Of all the sitcoms in the history of the world - which one actually made you LAUGH the most?

I don't remember...I used to watch them all the time.

MTM, Bob Newhart, Parks & Recreation

dick van dyke show mtm bob newhart 1 and 2

AbFab

Soap

Mary Hartman Mary Hartman

Fernwood Tonight

The Golden Girls episodes with Marguerite the maid, so funny, plus when Blanche won tickets to see Burt Reynolds, so many funny GG episodes.

I know everyone here is going to attack but for me it might be Modern Family. When I was a kid I used to laugh at Laverne and Shirley, and going back not too many years ago Better Off Ted.

Cheers, Frasier, Andy Richter Controls the Universe

I Love Lucy, still funny after 60+ years. Any Frasier gay episode, especially the Ski weekend.

The Drew Carey Show, for Kathy Kinney, Ryan Stiles and Diedrich Bader. Too many funny parts to mention, but I genuinely laughed.

Father Ted. Best episodes: the Eurovision "My Lovely Horse," the one with the depressed priest who gets talked out of suicide by Father Ted, but hears a Radiohead song and gets depressed again. That last one may've been the one with a cameo by "Father" Brian Eno. The one where the priests are caught but somehow not noticed in a lingerie section of a department store, and it becomes a daring wartime escape parody.

Right off the bat: I Love Lucy The Golden Girls Sanford and Son Soap Designing Women Modern Family Black-ish

Seinfeld or The Simpsons or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Roseanne

Third Rock From The Sun

[quote] Any Frasier gay episode

I SO agree.

[quote]especially the Ski weekend.

Wasn't that the very Jewishy episode? - oh, no - that's CURB - "BURY THE PLATES!"

Does Family Guy count?

Any Frasier episode...but especially the one where he invites his gay boss to dinner, thinking he is a potential match for Daphne.

I'd add the third series of Blackadder.

Here's another vote for "Father Ted," especially the episodes:

- "Entertaining Father Stone" - which has the dullest man on Earth staying for a long visit

- "Are You Right There Father Ted?" - which has Ted looking more racist with each attempt to prove he's not a racist

I also laughed insanely at much of "The Vicar of Dibley."

Arrested Development

Fawlty Towers

One Foot in the Grave

Married with Children, Newhart

this was the best gay Frasier episode >>

& I think this was from the same episode - might be wrong.

Fawlty Towers

All In The Family, Soap, GG, Faulty Towers, One Foot In The Grave

Happy Endings

Seinfeld. I guess it's my favorite because I live in NYC and related to it from that angle and every time I watched it I laughed out loud a lot. Cheers was also great.

But I also liked a sitcom that was on a few years ago and for some unknown reason didn't make. It was called The McCarthy's with Laurie Metcalf as the mother. They were a dysfunctional Irish Catholic sports crazy family from Boston. Hilarious. I don't know why they weren't renewed after the first season ended. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was disappointed that it was cancelled.

Consistently laugh-out-loud funny to me:

Happy Endings

King of Queens

The Office (UK)

Seinfeld

All in the Family

For me, the top honor goes to I Love Lucy. The situations that the writers got her in were so wonderfully over the top.

the chocolate conveyor belt, getting drunk on Vitavetavegamin, the grape fight in the wine vat, where she makes a movie and the headdress is too heavy, catching her putty nose on fire. She was an original.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Seinfeld and All In The Family

Happy Endings

Golden Girls

Martin

Cheers

Wings

Night Court

I Love Lucy

Married ... with Children

The Drew Carey Show

Get Smart

Living Single

MTM Show: Chuckles the Clown Funeral OGM - I'm still laughing!

Not a YUUUGE Golden Girls fan, but the one I remember laughing at a lot was the one when the buried Dorothy's brother in a dress...and there was a wake.

The Nanny - before Fran and Max tied the knot

It's gotta be I Love Lucy - she was the Queen of slapstick and could do anything physical. Like my sister said, Lucy could just stand there and it looked funny. Audrey Meadows called Lucy the greatest comic genius that America ever created.

Favorite episodes: Of course the Vita-meata -vegamin commercial gone all wrong because she got drunk on the stuff.

The episode where she gets a Loving Cup Trophy stuck on her head. The scenes of her and Ethel in the subway are priceless. And at the end of the episode she STILL had it on her head.

One of my all time favorite series in The Beverly Hillbillies.

Seinfeld, definitely. I Love Lucy reruns still make me laugh, and occasional Ab Fab. Mary Tyler Moore was more for gentle chuckles, and Golden Girls I've never seen.

Seinfeld and Golden Girls

Besides the gay Frasier episodes, the radio show with Niles playing multiple characters is a scream.

He's got a nug!

Two UK ones: The Thick of It and Peep Show. The latter especially was consistently hilarious.

Some of the Will & Grace scenes beat anything that any other sitcom ever did. I know W & G is hated here so I guess i have to clear my cookies now.

Frasier. I liked the mix of cultural references and exquisite physical comedy. Any episode when David Hyde Pierce did something (fencing, the scene with him ironing and fainting, the ski chalet episode) were sheer comedic poetry.

Soap

Family Guy

Mary Tyler Moore

This: Will & Grace, nurse trainee Pittman.

Jerry Seinfeld said that he had never seen any episodes of I Love Lucy and seemed snobbish about it. Made my respect for him go down about 50 points.

Nothing ever made me laugh so often as Frasier.

My favorite of all-time is Parks & Rec, but also highly rate Arrested Development, 30 Rock, New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Veep.

Leslie Knope is easily one of the greatest characters ever created for television.

[quote]and Golden Girls I've never seen.

Please leave Datalounge immediately!

[quote]Nothing ever made me laugh so often as Frasier

& at its best when the visiting actor was good as well.

Who was the character he was dating who was always screaming down the phone at her teenage sons? I loved her episodes.

Jean Smart as Lana. I'd only seen her on Designing Women, so seeing her as this loud obnoxious woman was a true reveal.

Jean just played the mother of Selena Meyer's bag man on Veep.

Love me some Jean.

So many funny shows to pick from, so, as much as I love GG and MTM, my yardstick will be - which shows did I find myself rewinding multiple times to rewatch a particular comic moment?

I Love Lucy

Arrested Development

Gavin & Stacey

The Simpsons

Bob's Burgers

Dr. Katz

30 Rock

Kimmy Schmidt

That Girl

The Andy Griffith Show

All in the Family

Jean Smart as Lana is classic. Plus her role in the Brady Bunch movies as the hilariously lecherous neighbor.

"Why don't you two come in and help me make a sandwich" while talking to Greg and Peter.

The British Office or The Thick of It.

The Nanny was fantastic

The Honeymooners and Seinfeld. Honorable mention to I Love Lucy.

Alan Partridge

Peep Show

The first season of Soap and the first season of Maude. The Mary T Moore show was funny but the Rhoda spin off was just sad, it was a sad unfunny show. Newhart made me laugh and so did Frasier. Friends too.

First three seasons of Big Bang Theory.

The Office

The Simpsons

Arrested Development

I've enjoyed several sitcoms throughout the years. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is my all-time favorite. I loved it then and always.

Runner-up is "Designing Women." Julia, Suzanne, Mary Jo and Charlene made me laugh out loud. They never got the accolades they deserved. The show was so well-written and acted.

"Cheers" was always a favorite with both Shelly Long and Kirstie Alley.

And I just loved "Will & Grace." Great, funny, well-written show. I'm very happy it's returning to television this fall. The show and characters just make me laugh.

I love Lucy, All in the Family.

Jay Leno saw Lucille Ball across the street in Beverly Hills. He went up to her and said: You're going to have to show a little more leg if you want to work this side of the street. She cracked up laughing. He was very proud of himself for making her laugh.

Jerry Seinfeld deserves his awful wife.

MTM, Roseanne in the beginning, Third Rock from the Sun, Frasier (and I loved the Patrick Stewart episode), Cheers

Agree with those who have said Happy Endings, Golden Girls, Arrested Development and although I wasn't a huge fan, Will and Grace did make me laugh.

I will also add Gimme a Break. I still think it's funny especially due to Nell Carter. I loved all the scenes between Nell and Addy or Angie.

Mid-'90s Norman Lear political, family, hysterical comedy, "The Powers That Be" starring John Forsyth, Holland Taylor, Valerie Mahafery and David Hyde Pierce. The show was a goddamn riot. It only lasted two seasons. It cracked me up.

Great line from Holland Taylor, who played the governor's wife: "People. Don't get me started on People."

Yes, The Honeymooners starring Jackie Gleason was very funny way back in the day - the characters of Ralph, Ed Norton, and Alice all had that magic that worked together perfectly.

Excellent episode when Ralph's mother-in-law comes over for a visit and spills the beans on the ending of a murder mystery Broadway play that Ralph and Alice were going to see. The first 10 minutes of the episode are priceless, among the best ever.

Early '80s: "Filthy Rich." So damn funny, written by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. It starred Dixie Carter and Delta Burke prior to Bloodworth-Thomason putting them front and center in my other favorite, the great "Designing Women."

Why is Will and Grace hated on DL? Seriously curious...

Will and Grace were annoying as hell, but Jack and Karen? I don't know how well they hold up today, but I remember thinking they were easily two of the best sitcom characters ever.

When Valerie Harper got her spin-off series of Rhoda it was really good for the first 2 years. But then she insisted that she and her character husband of Joe separate in the third season and the show was never the same, ratings went down, major fuck up for Valerie Harper.

Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke shows. I'm not one that is into comedies, but those two shows had me laughing out loud.

Dick Van Dyke was superb. Morey Amsterdam, Rose Marie, all just wonderful.

Will & Grace is one of the best in recent times. I pay no attention to those who didn't like it. I have no idea why they bitched about it.

Mary Tyler Moore was the best ever. But I really thought the spinoff of "Phyllis" was funny. It did well in the ratings, but it had two old characters, and when they died, the show faded. But damn, Cloris Leachman is one funny woman.

Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore each had the gold standard in sitcoms.

Also loved Designing Women.

Order varies, but:

Waiting for God (1990-1994)

The Golden Girls (1985-1992)

I Love Lucy (1951-1960 - including the hour-long specials)

Absolutely Fabulous (1992-2012 off and on, including specials)

Love that Bob (1955-1959)

Not "I Love Lucy" or "Here's Lucy," but "The Lucy Show" of the early and mid-'60s starring Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance. Now those two were the funniest.

And then two ther women: Laverne & Shirley starting Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. They were funny.

R37 is right, especially any episode with Mrs Drysdale.

I posted about Lucy and Frasier, but should mention The Comeback.

Only comedy that I laughed and cried. I guess Lisa is a bitch, but that show is pure genius.

r76- as a fellow Lucy fan who listed I Love Lucy, I have to agree that many of her funniest moments were on The Lucy Show, with the fab Viv. Great pick!

WKRP In Cincinnati. Hilarious characters, played by the perfect actors. My all time favorite comedy.

The landmark "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman." Omg, I loved that show with Louise Lasser and the great, great talent, Mary Kay Place as Loretta Hagers. Loved her.

"Are You Being Served"

I agree about Frasier and WKRP. The Frasier episode with the old fashioned radio program was hilarious, as well as the one with the fencing fight from the first season. The WKRP Thanksgiving turkeys giveaway episode was hilarious, and the episode about the general admission seating massacre made me cry.

In chronological order from my life:

Sanford and Son

Mama's Family

Golden Girls

Are You Being Served? and Are You Being Served? Again!

Waiting for God

Hey, a fellow WAITING FOR GOD / Britcom fan! Yay!! :-)

The question about laughing the most? I think the first three seasons of AbFab, though seasons 3-8 of Married, With Children are right up there in the laugh quotient.

I wouldn't disagree with those who find Roseanne, The Golden Girls, and Designing Women raucously funny, but *at times*; AbFab and MwC were constant laugh riots.

The Bob Newhart Show, both were so good.

Taxi.

MASH, anyone?

R79 There was an episode were Lucy and Viv were taking care of a parrot for a friend - and the parrot died. They were mortified and went out and bought a new parrot, hoping that the woman wouldn't notice the difference. And Lucy told Viv to remain calm and cool. As soon as the woman arrived to pick up her parrot, Viv yelled out, "We didn't kill your parrot!" Funny episode. And Viv managed to get in a lot of good lines, period, on the series.

Just one? I Love Lucy.

I reread OP's post, and saw that there was no explicit mention of [italic]television[/italic] so...

I supersede all my prior replies with BBC's "Cabin Pressure", written by John Finnemore and starring him, Roger Allan, Stephanie Cole, and Benedict Cumberbatch

^^^^Roger AllaM... for Pete's sake.

r89- I just never think of MASH as being a sitcom. It's more like a drama with comedy elements. Granted, I've never really watched it, but everything from the opening theme to the look of the show seems to suggest more of a drama.

Probably "The Honeymooners", though "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is my favorite, most watched sitcom.

Still, Gleason was utter genius. His aggressive style of slapstick is still as raw, relevant and relatable today as it ever was.

If you don't bust a gut during this segment, you're a cold, clamped little gash.

Cheers. Sam and Diane. Every passionate/balls to the walls relationship that I ever had started out with the two of us hating each other.

The Honeymooners can still make me laugh.

R96 Og, Diane Cambers. Yas!

Remember when Carla got her drunk and lied about having a kid with Sam?

^Meant to sign R95.

Sanford & Son

The Jeffersons

Married With Children

Mama's Family

The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad

Looks like this is very generational.

R95 R97 I love it when Ralph and Alice had a fight - Alice would always win. A no bullshit dame if there ever was one.

R101 I'm 30 and tend to like the older sitcoms (70's and 50's, especially).

Love Roseannw, Seinfeld (in small doses), etc.

Small Wonder

Great clip, R95. I always thought that bachelor dancer Carlos Sanchez was gay.

Here's the scene R67 was talking about.

The Golden Girls

R105 Thanks!

Married With Children

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

When I was little, "The Odd Couple" made me laugh nearly every time. Two men squabbling like wife and man, nitpicking at each other.

"Sarcasm. That inspires confidence."

"Well, you inspire sarcasm!"

"The Burns and Allen Show" - love Gracie, George and hilarious laugh of Bea Benederet love "The Odd Couple" with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman - some many fabulous episodes including "when you Assume" (the "Kiss My Feet" episode) "I Love Lucy" Frasier - funny, witty, smart and loveable characters Mary Tyler Moore Show the original "Bob Newhart Show" "Fawlty Towers" "Are You Being Served" I haven't seen it for many years, but they used to show this Britcom "Doctor in the House" which was hilarious - I wonder if it holds up

Frasier, Soap, MTM, Night Court, Taxi, Golden Girls, Blackadder

The Andy Griffith Show

Early Big Bang Theory, Cabin Pressure (BBC radio 4, hysterical), Rhoda, Will & Grace.

Most well made tv comedies today often make me smirk or lightly chuckle than actually, literally L-O-L. But two exceptions are Veep and from across the pond Friday Night Dinner. It's a shame that FND never seems to have caught on in the US. It's not some groundbreaking game-changer like the original The Office. It's just an exceptionally well made farce that knows how to build and build its laughs throughout each breezy 30 minute episode.

Three's Company

Bewitched

MTM

Any sitcom with Penelope Keith, especially:

Good Neighbors To The Manor Born

Family Guy

SOAP

The Jeffersons

Futurama

Technically it wasn't a sitcom but made my sides split with laughter...In Living Color

One Foot in the Grave. The older I get, the more I appreciate it.

R115 Can't believe it took this long to mention Three's Company

One of my favorite shows which doesn't get enough love nowadays is Perfect Strangers. They never even released the complete series on DVD which left many people like myself utterly confused.

Futurama

Parks & Rec (though the last final "everyone gets a happy ending" season didn't do anything for me)

Archer

WKRP

[quote]The WKRP Thanksgiving turkeys giveaway episode was hilarious

Everyone always brings that up and yes, it's an amazing episode, but I think the two-parter with the bomb at the tower and Johnny convinced that the "phone cops" were out to get him was even better.

Not really a sit-com, but some of the episodes of the British comedy show "Mr. Bean" are hilarious. Especially the one where he is in a reception line getting ready to meet the Queen.

Only two: "I Love Lucy" and "Frasier"

I Love Lucy Black Adder, Seasons 2 & 3 Seinfeld Curb Your Enthusiasm (though it made me cringe as often as LOL) Silicon Valley Fawlty Towers

(Now with proper formatting)

I Love Lucy

Black Adder, Seasons 2 & 3

Seinfeld

Curb Your Enthusiasm (though it made me cringe as often as LOL)

Silicon Valley

Fawlty Towers

As much as I love MTM Show I have to agree with I think it was r40 that it was really more about character devolpment and gentle laughs. Was it one of the best sitcoms? Yes. The most laugh out loud funny? No. All in the Family (certainly at its peak) was funnier.

And I'm not at all ashamed to admit Three's Company, especially in the Furley years when it became more slapstick and Ritter (and Larry) centric. Of course all the Larry jokes would never fly today because he'd be accused of date rape but who gives a shit. Larry was like Stan Zbornak, a lovable sleeve. That's really hard to do - I always thought Richard Kline should have gotten more work. Instead he teaches acting workshops.

And of course there's The Golden Girls which yes is my favorite sitcom. And I have to agree the good seasons of Will & Grace, I have seriously never laughed harder - ever. Except I actually preferred Will &Grace and when Jack and Karen were no longer supporting characters, it was overkill and they (and the show) grew tiresome.

All this talk of Blackadder and no one has mentioned how goddamned HOT Atkinson was in the second series.

All in the Family

R120, the writers for the show The Leftovers agree with you about Perfect Strangers. I hadn't thought of it in years.

Does anyone remember The Honeymooners musicals that appeared regularly on The jackie Gleason Show? I loved them as a kid.

Seinfeld. The writing was just excellent as well as the performances. Fell apart toward the end but lots of good entertainment through the years.

Modern Family. The first few seasons. Not now though.

Frazier.

King of Queens.

Married with Children.

Seinfeld

Does "Bob's Burgers" count? Because I find myself LOLing a lot during that show.

My mother and I worked weekends in a German restaurant back in the day. We loved Fawtly Towers because Basil said what he thought to customers. We laughed so hard because we could never say what we wanted to say to rude customers. The episode "TheGermans" killed us, as our bosses were German, one of them old enough to have been a teen during the war. I never laughed so hard before or after that episode.

And how could I forget:

Fawlty Towers. (The best!)

Rising Damp. (British, starring Leonard Rossiter, one of the few actors in "2001: A Space Odyssey.")

Taxi. (Especially the two where: Rev. Jim took his driving exam; Alex danced on the gay-bar table.)

Get a Life. (Chris Elliott is a comic genius.)

The Simpsons

Live action: Family Ties

Malcolm in the Middle. I grew up with the show and I still adore it. I watch all 6 seasons at least once a year.

I loved Get a Life. Early Fox network tv had a lot of good shows. Tracey Ullman Show was also good and introduced The Simpsons

Raising Hope

AbFab made me laugh the most.

Peepshow is my second favorite. Any other fans?

The Office.

R131 Yes, I also remember the new Honeymooners episodes (with a few songs thrown in) on the Jackie Gleason Show back in the 1960's. Good stuff.

2 cast changes: Audrey Meadows did not want to return so they cast Sheila MaCrae as Alice. She was okay, a fresh face, very pretty, but not quite as good as Audrey.

Actress Jane Kean portrayed Trixie Norton in a gutsy, feisty manner and was much better than Joyce Randolph who seemed to be the weak link in the chain of the original Honeymooners cast.

Yeah, Ab Fab was good I remember laughing so hard at the wine tasting in the chateau.

Finally, someone mentioned Raising Hope. Thank you R140! Mine: Frasier (esp. the one where Niles thinks Maris is having an affair with the fencing instructor), WKRP, To the Manor Born, the Karen bits of Will & Grace. Cheers.

Faulty Towers

Will & Grace

Frazier

The Dick van Dyke Show

That's a tough one because sitcoms usually make you smirk more than laugh out loud.

I loved MTM for instance but found it amusing rather than hilarity inducing.

"I Love Lucy" makes me laugh out loud just thinking about certain scenes, and that's the highest praise I can give. Quite incredible considering it's 60-plus years old and I've seen it so many times.

MTM still makes me laugh...especially scenes with Mary, Rhoda and Phyllis together.

ILL, Dick Van Dyke, Roseanne (early years), Frasier, Cheers, AbFab

Can't believe more people didn't say The Simpsons. Its first 15 seasons were amazing and it's run 28 seasons for a reason.

So many British ones.

Those gurls should come up with some more shit.

Better Off Ted; witty, funny as hell, and with great actors.

The Comeback Nighty Night Happy Endings Martin AbFab

I would also add the first three seasons of New Girl

Goddamnit, I forgot the formatting^^^

Oh, shit I forgot 30 Rock.

This is HARD.

These all made me laugh "back in the day": Married With Children, I Love Lucy, AbFab, Laverne and Shirley.

I love The Middle. It's in its 8th or 9th year and still as fresh and funny as ever. Modern Family isn't quite as good as it was, but some of its episodes still hit it out of the park, especially the recent ones guest-starring Elizabeth Banks and Oliver Platt/Will Sasso/Dot Marie Jones as well as the shirtless Nolan Gould episode.

[quote] the one when the buried Dorothy's brother in a dress...and there was a wake.

I remember that. It was hilarious with a surprisingly lovely and poignant ending - and a killer last line from Sophia.

The Dick Van Dyke Show

Ned & Stacey

Archer (does it count?)

Keenan & Kel (for a Nickelodeon sitcom, it was funny)

It's not a sitcom, but I also get some hearty laughs from watching Whose Line Is It, Anyway?

Car 54 where are you is one of the LOLs. Especially any ep featuring Sylvia Schaunser, A star is born in the Bronx, Remember St, Petersburg...

Faulty Towers: so much so I was afraid I would wet myself

I loved the British sketch show "French and Saunders". Those are two hilarious comedians - here they are doing a spoof on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman".

Married with Children

[quote]I loved the British sketch show "French and Saunders". Those are two hilarious comedians - here they are doing a spoof on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman".

How is he, Dr. Quinn?

He's sleepin'

The Powers that Be. I was young but I remember it being really funny.

The Odd Couple (70s) Family Guy Barney Miller

I Love Lucy

The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Nanny

The King of Queens

WKRP in Cincinnati

in an attempt to be slightly more current, I had "Reba" and "The Middle" and "Futurama" to choose from. I ended up choosing

Reba

Futurama

And yes, as a lover of getting lost in a sitcom's "world" and laugh with gusto over lines and situations I have viewed/heard repeated times, I couldn't just choose one, as most posts play out.

I would watch The Simpsons again if they did something different like age the kids or the parents. They could get a lot of mileage out of an older Lisa and Bart.

I remember liking Gomer Pyle, USMC, but don't know how they'd hold up - Carol Burnett and Molly Picon each made a very funny guest appearance on one or two of them.

The Addams Family and The Munsters - liked them as a kid

Love That Bob and The People's Choice (Voice-over talking basset hound) - remember seeing reruns as a kid and thinking them funny

I Married Joan -- my straight older brother tells me this was funnier than Lucy -- I've seen a few episodes and they are very funny -- but my brother also liked Vivian Vance better than Lucy too

The hilarious The Powers That Be.

No "Scrubs" love? Great cast.

But, my top laugh maker was "Laverne and Shirley." Mostly for Cindy Williams, she was an outstanding physical actor and added great little touches to scenes.

Leave It To Beaver.

It was my first so I always remember it.

"Leave it to Beaver" was a great show, but I read that the writers would sometimes take out things that were too funny -- they wanted it to be gently funny and believable rather than hilariously unbelievable.

Although Mike & Molly was on for something like six seasons, I'm surprised it wasn't more beloved. I didn't see it when it originally an, but the reruns I've seen have been terrific. The humor is gentler and more sophisticated than one finds on most sitcoms. I'm also surprised the lead actor wasn't even nominated for an Emmy.

Police Squad! was LOL funny. It's a shame it only ran for six episodes, but a sitcom without a laugh track was way ahead of its time. Even though it launched the three Naked Gun movies, the original sitcom was the best.

Mary Tyler Moore and All in the Family. All in the Family sometimes made me cry, too.

Lots of the above, but a shout out to Community, I never get tired of Joel McHale playing pool in his underwear. I also still find The Phil Silvers Show / Sergeant Bilko funny.

Married with children, Police squad, Angie tribeca, Seinfeld, Raising hope, The Simpsons

The episode of King and Queens where Doug and Carrie pass off a couch cushion frosted in chocolate as a cake in the cake walk

The episode of American Dad where Roger's alternate personality is a Bible maker and he ends up putting a hit on himself

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Nightman Cometh, Frank Reynolds Little Beauties, The Gang Spies Like The US, Old Lady House: A Situational Comedy

WKRP in Cincinnati.

Every show I would have listed has been mentioned, so I'll just add that my favorites are the ensemble shows, done very well in so many instances, because of great casting. My parents loved Your Show of Shows and the Ernie Kovacs show, so I've watched whatever I've been able to find of either one online. Damn, the writers on YSOS was a stable of the comedy geniuses who created many of the classics everyone is mentioning. The Dick Van Dyke show was Carl Reiner's fictionalised story of the writers for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.

MTM, Dick Van Dyke, really set the tone for a lot of great ensemble shows, culminating for me with Frasier. Brilliant writing, exceptionally talented cast, great concept. I sometimes sadly wonder, while watching the Frasier credits, what other great shows David Angell might have created if he hadn't been on that Boston to NY flight on 911.

I love that Valentine's Day three story episode where Niles is preparing dinner for his date and decides he needs to 'freshen the crease on his trousers' and all hell breaks loose. He's a brilliant physical comedian.

I think all my favorites have been named. In honor of Pride, a classic Taxi clip:

Real belly laughs? "I Love Lucy" stands alone!

Frasier episode where Niles irons his trousers.

I think this scene is still one of the longest recorded studio audience laugh. They had to edit most of the laughing out for air. (If you've never seen this episode, Lucy and Ethel are hiding eggs in their clothes so Ricky and Fred don't find out they are buying eggs since their hens aren't laying any, and Ricky is eager to practice a dance number he and Lucy have to do for a school event.)

Shows: Fawlty Towers, Arrested Development

Episodes: "The Dinner Party" (from MTM), "Phyllis and the Little People" (from Phyllis), "The Germans" (from Fawlty Towers), "Hospital" (from Absolutely Fabulous), "Motherboy XXX" (from Arrested Development)

MTm wasn't funny.

Everybody Loves Raymond. One of the best ensemble casts ever. Doris Roberts comic timing was incredible.

MTM was not funny to #186. others think otherwise. my god, is that so hard to fathom??

I guess it is that blatant, what I say is the truth about something and everyone else is wrong that is a real bugaboo about datalounge for me. opinions on such subjective things that there can be millions of truths because it was people striving to entertain, provide some laughter.... sorry, folks, one beer too many this Saturday nite. people pronouncing their opinions as gospel is on my list of things I get annoyed about on datalounge.

[quote]sorry, folks, one beer too many this Saturday nite.

Stay off the boards when you're smashed. It doesn't become you.

The Nanny

Third Rock from The Sun

I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy

Seinfeld

Fawlty Towers

AbFab

Live action: Married With Children

Animated:

* Family Guy seasons 1-5ish

* Futurama [original 4 seasons]

* The Simpsons seasons 3-8ish

R191 I have to agree with the Nanny. It never got an inch of respect but I've laughed really hard during certain episodes - and the writing was often better and sharper then on more "respected" shows.

AbFab

The Vicar of Dibley

Happy Endings

Roseanne

Will & Grace

I think AbFAb has shown up more than any other on here.

Gurl ... I think it's official!!

The Beverley Hillbillies!

It still makes me laugh 50 years later.

The "Granny & the Giant Jackrabbit" episode is in the record books as one of the most watched sit-coms in American television history.

Here it is:

R197 I didn't remember that episode. Thanks, that was Irene Ryan at her best as granny. Did you notice that the beautiful young caterer was played by Sharon Tate?

Reno 911

Broad City

Arrested Development

Parks & Recreation (seasons 1-6)

I Love Lucy

The Dick Van Dyke Show

Seinfeld

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Golden Girls

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Office

Larry Sanders Show

Roseanne (seasons 1-4)

Everybody Loves Raymond

Frasier (seasons 1-7)

[bold]Animated Sitcoms:[/bold]

Venture Bros.

King of the Hill

Archer

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Sealab 2021

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law

Not a sitcom but dialogue on [italic]The Sopranos[/italic] had me laughing out loud every episode.

R184's video also had this in the sidebar, one of the funniest moments of The DVD Show, the flashback when Rob thinks they have the wrong baby. I first saw this on Nick at Nite back in the 1990s and burst into tears from laughter.

Peep Show. Veep. Ab Fab always guarantees the laughs and is timeless at this point.

Broad City

Idiotsitter

Reno 911

It's always Sunny

Arrested Development

Sorry, I forgot

Black Jesus

The Heart, She Hollers

Tim and Eric's awesome show

Strangers with Candy

That Mitchell & Webb Look. I love so many of the recurring sketches -- Numberwang, Sir Digby Chicken Caesar (a clever take-off on the movie "They Might be Giants"), the Quiz Broadcast.

Idiotsitter is dreadful. Truly, abidingly dreadful.

The early seasons of Workaholics have some funny moments though and it always remained fairly fun.

I can watch "Are You Being Served?" again and again. Gotta give a nod to "Golden Girls," "Will and Grace," and "Seinfeld." Maybe a slight nod to "Friends" if only to see Joey's ass.

To me the funniest episode in comedy was Frazier Hot and Foamy, it still makes me laugh out loud today and while I love television comedies rarely do any of them make me actually laugh.

My top two favorite comedies are Frazier and Seinfeld with WKRP and Two and a Half Men coming in close behind.

Two and a Half Men was strictly for the writing as I never really cared for Jon Cryer or Charlie Sheen. Holland Taylor (Evelyn) and Conchata Ferrell (Berta) always stole any scene they were in. I always thought they should have had a spinoff with those two as Berta being Evelyn's housekeeper.

The Honeymooners, The Odd Couple (Randall and Krugman version), Arrested Development, AbFab (the first couple seasons), Cheers (the Shelley Long years), Roseanne (first 4 or 5 seasons). For modern sitcoms, The Middle is always consistently funny. Unlike Modern Family, it aged well and still still makes me laugh. Modern Family was very funny for about 5 seasons, but then it went in the shitter. Veep makes me laugh out loud, but I'm only up to the middle of Season 3.

[quote]Idiotsitter is dreadful. Truly, abidingly dreadful.

Yeah.... anyone that describes something as "Abidingly dreadful" wouldn't know funny if he fucked it.

Another vote for Frasier. Loved so many other shows (Seinfeld, Friends, Roseanne) but Frasier is consistently funny, sophisticated and original.

Cheers

Quite startled by the lack of 80's sitcoms. Looks like they haven't aged as well.

I still bust a gut over Frazier.

Fawlty Towers and SCTV. Although the latter wasn’t a sitcom, it was the funniest show I ever watched.

I've enjoyed many sitcoms, but line for line the funniest single episode I've ever seen is "Murder at the Stratley," from Newhart. The plot is cleverly developed and the characterizations are spot on. Every performance is wonderful. "Blow out that match Joanna, your hair looks like hell!"

Curb Your Enthusiasm

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air

[quote]Quite startled by the lack of 80's sitcoms. Looks like they haven't aged as well.

80's sitcoms were by the numbers affairs that revolved around a slightly dysfunctional, but ultimately loving, family or workplace. Every guffaw was matched by an Awww! Even the sitcoms with sharper edges like Golden Girls, Designing Women and Newhart went reflexively for the warm and fuzzy when given the chance.

ALF, The Golden Girls, the Simpsons, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, South Park, Strangers With Candy.

How can anyone pick only one?

I’ve laughed out loud at Blackish. Especially at the grandmother’s scenes. Actress Jenifer Lewis.

The New Adventures of Old Christine. I love that silly over confident wine bag!

The hardest I have ever laughed at any series was "Fawlty Towers"--the episodes with the Germans, with the rat ("Ees Siberian hamster!"), and most of all the surprise wedding anniversary ("She lashed out at me!" :Naughty! Naughty! Don't hit our guests!") all had me in tears.

"The Simpsons" seasons 3-7 was pretty unbeatable: "A Streetcar named Marge," "Krusty Gets Kancelled," "Marge vs. The Monorail," "Black Widower," "Cape Feare," "A Fish Called Selma" were all hilarious.

The hardest I have ever laughed at a sitcom--ever--is the "Chuckles Bites the Dust" episode of the MTM Show. The show was often great, though not always, although any episode centering on Phyllis or Sue Ann was always hilarious.

"AbFab" was brilliantly funny its first three seasons.

In recent years, probably the show that has made me laugh the hardest was "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," although it could be hit or miss sometimes. But it had two of the funniest people in comedy today: Titus Burgess and Jane Krakowski. They both have unbelievable timing.

Night Court

My all-time favorite: The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Runner-up: Designing Women

r215 thanks for the link. Watching it now. Kathy Kinney ("Mimi" from The Drew Carey Show) is the librarian.

Most of my (UK based) ones have been covered. I'd add:

Burnistoun (the Scots culture specific in-gags especially)

Plebs

Gimme Gimme Gmme

Saxondale (Steve Coogan and anything his Comedy Production Company Baby Cow puts his money behind is usually worth my time - the guy knows comedy)

Ab Fab

Green Wing

Smack The Pony and later, Jam and Jerusalem (is the latter a sitcom? But anything with Jennifer Saunders' writing is up there for me.)

Rik Mayall stuff: esp Young Ones, New Statesman

Thick of It and so consequently Veep (Ianucci)

Father Ted

Spaced

The Mighty Boosh

The IT Crowd.

League of Gentleman and more recently, No. 9.

I don't usually get into most US humour but these got LOLs from me:

3O Rock

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

and someone upthread mentioned Scrubs- thx for the reminder.

Another DL thread has reminded me of Northern Exposure - this one too - though this is recollection of decent chuckles at the quality of quirk and characters rather than LOLs like sketch/sitcom.

Fawlty Towers

The Comeback with Lisa Kudrow but only the first season.

Two episodes of The MTM show where Mary throws her trademark horrible parties--"Today I Am a Ma'am" ("This is my date, Mr. and Mr. Armond Linton"; "Allow me to introduce myself: I'm another person in the room") and "The Party" ("Mary, do you know what happens to Veal Prince Orloff if he is left in the over for too long?") are also two of the most hilarious episodes of TV I have ever seen, thanks to the crackerjack timing and delivery of Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper , Betty White, and Ed Asner.

Also, the "Phyllis" episode called "Phyllis and the Little People"," which has been given much love over the years, especially for the hilarious long exchange between Cloris Leachman and Dick Schaal (which begins "I'm so depressed... Bess wants to marry a boy whose parents are dwarfs," "Well, I hope she finds one!").

Rhoda, at the party in Today I am a Ma’am.

Some of my all-time favorites are sitcoms that didn't make me bust a gut,,,they just kind of pulled you in. Like Leave It To Beaver and Andy Griffith.

For out-and-out laughter, it would be Frasier, I Love Lucy, Mr. Bean, and Everybody Loves Raymond.

HAH!

The IT Crowd - "Work Outing"

I laugh every time Jen goes for a drink for Roy.

Out of Practice. It only got one season but I still haven't laughed so hard. Henry Winkler, Stockard Channing and their adult children are all different kinds of doctors, living in the same building and then there's Henry Winkler's girlfriend, Jennifer Tilly, not a doctor. Ty Burrell and Christopher Gorham are the sons and Paula Marshall is the lesbian ER doctor daughter.

It aired on CBS in 2005 and I discovered it on Netflix years back. It's on Amazon Prime nowadays.

The Cosby Show was one of the funniest shows of all time. I lovedrhe episodes where Bill would rape his patients while they were under anesthesia.

The Simpsons - the one where Homer goes to 300 pounds so he can work at home is a favorite.

Classic.

"Hi yes, this is Lydia Barnes. I'd like to register a complaint about your catering. I'm hosting a group of colleagues tonight and I ordered pollo frito. I seem to have ended up with fried chicken. I'm a board certified cardiologist and I know fried chicken when I see it."

No one does doctor like Stockard Channing.

That Gif R232 makes me wonder whether I should seek out MTM even though it's not my vintage?

Kimmy Schmidt/Ab Fab vibes going on??

Schitt’s Creek-Moira (Catherine O’Hara) is amazing. Eugene Levy is a hottie.

Loved Curb, Dave Chapelle, the Nanny, Frasier. What about Just Shoot Me? Wendy Malick, Enrico (Italian last name) and George Segal consistently made me lol. Apparently they’re all still good friends and get together frequently.

Titus on Kimmy Schmidt!

30 Rock.

Tie between 30 Rock and Veep.

The Inbetweeners

Honeymooners

[quote] Kimmy Schmidt/Ab Fab vibes going on??

Those two shows were absurdist. The MTM Show is much more grounded in realism .

All three are excellent shows.

30 Rock, of course

AbFab—the two main characters' rants were absolutely fabulous. The daughter Saffie's affronted common sense, and the grandmother's airy dismissal of her daughter's insane projects, were great foils. Bubble, too, the dumb blonde (Welch?) secretary, was fun. Could they even produce that show today? It was so non-PC.

Not a slapstick fan (no I Love Lucy for me) but AbFab's occasional slapstick was perfect.

AbFab—the two main characters' rants were absolutely fabulous. The daughter Saffie's affronted common sense, and the grandmother's airy dismissal were great foils. Bubble, too, the dumb blonde (Welch?) secretary, was fun. Could they even produce that show today? It was so un-PC.

Not a slapstick fan (no I Love Lucy for me) but AbFab's occasional slapstick was perfect.

(Sorry for double post^^^)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is so packed with layers of dense, lightning fast comedy that I couldn't understand it the first time I saw it. Somehow I ended up watching again and once I could catch up with it I loved it. Major LOLs and it doesn't get stale for me with over two dozen repeat viewings. 30 Rock is slow and boring by comparison.

I loved the first 3 seasons of Community for similar reasons. Then the showrunner got fired and seasons 4 and 5 bombed (similar to what happened to West Wing once Sorkin got booted). Weirdly they did a 6th season with the original showrunner and it was good but at that point the wind had been knocked out of their sails and the premise of all these adults together in community college after 6 years was worn thin and they had to write Chevy Chase off the show for his assholery. Still, those early seasons were truly brilliant.

I really love many of Ricky Gervais's series (Extras is hilarious! Derrick was funny but more poignant and gentle than lol-funny), but can't watch his O.G. version of the Office because I find it too cringy. However, I still love the US version and have seen it many times over (later seasons excluded). I think the funniest episode was when Dwight ran his fire drill. The opening sequence alone is gut bustingly uproarious but they keep up the pace and laughs through the entire double episode.

My other long time fave is King Of The Hill (animated series). The writing is absolutely phenomenal and the voice actors are spot on. One of my many favorite KotH episodes is linked below. "You have my word, they will put you in the ground--and that goes for all of you!!!!" 😂😂😂

In Living Color. Specifically, Men on Film and Wanda....

It's Always Sunny

The Middle

Mary Tyler Moore

Everybody Loves Raymond

AbFab

Spaced

Little Britain (not so much a sitcom but...)

Keeping Up Appearances

The 700 Club

Frasier

VEEP

Chris Morris' Brass Eye

The League of Gentlemen

Arrested Development was the first to come to mind. But having grown up in the 90s, it MUST be The Simpsons (which I didn't think of as a sitcom until I saw it in the previous replies--of course it is one, but I never think of it that way).

I'd say "Peep Show" was the funniest with "Always Sunny" being second. "Veep" did a great job of keeping the jokes flying, too.

Blimey - how did you dog this one up?

sorry - DIG

Difficult People

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

I Love Lucy

The Golden Girls

Arrested Development (the first 3 seasons)

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (there's usually at least one "laugh so hard, you cry" moment in each episode)

Will & Grace

Mom

Designing Women

R252 for the win!!!...

Curb Your Enthusiasm - but the earlier shows, before his divorce. When he moved to NYC it fell flat.

R3 same here... modern family

I forgot The IT Crowd

Veep makes me usually practically spit something at least twice an episode, its nastiness tickles me so. Repeats well too. Seinfeld & Curb. The first 10 seasons and then some up to maybe Yes I Cannibas and Tappa Tappa Tappa episodes of The Simpsons. South Park from about Season 3 on. Larry Sanders.

The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show are also pretty perfect.

Mindy Project

Parks & Rec

Golden Girls

(some) Roseanne

Absolutely Fabulous

Arrested development Brockmire Happy Endings

Are You Being Served? There are some episodes that bring me to tears of laughter every time I see them.

There were some hysterical Bennie Hill episodes....

I Love Lucy is peerless.

Also watch Will and Grace, over and over.

For a change, The Vicar of Dibley is very funny.