15 Best Comedy TV Shows Of All Time, Ranked

Before there was anything else on TV, there was comedy. Sitcoms and variety shows have been running in various iterations for more than 70 years, giving people the one thing that always seems to be in short supply: joy. In making this list, we first looked at TV shows and their tracked popularity with critics and audiences. There are a lot of shows that audiences have loved, though, so we had to narrow down our criteria. For one thing, we considered the legacy of the show. Newer shows have the benefit of recency bias, so it's important to offset that by paying attention to TV comedies that have been foundational in culture and humor. 

Next we considered consistency. Which TV comedies maintained their highest level of quality for the longest amount of time? We also specified the difference between a comedy and a drama with funny moments. While "The Bear" may have won the Emmy for outstanding comedy series, it's not really a comedy, with all of the most important pieces of the show driven by elements of drama and tragedy. Comedy on a show like "The Bear" is the extra little bit that viewers get from watching a dramatic series with versatile actors and writers. Comedy on a show like "Schitt's Creek," which won the same award in 2020, is both the journey and the destination. The endgame in a true comedy series is always to make the viewer laugh above all else.

One has to wonder whether stars Betty White, Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan knew how iconic their sitcom, "The Golden Girls" would become. The show has a dedicated following, with a subreddit following of 45K and fans still arguing over unresolved "Golden Girls" plotlines. "The Golden Girls" follows four older women— three widows and one divorcée— as they navigate their golden years together in a plush Miami house. 

The show proved that post-menopausal women have plenty of life to live despite existing in a society that often maligns their demographic. It's also one of the most pure celebrations of female friendship in pop culture, with the primary dynamics on the show always being the relationships between its four leads. Most importantly, "The Golden Girls" launched the late-stage career of national comedic treasure, Betty White. 

Cast: Betty White, Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, Rue McClanahan
Showrunner: Susan Harris
Aired: 1985-1992
Where to watch: Hulu

John Oliver got his start on TV as a correspondent on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," and the show he built when he left is pretty extraordinary. Oliver's show, "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," offers a deep dive into a specific issue that's affecting the world each week. Often, the show is delivering pretty bad news, but the writers always know when a joke is needed to lighten the mood.

Oliver and his team do incredibly in-depth research and never hesitate to explore worthwhile tangents, like getting in touch with a ubiquitous stock photo model or bidding on Russell Crowe's jockstrap from filming "Gladiator." Anchoring all of the show's chaos is Oliver's unmatched ability to monologue organically (despite reading from a prompter) and a willingness (eagerness?) to self-deprecate. Comedy may be the only palatable medium through which to receive bad news these days, so thank goodness for "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."

Cast: John Oliver
Showrunner: John Oliver
Aired: 2014-present
Where to watch: Max

While many TV cartoons are designed for kids and definitely feel that way, there are some gems that transcend age or are even made for adults from the start. "Futurama" (a show that falls into the "made for adults" category, given its frequently raunchy content) is about a young man named Fry (Billy West) who is cryogenically frozen in the year 1999 and stumbles his way out about 1,000 years into the future. There, he meets aliens and robots and learns, again and again, that humanity hasn't really changed much. 

In Season 1 Episode 8 of "Futurama," the gigantic ball of garbage that future humanity shot into space in an attempt to solve the world's waste removal issues comes hurling back toward the planet. In Season 5 Episode 1, Fry finds out that humans have been solving global warming by dropping a gigantic ice cube into the ocean every so often. Not only does "Futurama" constantly offer great jokes on a line-by-line basis, but its premise has provided its writers with many chances to use satire and farce while addressing real issues about humanity's future.

Cast: Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille
Showrunner: Matt Groening
Aired: 1999-2003, 2008-2013, 2023-present
Where to watch: Hulu

Despite the fact that Julia Louis-Dreyfus isn't sure that a show like "Veep" would be made today, its comedy is sharp as it gets. "Veep," which stars Louis-Dreyfus as career politician Selina Meyer, is not for the faint of heart, nor the politically idealistic. There aren't really any characters that make viewers want to root for them, except for maybe the bumbling, secretly genius Richard Splett (Sam Richardson). 

The show has a cynical read on American politics, to put it mildly, and proves it by specifying Selina Meyers' political party only once, several seasons into the show, and then only as the color blue on an electoral map. It's also a show that puts every Comedy Central roast to shame with scathing lines like, "you're like an early draft of a man where they sketched out a giant, mangled skeleton but they didn't have time to add details like pigment or self-respect." At least folks can be reassured that most people who actually work in politics probably aren't as creative with their insults.

Cast: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale, Reid Scott
Showrunner: Armando Iannucci
Aired: 2012-2019
Where to watch: Max

"I Think You Should Leave" is weird and wonderful. All of the show's bits are pre-taped, unlike on "Saturday Night Live" where creator Tim Robinson worked before producing "I Think You Should Leave," and it's a good thing too, because it leaves room for Robinson to let loose his wacky vision. "I Thing You Should Leave" came out on Netflix in early 2019 and has turned out to be an apt representation of comedy post-pandemic.

The accessible, cringe-y internet comedy of the 2000s has reached a point of over-saturation that no amount of meta commentary can make fresh, and that's why "I Think You Should Leave" is such a culturally relevant show. It represents the chaotic, hyper-random nature of contemporary meme culture in an age where personal, local, national, and global concerns all feel equally urgent and confounding. What else is there to do other than watch a sketch about a greedy pay-it-forward guy at a drive-thru? "I Think You Should Leave" allows its viewers to be rid of the status quo by benignly rejecting it, and that is where carefree laughs live.

Cast: Tim Robinson
Showrunner: Tim Robinson, Zach Canin
Aired: 2019-present
Where to watch: Netflix

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine," a sitcom created by comedic leviathans Mike Schur ("The Office") and Andy Samberg ("Saturday Night Live"), is an true gem. Samberg plays Detective Jake Peralta, a slovenly, youthful cop who loves solving cases and causing mischief. Peralta is just one great character from a cast of many, including Sgt. Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews), who loves yogurt, suspenders, and talking about himself in the third person, and Capt. Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher), who has to be the first ever lawful-good character in a comedy to frequently out-funny the other members of his cohort. 

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine" has a perfect comedic ensemble. What this means is that every dynamic between any two or more characters is fully fleshed out and unique; there are no dud combinations for B- or C-plots. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" also did not hem-and-haw when presented with issues like the "Black Lives Matter" movement, and not many comedies (or dramas, for that matter) can say the same. Brauer's Captain Holt, though, is the standout element of the show that makes everything else that much better.

Cast: Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Fumero
Showrunner: Dan Goor, Michael Schur
Aired: 2013-2021
Where to watch: Netflix

"30 Rock" is best known for launching Tina Fey into super-fame,and reviving Alec Baldwin's career. Unfortunately, "30 Rock" is also known for some questionable things that happened on screen, like Jane Krakowski's imitations of a black man (make-up and wig included) on multiple episodes. It wouldn't be a product of Tina Fey's brain if it didn't take big swings that occasionally miss; when those swings hit, though, "30 Rock" provides some of the most sublime comedy ever aired on TV.

If this were a list where comedies were ranked by jokes-per-episode, "30 Rock" would easily come out on top. Every Michael McDonald reference, every slogan on one of Frank's hats, every awkward-on-purpose bit of product placement — they're all opportunities to jam-pack more comedy into a 25-minute show. Even after multiple binge-watches, viewers can find new reasons to laugh. Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) is often so inscrutable that his jokes don't even hit at full force until you've heard them three or four times. If jokes were gold, "30 Rock" would be California in 1848.

Cast: Tiny Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan
Showrunner: Tina Fey
Aired: 2006-2013
Where to watch: Hulu

"Sanford and Son" premiered in 1972 and was an immediate success with American viewers — it even knocked "The Brady Bunch" off not just Friday nights, but TV in general. It was one of the earliest major network sitcoms to feature Black leads, and it attracted a huge audience for most of its 1972-1977 run. The show follows junk dealer Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx), a widower that lives in Los Angeles with his grown son, Lamont Sanford (Demond Wilson). 

Fred Sanford was curmudgeonly, to say the least, and seen by many as NBC's answer to "All in the Family's" Archie Bunker (another curmudgeonly patriarch, though a bigoted one). There are definitely moments in "Sanford and Sons" that sent Fred off the rails, but always in a way that entertained. Redd Foxx ultimately signed off from the show as a result of contract disputes with NBC and an offer from ABC, but his impact as a cultural icon and the show's spot in entertainment history were already clinched by then.

Cast: Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson
Showrunner: Bud Yorkin
Aired: 1972-1978
Where to watch: Tubi

Some shows seem like they were made to be referenced, offering quotes galore and various oddities that make for fun merchandise and interesting meme templates. "The Office" is the ultimate version of this. After all, it was an excellent comedy and it ran concurrent with the rise of the internet. "Beets, Bears, Battlestar Galactica," "I say dance and they say how high," and "Sorry I annoyed you with my friendship" are just a few of the many iconic and memorable lines that "The Office" gave us throughout its run.

Because the show went on for two more years after he left, its easy to forget that the most groundbreaking thing "The Office" gave us was Steve Carell's lead performance as regional Dunder Mifflin manager Michael Scott. Carell is definitely one of the greatest television actors of all time (who also never won an Emmy!) – he managed to take one of the most obnoxious, idiotic, and bigoted characters on TV and make him beloved, both by audiences and, ultimately, his coworkers. 

Cast: Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer
Showrunner: Greg Daniels
Aired: 2005-2013
Where to watch: Peacock

Many networks refuse to end a TV show at the height of its success, preferring to wring every bit of profit and creativity out of it before it flatlines. Sometimes you get a show like "The Good Place," though, that feels like a complete story, one that only needed four seasons to be told. The show is about the afterlife, more specifically about where people go after life, and yet it never evokes existential dread. This is because it tells its story through comedy.

A show driven by comedy can still be sad and have serious moments, but ultimately its plot and character development are driven by the art of making people laugh. "The Good Place" manages to provide a real introduction to serious philosophy while also giving audiences an endless supply of puns on polarizing foods and a Medium Place for medium people (it has your favorite beer but it's always lukewarm). It also provided a much-needed spotlight for up-and-comers like D'Arcy Carden (Janet) and Jameela Jamil (Tahani). Best of all, every episode features the effortless charisma of Ted Danson.

Cast: Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Manny Jacinto
Showrunner: Michael Schur
Aired: 2016-2020
Where to watch: Netflix

There can't possibly be a person alive today who had access to the internet between 2012 and 2015 and wouldn't recognize Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. At the very least, they must have seen the sketch called "Substitute Teacher," which currently has a whopping 223 million views on Youtube. With that sketch, and everything else they did on their show "Key and Peele," they found a way to convey the many disparities — from racist micro-aggressions to centuries-old systems that still favor white people — that shape the Black experience in America. 

It sounds very serious, but the genius of "Key and Peele" is that it's funny above all. When someone watches the "Substitute Teacher" sketch for the first time, they laugh at Key's character and his over-the-top reactions to students attempting to correct him. After a few more watches, though, or even some extended reflection on the first one, viewers might think about what it's like for the kids in class whose names are always mispronounced by white teachers. This is genius-level work and a shrewd utilization of humor. It's no wonder that actor James Hong saw a big future ahead for both Key and Peele after guest-starring on an episode of their show.

Cast: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele
Showrunner: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele
Aired: 2012-2015
Where to watch: Hulu

"The Daily Show" has been around since 1996, but it didn't become the satirical powerhouse known and loved by many until Jon Stewart took the reins in 1999. Under Stewart's stewardship, the show won the Emmy for outstanding variety, music, or comedy series for 10 consecutive years from 2003 to 2012, as well as two Peabody Awards. In his later years as host especially, Stewart turned "The Daily Show" into something far more significant than a parody of cable news — a bastion of common sense. 

Trevor Noah, the South African comedian who succeeded Stewart as host after only a few weeks as a correspondent, made the show his own by offering a fresh perspective and a joyful approach to his bits. Noah left "The Daily Show" in 2022 with an exit plan he kept secret until he was announcing it on air, and the status of the host role has been up-in-the-air ever since. That said, the program has done incredible work commentating on the 2020 election and the Trump administration.

Cast: Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah, Craig Kilborn
Showrunner: Madeleine Smithberg, Lizz Winstead
Aired: 1996-present
Where to watch: Paramount+

While its cultural impact may not (yet) be as significant as "I Love Lucy" or "The Simpsons," "What We Do in the Shadows" is one of the most consistent TV comedies ever made. Creators Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi found a premise that refreshed the mockumentary format, gave audiences years of hysterical, under-appreciated comedy, and ended the show on their terms after six seasons. They did all that, and certainly not for the glory — the cast of "What We Do in the Shadows" even made light of their criminal lack of Emmy nominations. 

The show is a mockumentary that follows four vampire roommates and their human familiar. Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nandor (Kayvan Novak) are all traditional bloodsuckers, while Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), the fourth roommate, is an energy vampire. Nandor's human familiar, Guillermo, spends most of his time disposing of exsanguinated bodies and the rest attempting to keep the vampires from outing themselves. "What We Do in the Shadows" has produced some of the lightest and darkest humor television has ever seen, and finds the perfect balance between whimsy and reality in exploring its horror motifs.

Cast: Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén
Showrunner: Jemaine Clement
Aired: 2019-2024
Where to watch: Hulu

"The Simpsons" is almost as culturally significant as "I Love Lucy," though it achieves that status with about 30 more seasons of airtime. "The Simpsons" has a habit of freakishly predicting the future and has addressed countless topical issues, like the necessity of labor unions (S4 E17) and how seriously people take spoilers (S31, E14). It's not a show with breathtaking animation, but rather smart enough writing to make up for its more simplistic sketches.

Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta) is a pretty boneheaded patriarch — he doesn't always "get it," but he does love his family. Marge (Julie Kavner) is the archetype of a modern American mother, strong-willed and fiercely protective of the people and values that are important to her. Bart (Nancy Cartwright) and Lisa (Yeardley Smith), the two older children in the family, are two sides of the same coin — both are clever (one has street smarts and one has book smarts), yet Bart is an agent of chaos and Lisa is his ever put-upon foil. Together, they are a comedic facsimile of America's lauded nuclear family.

Cast: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith
Showrunner: Matt Groening
Aired: 1989-present
Where to watch: Disney+

Looper's own Hunter Cates best summed up the cultural value of "I Love Lucy" in his article titled, "Classic sitcoms we want to get the dramatic treatment." He wrote, "Calling 'I Love Lucy' a sitcom is like calling Elvis Presley a singer. 'I Love Lucy' isn't a classic sitcom; it is the classic sitcom — a totem of Americana that transcended the TV screen to become an iconic piece of global culture." He's right, and that's why no other show but "I Love Lucy" could sit at the top of our list. "I Love Lucy" ran for six seasons on CBS and ended in 1957. 

"I Love Lucy" has a simple premise. It follows a married couple, Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Ricky (Desi Arnaz), as they each navigate their love of performing — Ricky does it for a living, while Lucy dreams of stardom. Along with their landlords/neighbors Fred (William Frawley) and Ethel (Vivian Vance), Lucy and Ricky get into lots of shenanigans, most of which are caused by Lucy's desperate attempts to become famous. Real-life happenings behind the camera, including a tumultuous marriage between Ball and Arnaz, were just as compelling, and both combined gave us one of the most important cultural touchstones ever.

Cast: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, William Frawley, Vivian Vance
Showrunner: Jess Oppenheimer
Aired: 1951-1957
Where to watch: Paramount+