The Top Comedies on TV

So I'm planning a whole mini-series if you will of TV-related posts in the coming weeks. Because let's be honest, I'm not just a movie nerd, I'm pretty much an all-around media nerd. If it's media, and it can be watched/read/consumed, I'm probably interested in and at least moderately aware of what's going on there. It's about damn time I brought TV onto this blog, as I spend at least as much time there as I do with movies. It's time to bring in other media.

So here I'm going to rank the top comedies. As is usual with everything else here, this is 100% my opinion, so feel free to disagree... but know I'm probably right.

How does on rank a comedy? Humor is extremely subjective and individual, so no doubt we're going to differ on nuance, but let's be honest, if you're a big Two and a Half Men or How I Met Your Mother fan, with laugh tracks and what I call "misunderstanding" comedy, we probably don't really get along that well. So I'm going to rank comedies based on a mix of quality of writing, quality of characters, laughs produced and overall effectiveness. I'm not going to put forth any Simmons-esque faux statistical analysis and pretend that my evaluation has anything to do with anything other than just my opinion. To clarify further, this post is ranking my current excitement level for each of these shows. I recognize that all of them are at varying points in their lives as shows, with some being relatively new and coming into their own while others are winding down or in their prime. I'm basically ranking, if there was a new episode of each of these shows on tonight, my excitement level to watch each of these shows. Here, in countdown form, are the comedies I most enjoy.

Honorable Mentions: South Park, Wilfred, 30 Rock (two once bright stars at the end of their runs though still occasionally brilliant and a new promising premise that's still in its infancy)

7. Curb Your Enthusiasm
If you don't know (and if you don't, I wonder how you're able to read this successfully), Larry David was the co-creator of probably the greatest comedy in television history, Seinfeld. George Costanza is at least 85% based on him, and needless to say, he made himself a whole ridiculous boatload of cash from the whole experience. Curb, which recently started its 8th season on HBO, is basically a fictionalized version of Larry David's life, where the tremendously wealthy and moderately famous Larry David cavorts about Los Angeles interacting with his friends and famous acquaintances in awkward and often hilarious ways. Basically, it's Seinfeld, with an R-rating, and if everyone was rich and Jewish. Although almost always hilarious and a good 25 minutes, this one is all the way down at #7 simply because I know where its ceiling is going to be. And that's nothing against the show really, it's just that the whole "misunderstanding, awkwardness, hilarity" outline, even when done tremendously well (The Palestinian Chicken episode, on the whole, was probably the funniest half hour of television I've seen all year), can only get you so far. Curb is very, very funny, I'm just a little more excited about the other 6 entrants on the list at the moment. Season 8 is currently airing, Sundays at 10 PM on HBO.


6. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

A few years ago, this one may have well been #1. Unfortunately, this one has fallen from the seasons 3 and 4 heights, where you knew definitively that every episode was going to be tremendous, offensive, hilarious and full of quotable material. I think 31% of my 3L year of law school was spent quoting Sunny in some fashion or another. Now don't get me wrong, I still get very excited for Sunny Episodes, its place on this list should assure you of that, I just feel that at some point over seasons 5 and 6 the limitations of the small group and world that is the focus of every single episode began to show up and the storylines and interactions began to feel strained. Really, considering that every episode features the same 5 people in the same bar and very few recurring characters, it's kind of remarkable it took that long. If Curb is Seinfeld with an R rating featuring rich Jewish people, Sunny is Seinfeld with a serious PG-13 rating featuring dumb drunk people. The show basically centers on the group tackling a subject by being as ridiculous, offensive and horrible as possible. While the show may not be as strong as it once was, it still contains moments of brilliance, and I'm hopeful that Season 7 will come back with a serious bang. (Fat Mac should be great) It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Season 7 premiere is Thursday, Sept. 15 at 10 PM on FX.


5. The League

Ostensibly a show about a group of mid-30's longtime friends with a fanatical Fantasy Football league, this show became one of my favorites in Season 2 when it became less about Fantasy Football and more about the oddball shit that groups of guys that know each other intimately and have a weird hetero love going on get into. Like Sunny and several other entrants on this list, the League takes full advantage of FX's basic cable status to be a little raunchier than basic cable allows, and this really adds to the authenticity of the group's interactions. If I have a main problem with this show, it's that no one has an 8 team league... and any 8 team leagues that exist suck. Everyone's team is ridiculously stacked and it takes all the fun and nuance out of fantasy sports. But this show has a really strong ensemble cast with a great rapport between the cast members.. you really believe that these people get along and would be/are friends.. and I dig that. High school friends Pete, Kevin, Ruxin, Andre and Kevin's pothead brother Taco have the sort of chemistry that makes them being longtime friends utterly believable.. and the various supporting characters only add to the strength of the ensemble. When dudes who have known each other for a long time get together, it feels a lot like "the League". I feel like as I get older I may like this one more and more. The League returns for Season 3 on Thursday, October 6 at 10:30 (After Sunny) - happy birthday to me.


4. Archer

Archer is a delicious little spy cartoon comedy on FX (look at FX, just taking over this list). It's raunchy, it's filthy, it's nonsensical, but mostly, it's hilarious. Main character Sterling Archer (Code Name: Duchess) is a dense, egomaniacal, politically incorrect, womanizing international super spy who happens to tiptoe the line between constantly almost starting international incidents and being really, really good at his job. He's part James Bond, part Don Draper, and pretty much all asshole. He's also an amazing character, with deadpan witticisms, pickup lines and incredibly offensive one-liners for pretty much every situation. Oh, he also has some serious Mommy issues. The show, which appears to be set in some odd alternative world where they have cellphones in the '60s (The Cold War is in full-swing, and the computers at the spy agency are large boxy mainframes), focuses on super spy Archer as he selfishly and effectively solves problem after problem while belittling and harassing pretty much everyone he knows. Archer is full of pop-culture references, running gags, Burt Reynolds love, family feuds, sexual innuendo and awesomeness. His cast of supporting characters at ISIS are of varying competency levels, including Archer's mother, Mallory, who runs ISIS and may in fact be Lucille Bluth at a spy agency. I'd describe Archer as part James Bond, part Get Smart, part Family Guy, and all hilarious. Season 3 of Archer premieres on Thursday, September 15 at 10:30 (after Sunny), for a short 3 week run, before returning for the rest of the season in January, 2012.


3. Louie

Look at FX, just dominating this list. Kudos to one of the few networks on TV willing to take chances with their programming. They've really put together a comedy lineup that complements each other and feels like a cohesive voice. Louis CK is a top 3 stand-up for me (he, Patton Oswalt and the tragically deceased Greg Giraldo will have to fight it out in my mind for the top spot), and he has a show on FX that lets him do basically whatever the hell he wants. The first season was great... but the second season (currently airing) is one of the most bizarre, fascinating, and outstanding things I've ever seen. To be honest, I don't even know if it's a comedy anymore, or if it's just a great damn show - period, regardless of genre. The show appears to be set a few years ago, before Louis CK was one of the top stand-ups on the planet, but while he's still relatively well known, as he's playing small-ish clubs and worrying about money, but still obviously being connected enough to have friends in high places. Louis is recently divorced and his two daughters split time between his place and his ex's, and the show takes painful and yet hilarious glimpses into the man, his worldview, life, and bizarre little stories that happen to all of us and yet are amplified 10-fold by the mind of a brilliant comedian like Louis. The show features his bleak, often pathetic, often hilarious, mostly dark takes on life, family, love, sex, and parenting. There's no continuity between episodes (different actresses have played Louis' mother, for instance, and in one episode he has a brother while in another, a sister), and the show usually features short (8-10 minute) stories intercut with bits of Louis' standup, which are always, always hilarious. The stories typically have a surrealist bent to them, which make it clear that they are exaggerated or enhanced versions of things that have really happened in Louis' life. Last week's episode, which was set on a Louis CK USO trip to Afghanistan, was one of the top 2 or 3 hours of TV I've seen on any show all year. I hope FX continues to give Louis CK all the rope he needs, because by the time he's done, this may be #1 on the comedy list and close to that spot on the "all TV" list. Season 2 of Louie is currently airing, Thursdays at 10:30 on FX.


2. Parks and Recreation
Filmed in the style of the Office, and created by Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, two of the men behind the original/good American office, this show instead spun off into something different, separate, and superior to the Office, done in the same style. The show focuses on Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), the Deputy Director of the Pawnee, Indiana Parks and Recreation department. Leslie's coworkers, friends, and the outrageous citizenry of the city of Pawnee form the supporting characters, and as their chemistry grows, so does the quality of the show. In season 2 Parks and Rec really hit its stride, as Leslie's silly ditziness gave way to a manic competence and the bizarre cast of supporting characters was given more to do. Clearly influenced by the Simpsons, where the citizenry of Springfield was expansive and outrageous, the townspeople of Pawnee, as shown through the media and various town hall meetings are completely over-the-top and completely hilarious. Personal favorites: Nick Offerman's ridiculously manly libertarian Parks director Ron Swanson and Aziz Ansari's horndog would-be cool guy Tom Havingford. What makes this show transcendent of the typical comedy is the sincerity of the relationships between the characters. You (the viewer) truly get and feel the connections, relationships, ups and downs of these people, despite the often preposterousness of their surroundings, the emotions are and feel real. There's an underlying sweetness to Parks and Rec that helps make it great. Along with Ron's enthusiasm for meats, of course. Season 4 of Parks and Recreation premieres Thursday, September 22 at 8:30.

1. Community

Sometimes a piece of media and a particular fan/set of preferences overlap pretty much completely exactly. Let's see how this is true of "Community" and me: I am particularly amused by absurdist situations, I LOVE pop culture/nerdy references, get a big kick out of sarcasm/smart assery, and can't get enough of genre satire. So I'd say that for at least 1/2 of Community episodes, I feel like they are written especially for me. Community is set at fictional Greendale Community College, and features a diverse and ridiculous study group originally formed to allow Jeff (Joel McHale) to hit on Britta (Gillian Jacobs) but that over the course of the series becomes a close-knit group of people surviving the ridiculous situations and characters of Greendale Community College together. Community episodes often have a "theme" in which they brilliantly and succinctly send-up a genre or movie (season 2 featured a Star Wars episode, a Western episode, an Apollo 13/Right Stuff episode, a Zombie episode, and a claymation Christmas episode to name a few) and needless to say, that's right in my wheelhouse. Very much like Parks and Recreation, the actors and characters share a strong like for one another that really allows you to get invested in their relationships and the emotions of a particular episode despite the under/overlying preposterousness of what may be going on. The study group, consisting of Jeff, Britta, Annie, Shirley, Pierce, Abed and Troy, along with many recurring characters, get closer as the show progresses (well, Pierce takes a villain turn, but it works), and I feel that Community has gotten stronger through every episode. Every episode rather copiously references Popular Culture, particularly through Abed, and I can't get enough. Community may well be my favorite SHOW on tv, not just comedy. Season 3 of Community (I can't believe it's gotten a third season) premieres on Thursday, September 22 at 8 PM. If you're keeping track at home, that means that Community, Parks and Rec, Always Sunny and Archer will all be airing on Sept. 22nd. Somewhere, someone's singing "it's the most wonderful time of the year" and it may or may not be me.