becoming such a stereotypically gay man. Cam in Season 1 was
great because not only was the large, high-pitched gay man, but also an
ex-football player and farmer and tough clown. For a man that played
football, why is he now often depicted of having that effeminate way of
running? Surely he couldn't do that on the football field. The biggest
bright spot for the show over the last two seasons is that Luke has
become a hilarious character. One of my favorite side-plots of any
comedy show this past season was his bizarre, unexplained, hatred of
Lily, Cam and Mitchell's baby. I understand why the show is loved, and
I'll admit is still does have superb acting and is good at emotional
moments, but it is far more broad than the show it started out as, and
for a show that drew ratings big-time from the outset, I'm not sure why
it changed.
18.) SportsNight
If
I could only judge it by Season 1, it would be far higher up. Aaron
Sorkin is a master of dialogue, and to me, his magnum opus in this
regard in SportsNight (and particularly the first season, which he had a
much bigger hand in). The story of CSN, the #3 sports network (since
they do refer to ESPN, I can only imagine what the #2 network was
supposed to be) through the eyes of their two anchors, the stat
researcher geek who lands to hot director assistant, and the showrunner
and her boss. The acting was brilliant all around (particularly Felicity
Huffman as Dana). Of course, the writing, fit with all the usual
Sorkinesian banter and back-and-forths was impressive. The only reason
why SportsNight is not higher up is that the plots were all a little
flat. I never, ever bought into Casey McCall's relationship with Dana,
nor did I totally believe the whole "nerd gets the hot girl" arc with
Jeremy and Natalie. It all seemed a little too easy, I guess. The second
season become far too serialized in this sense which was distinctly
different from the first season where most of the plots were simply
about the show itself. The best comedies to me, especially ones like
SportsNight about specific businesses, make working there seem fun, and
I've never wanted to work in Sports media more than seeing Casey and Dan
each night, and the fun all around for the Continental Sports Network.
It really was a shame that Aaron Sorkin decided to give up on
SportsNight to focus more on The West Wing. I understand it from
Sorkin's perspective, but he gave up on something that could have been a
lot more special than the very good show it was.
17.) That 70's Show
Of
any sitcom on this list, That 70's Show is the one I have seen the
least of. I didn't really watch it when it was actually out, but over
the past couple summers I have watched it DVRed on re-runs on Nick at
Nite (which makes me feel really old). I think it is criminally
underrated by critics. Sure, it wasn't groundbreaking. It wasn't
especially accurate at depicting life in the 70's. However, it had a
deep cast full of good characters. Other than Fez, who was broad from
the start, they had control over the characters for the run of the show.
Each character had their own voice and it all mixed well. It is amazing
looking back and seeing actors that would go on to do memorable things
grow up as actors on the show (especially Mila Kunis, who was really raw
in the beginning). What I really loved about the show was it embraced
the fact that these were six friends in a open era, and paired them up
constantly. I also loved those 'Circle' scenes, which were always fun.
Not a great show, but it deserves to be mentioned more fondly than it
is.
16.) Happy Endings (Trending Up)
Of
all the current shows on this list (6 of the 17, not counting three
who's spots are mostly set in stone, since they aren't serials) Happy
Endings has the chance to rise the most. It's a weird show where I fully
believe in my heart that creator David Caspe and the rest of the group
totally changed the show after it started. The genesis of the show is
Alex flees from her wedding to long-time mate Dave, and those two and
their four mutual friends have to deal with the consequences. Honestly,
that show sucked. They basically gave up on it halfway through the first
season and turned Happy Endings into a rapid-fire joke sprint that
centered around the wacky lives of six friends in Chicago. Since two of
the six are married (the crazy-in-love Brad and Jane, which might be
right behind Marshall and Lily for my favorite TV Comedy Marriage) and
one of the others in gay (Max, right behind Barney as best supporting
character for me as well), the relationship tension is minimal, but that
is fine. Just like Arrested Development, I don't give a shit about the
plot. The brilliance of the show is the writing, the timing, the acting
and the set-up. It's just many, many jokes per minute at a rate faster
than anything I have seen since Arrested. It's not as smart and savvy
(there aren't many visual jokes and call-backs) but it is as referential
and witty. The end of the 2nd Season hinted at some more relationship
stuff, but they handled it well. The show also features my favorite
current running gag which is Elisha Cuthbert's character, Alex, eating a
shit-ton of food at all times. Also, Happy Endings figured out how to
utilize Casey Wilson's many talents far better than SNL ever did. The
only issue is that Dave is a rather boring character surrounded by 5
goofballs, but they turned that into a meta-joke late in S2 and I loved
that too. Look out for Happy Endings over the next two years.
15.) Friends
If
I was judging Friends by its first two seasons, it would be much
higher. Friends in S1-2, where there was only one real romantic
story-arc between the cast (Ross & Rachel, which back then was
truly brilliantly constructed over the first two seasons), was witty,
smart and openly hilarious. After that, it turned into a something of a
comedy soap. The acting was still good, and it was funny, but Friends in
its later seasons focused too much on relationships, and maybe more
than any long running show on this list, it lost the sense of its
characters. Many shows that last a long time are criticized for turnings
its round characters into one-note caricatures as time goes on, where
each characters particular eccentricity overtakes the character as a
whole. For Friends, this virus affected almost every character. Joey
went from a slightly air-headed actor to a complete idiot (early seasons
showed Joey's level of inteligence to basically be comparable to
Phoebe's). Ross became way too sappy and emotional. Monica became a
neurotic, raging bitch as her OCD escalated. That said, the show did
have a pull, and more than maybe any other show, any combination of its
characters had chemistry and worked. Also, early Chandler Bing may be my
favorite comedy character of all time. Friends was far too famous for
what it deserved, and lost its brilliance as time went on (I mark the
end of Friend's brilliance with Ross saying "Rachel" and Monica and
Chandler hooking up) but for a while, it was Gold.
14.) Freaks and Geeks
I
wrestled with putting it on the list for two reasons; 1 - it was an
hour long dramedy that wasn't all that funny all the time, and 2 - it
was only on the air for one truncated season. It was damn good in that
one season, but who knows what the show would have done had more seasons
come. The characters were all in high school anyway, so I really wonder
what Season 2-4 of Freaks and Geeks would have been. That said, it was
too good not to put it on the list. I don't revere it the way some do,
and think that it was a little too sappy at times and understanding (I
never understood why Lindsay was fully accepted by the 'Freaks' in the
first place, or why Cindy Sanders would ever give Sam a once-over), but
it did give a great representation of high school as a whole. Freaks and
Geeks should also get credit for being quite a good period piece,
representing high school in the early 80's accurately. Freaks and Geeks
was led by a comedy genius in Judd Apatow, and had great actors that
have gone on to do well (Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segel, John
Francis Daley), and these combined to create an excellent show for 18
episodes. My struggle is would this show have continued at that lofty
pace for another 50. That is really hard to do, and especially for a
show that at the outset starts off at a very transient age bracket with
15-18 year old characters.
13.) How I Met Your Mother (Trending Steady)
Oh,
how this pains me to place it so low. The good news is after Season 5,
it probably would have been lower. I'm done thinking this show will ever
come close to what HIMYM was the first two seasons, but each of the
last few years has been consistently good enough. Anyway, it is better
to talk about the show when it was one of the best sitcoms on TV. In its
first two seasons, HIMYM may have been the hippest show on television.
The random things they created (Slapbet, Robin Sparkles, The Naked Man,
etc.) were all great. The show did a great job connecting with the
audience outside of the half-hour on Monday, creating dozens of fake
web-sites from the show. I still say that HIMYM can do emotional moments
better than any other sitcom on television today (just cue up the
entirety of Marvin Eriksen's death and funeral from Season 6 for proof),
but it has lost some of that incredible charm and mystery from S1-3. I
think the narrator telling the kids (and transitively, the audience)
that the day Ted meets the mother is the wedding has both solidified the
show (no longer was in just floating in limbo like Seasons 4-5) but
also hampered it, as all of Ted's relationships in-between we know end
in failure. I feel sad for the creators (Carter Bays and Craig Thomas)
because they probably never envisioned HIMYM lasting nearly this long,
and they have to stretch out what they most likely had pegged as a
5-year story, but that is the spoils of success at times. When it is
done, I'll probably only remember the good times, where it was the most
inventive, savvy 'traditional' sitcom I have ever seen.
12.) Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody
Loves Raymond and Friends were essentially siblings, both put on the
air and eventually taken off the air within one year of each other. To
me, Friends was the better show originally, and because of the fame of
its actors and its hip connectivity to the 20-somethings, it will
forever be the more 'important' show, but to me, Raymond is better in
totality. Unlike Friends, Raymond never lost what it had in the
beginning, and you can make the argument it became better over time (a
lot of this for me has to do with the fact that I enjoyed the kids more
as kids than toddlers and babies). Everybody Loves Raymond followed the
same formula for episodes for nine years, and my God was it successful.
It helped that the cast was brilliant. Unlike Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Romano
is a damn good actor (just see his work on Men of a Certain Age) and
the whole cast, from Doris Roberts to Patricia Heaton to Brad Garrett to
the late great Peter Boyle, had tremendous chemistry with each other. I
could listen to that family argue with each other for days. In a lot of
ways, they were a precursor to Arrested Development as it was a fresh
take on the family sitcom. Instead of trying to create laughs out of a
normal family, Raymond created an incredibly strange, spirited family
and presented it as traditional. In the end, because of this and other
successes, Ray Romano might be one of the most underrated comic minds of
the last 20 years.
11.) Community (Trending Down)
I
had a real hard time placing Community, a show I spent about 1,500
words bashing just three days ago. At its best, it was the best sitcom
on TV (at the time) by far. Episodes like Remedial Chaos Theory (which
is so universally praised and still not overrated), their original
paintball episode 'Modern Warfare', their first homage with a Goodfellas
parody in 'Contemporary American Poultry' and others were just a lot
better than anything comedic on TV. My issue was that it appeared in
parts of Season 2 and throughout much of Season 3 that it was trying to
hard to appease to its fan-boy niche, and create a show that was more
about what its fans wanted than what it was good at. It's homages were
initially used sparingly, but late in Season 3 it became almost every
other episode. It got trapped in its own brilliance. Because when
Community did those episodes right it was magic, it gave Community, in
my mind, a sense of invincibility that it could accomplish any homage
and concept no matter how abstract, which made their strikeouts more
prevalent. I have no idea what Community will be without Dan Harmon. My
guess is it will be more of a witty, smart show about seven weird
friends in a Community College, which is essentially what it was in
Season 1. I loved that show too, more than much of the 3rd season.
However, it will never be what it was at its best, which is the best
experimental comedy I have ever seen.
Now we get to the Top
10, where all of these shows are brilliant. It was hard for me to
actually decide on a ranking of this Top 10 other than the final four,
which I knew going in. They all have just amazing moments and qualities.
10.) Parks & Recreation (Trending Steady)
I'll say this, other than maybe Everybody Loves Raymond, and the shows at numbers 1 and 2 on the list, I have never seen a comedy so incredibly consistent. Other than S1, when the show clearly started out way too much like The Office and then experimented before finding itself with the S1 finale 'The Rock Show', I have yet to see a bad episode of Parks and Recreation. Now, it doesn't reach the magnificent heights that Community can, and it hit home runs at the same frequency as How I Met Your Mother did in its first two seasons, but it smacks a double each time up. I have never seen a show mix genuine, sweet, emotional scenes with witty, smart humor this effortlessly. I have just two complaints about the show: 1.) I could do without Rob Lowe's character, as I find him just a little too broad for the show; 2.) I wish Mark Brendanawicz didn't get written off, which I know is an inexplicable belief. Anyway, the cast is, again other than Lowe, perfectly meshed and written. They are as good as any show of satirizing events that are in the news, and mixing in pop-culture. More than anything, they've created this little harmonious world that just seems so much fun. Plus, the fact that it is co-created by a blogging hero (and rabid baseball fan) Michael Schur can't hurt. I think Season 4 was a slight step down from Season 3 (which may have been the most consistent season of comedy I have seen since S2 of HIMYM), but it hasn't lost control like Community. It deserves its place in the Top-10 and has a chance to rise higher (bringing Mark back for another spin might curry some favor).
9.) Whose Line Is It Anyway?
At
its best (Colin and Ryan's banter during games like 'Greatest Hits',
'Infomercial', or 'Scenes From a Hat' or 'Props' or 'Hats') this show
was incredibly funny. The reason it isn't higher is mainly because I
wasn't a fan of some of the games they played (Any singing game other
than 'Greatest Hits', 'Hoedown' or 'Irish Drinking Song', or 'Sound
Effects'). To me, it lives in its best form on Youtube, where I can view
continuous streams of its best moments, and in that forum, there are
few things better. Drew Carey was a solid host (cementing his place in
my personal list of favorite 'hosts' and comics I want to see succeed
mainly because he seemed like such a nice guy), and played off of the
cast well. Wayne Brady is one of the more talented people I have ever
seen, and Colin and Ryan were, well, Colin and Ryan. It was impossible
not to love those two, and they were incredibly sharp. The fourth always
rotated, but I've never not liked or appreciated a cast member. Even
after its real run finished, Whose Line lived on on nightly syndication
at 10 PM on ABC Family. As years have gone on, it's been pushed back to
midnight, and probably it will soon be off the air, but it will live on
in Youtube, and it will be the best example of improv comedy on TV maybe
ever.
8.) The Colbert Report
Speaking
of shows that were hard to place, The Colbert Report will forever be
tied to The Daily Show. To me, the Colbert Report wasn't as
groundbreaking as many think (it is essentially the same basic total
satire of a news show that the original Daily Show with Craig Kilborn
was, or what Weekend Update is at its best), but it is the first to make
the focus the host, and it is by far the smartest. Nothing about the
Report gives me more joy than to see Colbert and his staff just
brilliantly tearing apart the hypocrisy in so much conservative speech
even though giving the facade of a conservative. It is true genius.
Colbert's interviewing style is easily the most entertaining I have ever
seen. I will say that he is a little unfair, because while he usually
is in character with the support of his crowd and is able to say
outlandishly, foolish things without reproach, he then flips sides and
will attack with reality. It isn't really fair to do both. Either way,
it makes for great television. The show is really perfect for Colbert,
who has been able to constantly sell this character for near seven years
now without ever seeming like he was doing schtick that didn't land. I
don't rely on the Report for actual news like the Daily Show, but if I
want to laugh more, I'm going with the acolyte over the master.
7.) Curb Your Enthusiasm (Trending Up)
In
almost the exact same form of the show coming up next, Curb has
rebounded with two really strong seasons back-to-back after a small lull
in the middle (for me, it was S5-6). Curb has become more pointed and
obnoxious of a show in its later years than it was in the beginning
(which was truly just about the audacity and eccentricity of Larry
David), but no less funny. I do miss Cheryl, as she was always a great
foil for Larry, but single Larry David has really been a great creation,
and introduced a new angle to the show, where we can see Larry screw up
relationships in a myriad of ways. To this day, I am shocked that most
of the dialogue the viewer sees is improvised, but it makes for such
realistic speech. I love how Curb has become almost a yardstick to
measure how famous you are. Mostly, the actors that get to play
themselves are people who are actually comedy friends of Larry's (the
Seinfeld cast, Rosie O'Donnell and of course, Richard Lewis), but the
real test of fame in hollywood to me is if you get to play yourself on
Curb, like Ted Danson, John McEnroe, Ricky Gervais or even Michael
Yorke, while seeing who has to play a character. All credit deservedly
goes to the genius that is Larry David (who I think people now realize
was a far bigger part of Seinfeld than most originally thought) who
showed not only how to break the Seinfeld curse, but gave us a real
Seinfeld finale.
6.) It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Trending Up)
It's
time to stop kidding around, Always Sunny is the best basic cable
sitcom ever, and it is not close. It is already the longest running
cable sitcom, and is contracted for at least two more years. It is also
far more groundbreaking than it is given credit for. What Rob McElhenny,
Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day did was basically beat the system. These
three unsuccessful actors decided that instead of auditioning for
roles, they would create their own show. Currently, the people that get
to star in their own show is not a very long list, and it is generally
given to people that were far more successful than these three (Larry
David, Ricky Gervais, Louis CK). FX showed incredible trust and
foresight in giving these three goons a show, and man have they repaid
FX times over. Always Sunny also had a dip in Season 4-5, but has
rebounded with a strong Season 6 and a really good Season 7. They may be
pushing some of the characters (Charlie has become a bit dumber, Dennis
a lot more sociopathic) but the general tone remains. Also, they almost
seamlessly integrated a new central cast member with Danny DeVito, and
that has been magic. I bet Chevy Chase is so upset that he gets saddled
with Pierce, while Danny DeVito has the time of his life portraying
Frank Reynolds. McElhenny, Howerton and Day are really all geniuses as
they have basically created a comedy machine. The show is so much
smarter than it is given credit for, lampooning and satirizing so many
aspects of the world with great takes on the mortgage crisis, American
Idol, the movie Invincible, the movie Million Dollar Baby, the
healthcare system, Facebook, municipal politics, gay marriage, the
modern music industry. It is a show so much more than just five idiots
screaming at each other, and I hope it has a long life ahead of it.
5.) Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
I
believe that this is the show that was on the air the shortest amount
of time of any on the list, and other than mediocre-quality Youtube
videos, it is inaccessible, but it was brilliant. I actually think that
along with the show at #1, this was a show that would do so much better
today, where comedians are becoming more marketable than ever. There
were so many things to love about Tough Crowd, from the great chemistry
between Colin and the regulars (Patrice O'Neal, Greg Giraldo, Jim Norton
and Nick DiPaolo), but here are my top three: 1 - how merciless the
cast and Colin was to anyone who came with prepared stuff and written
lines, 2 - how Colin Quinn fought to keep jokes that bombed on the final
cut, as proof that comedians aren't always perfect in joke delivery, 3 -
how it was the one comedy show to feature prominent conservatives.
Quinn was more of a true independent, but Jim Norton and Nick DiPaolo
were unabashed conservatives. Neither was fully a Bush supporter, but
they were able to cut through a lot of the BS of the left at the time.
The show was cut because Comedy Central thought it was too controversial
and they were already dealing with a racially controversial show in
Chappelle's Show and a political one in The Daily Show, and wanted Colin
Quinn to cut back to mostly pop-culture topics. Colin, thankfully, gave
Comedy Central a "Fuck You" to that request, and the show died with its
legitimacy and honor in tact. (The greatest irony is that it was
replaced essentially by The Colbert Report). I implore anyone watching
to check out Tough Crowd and see smart comedians just sit down and be
funny with each other (and the ones that aren't funny get torn apart by
those that are), and also to watch Patrice O'Neal and Greg Giraldo (not
to mention Jim David and Todd Lynn) at their best before their demise.
The foundation of the show is so strong that I have no doubt it would
have succeeded if it started today.
The Last Four really are a cut above, my personal Mt. Rushmore of Comedy on TV.
4.) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
The
Greatest example of political news satire, the Daily Show keeps
churning along 15 years later (12 with Stewart). Jon has gone from a
wiry, brown haired 30-something, to a gray-haired man pushing 50, and
the show has become more serious and thoughtful (particularly the
interviews) but it is still the best example of smart comedy. To me,
there is no shame to say that you get a lot of your news out from the
Daily Show. It presents the real news, to real stories, and tears them
apart. Jon Stewart's stable of correspondents is so deep that even the
newer ones that are talented (Al Madrigal, Jessica Williams) seem lost
compared to the brilliance of the established vets (Jon Oliver - who I
can't believe doesn't have his own show now, Jason Jones, Sam Bee, Aasif
Mandvi, Wyatt Cenac). His show has been a breeding ground for comedy
gold (Colbert, Carrell and even lesser known names like Rob Riggle, Rob
Corrdry, Ed Helms, Mo Rocca, Matt Walsh). Stewart effortlessly uses
these other talents that surround him to create a show that isn't so
much about him but by him. Unlike Colbert, Jon Stewart really highlights
the idiocracy rampant in Washington (and in America in general even
outside the realm of politics). There is a reason Stewart will win that
'Best Variety Show' Emmy until he finally retires (hopefully around
2030) and that is because the Daily Show is, essentially, perfect.
3.) Chappelle's Show
Here's
another show that would have found even more success had it been airing
today, but my God, was Chappelle's Show just incredibly brilliant in
every way. Nothing tore down racial, political, economic and stylistic
barriers like Chappelle's Show. I feel like it gets unfairly pegged as a
show that fed off of racial tensions and racial differences, but so
many memorable sketches were so far away from racial comedy. Chappelle's
Show was just pure genius at every level, from small hilarious plot
items like Prince being good at basketball and serving waffles, to the
juxtaposition of the Wu-Tang Clan and businessmen, to the stupidity of
The Real World or Making the Band. Chappelle, though, was at his best
when the conversation did stick to race, but not about the prevalence of
race in America, but just the general difference between black and
white. Black Bush, the Special Edition of Law & Order, Wife
Swap, these were more about the different life experiences of black adn
white America, and it was all hilarious. But there were times where
Chappelle took the "easy" way and just riffed and random shit, like his
"When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong" or "A Moment in the life of Li'l John"
or a personal favorite where Chappelle owns a cancer-stricken kid in
street hoops. Obviously, it is painful that Dave walked away from
Chappelle's Show (both this and Tough Crowd ended withing months of each
other - I have a feeling if Comedy Central was running Tough Crowd and
Chappelle along with TDS and Colbert today, it would be a Comedy
power-house) but he left 23 episodes (and hours of extended scenes that
are all great) of pure genius. Chappelle's Show was the best sketch show
ever, even over SNL at its best, and it really isn't all that close.
2.) Seinfeld
The
two biggest reasons for me placing Seinfeld over Curb is that Seinfeld
did it for longer, and more times a year (22-24 episodes a season
against just 10) and did it without cursing and censors, and Seinfeld
was just as funny. The show did change a bit without Larry David in its
last three seasons, but that was going from an A to an A-. The four main
characters were so well defined, and contrasted so well with each
other. Elaine might be one of the funniest female sitcom characters
ever. Kramer is probably the best eccentric/quirky sitcom character, and
no one I have ever seen does physical comedy like Michael Richards. Of
course, George Costanza was brilliant in every way, a more depressed,
more cynical, more bombastic version of Curb's Larry David. That said,
what made Seinfeld truly special were the other characters, with Newman,
Mr. and Mrs. Costanza, Susan, Puddy, and all the other supporting
characters all being well cast and written. It was also such a great
topical show, creating more phrases than any other show I have ever seen
('master of your domain' being my favorite). What Seinfeld really
excelled at was in no small part because the main cast was just four
deep, keeping the four together and letting them play off of each other,
which was always so good. Another subtle thing I loved about Seinfeld
is that the characters laughed, a lot. Too many times in Friends or
other shows did the characters never laugh at each other. That was never
a problem with Seinfeld. It took me a while to truly appreciate how
brilliant it was, but I don't think there will ever be a traditional
sitcom to top Seinfeld.
1.) Arrested Development
I
debated if it merited number one over Seinfeld mainly because Seinfeld
did it for a lot longer than Arrested Development, but really, I just
haven't seen anything close to Arrested Development in terms of
all-encompassing comedy. It could play straight comedy, physical comedy,
puns, references, meta-moments and layers of satire, while adding
visual gags. Watching Arrested Development was really like going on a
treasure hunt for jokes, and they were often subtle, hidden and needed
repeat viewings the unearth. A lot of why this worked was that even when
all this crazy was going on, the cast kept it all natural. The cast in
its entirety was so good at keeping all of the dialogue and situations
mixed with the plausibility of reality. Another thing I really have
grown to admire in Arrested Development, especially when contrasted with
Community, is that it had a cast with 9 main characters (10 if you
count Oscar from Season 2) and really shared air-time and storylines
between all nine pretty evenly. Community has found in increasingly hard
to service seven characters. Arrested Development made it look easy
(and made fun of itself when it failed to, with Michael qupping "I feel
like I haven't seen her" when Maebe was brought up in the 3rd episode of
Season 2 after appearing infrequently in the first two episodes). In
truth, Arrested Development made everything look easy, from writing, to
casting, to directing, to pacing. It is The Wire of comedies, in that it
did everything you can ever ask from a comedy program and did it all
pretty close to perfect. I guess the only knock is that there were no
affecting emotional bits in the show's run, but at its foundation, it
was a comedy. It's job was to make us laugh, and not only did it do
that, but Arrested Development made us think as well.
