I love sitcoms.
Part of me thinks I should’ve started this off with more of a profound statement. But at the end of the day, that’s the thought I really want to express.
Over the last 10 years, I’ve watched a lot of TV comedies. Like, way too many. Example: I watched at least two episodes of Work It. If you don’t know what that is, consider yourself lucky.
There’s a part of me that thinks I’ve spent too much time watching sitcoms. Heck, I’ve seen more episodes of Bob Hearts Abishola than of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, The Sopranos and The Wire combined. I have informed opinions about Wilfred. I have a favorite joke from Life in Pieces. I once wrote a college assignment about ABC’s new crop of sitcoms for the 2013 season and remember being extremely disappointed by how bad Super Fun Night was.
But there’s another, much smarter part of me that knows I haven’t wasted any time watching these shows. In the 2010s, sitcoms became more daring, boundary-pushing and downright exceptional than they’ve ever been. The auteur era reinvigorated a stale format. Streaming services and binge-watching transformed the way jokes are delivered and written. Cable networks un-obsessed with ratings allowed shows to gestate longer and tell more specific, audience-targeted stories. And shorter seasons trimmed the fluff out of seasons, allowing tighter jokes and narratives to tell better stories.
This was the decade that gave us more options and more comedy than ever before. And I’m the only dummy with enough free time to rank it all. These are my picks for the 50 best sitcom episodes of the 2010s.
First, some ground rules:
- Limit one episode per show. It’s more fun that way.
- Sitcoms only. This will not include episodes of sketch comedies, talk shows, variety shows, unscripted shows or reality shows. I could make a separate top 50 list just using those formats, highlighted by the stellar peaks from the likes of Saturday Night Live, Key & Peele, Inside Amy Schumer, Nathan For You, The Chris Gethard Show, Documentary Now, Joe Pera Talks With You and the dozen or so late-night talk shows that debuted in the last decade.
- Live-action only. No disrespect to shows like Big Mouth, Bojack Horseman, Rick and Morty and Bob’s Burgers. They all could’ve had entries on the list. But I had to choose my arbitrary parameters somehow. (And also I didn’t feel like getting yelled at by Rick and Morty fans for rating their show too low. I’m one of you. I watch and like your show. Please don’t yell at me.)
- No premieres or finales. I have specifically chosen to exclude the first and last episode of every season from contention here. Those episodes are almost always the most memorable because of plot reasons. But we’re only doing meat-and-potatoes episodes on this list. Mid-season episodes are almost always funnier anyway. Less focus on plot. More focus on jokes and characters.
- My definition of sitcom might be different than yours. I didn’t include shows like Orange Is The New Black and Transparent because I classify them as dramas. And there are some shows on this list that might be dramatic in tone, but I picked episodes that are comedic. If you dislike my methodology, that’s fine.
- I haven’t seen every show. Trust me, I’ve tried. But there really is too much television. So for those of you who I didn’t include one of your favorites, I’m sorry. I couldn’t get to it. (Or I didn’t like your favorite show and you’re dumb for liking it.)
And that’s pretty much it. Click through the links below to enjoy the list. And be sure to yell at me on Twitter @nicksuss if you have qualms with my choices.
The Sitcomologist 