Best US TV Comedies of the 21st Century For Binge Watching Purposes

[Satchmo Distel]

Looking for some suggestions for lockdown binging. I have started Parks & Recreation and like it as an OK distraction but not really any belly laughs. Community is popular on the cookdandbombd site but I really did not like the first two episodes and wonder where the joke is there. Brooklyn 99 I already liked and I think it might sustain a rewatch. Curb Your Enthusiasm, I'm starting to feel, is actually quite reactionary, giving a free pass to racism and sexism under cover of irony (like an educated American Jewish Alf Garnett).

[Lang Spoon]

Parks and Recreation is fairly poor till the second series. The belly laughs do arrive.

[ad hoc]

Yes I'd stick with Parks and Recreation. Most of the humour of Community goes way over my head. This is not an issue for either the show or for me. It's just not my thing

[HeavyDracula]

Both Parks and Recreation and Community take little bit to hit their stride but when they do, boy, is it worth it! (apart from that one series of Community when Chevy Chase pulled a power play and the decent staff walked).

I've got a lot of time for The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, both by the same guy who did Parks and Rec, and I've enjoyed Superstore for what it is. There's only been one season so far but . While not traditional sitcoms, Nathan For You and Tim & Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job! are must-sees, and I've never been let down by It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. If you can do animated shows, and don't get triggered by depression issues, Bojack Horseman is another incredible show.

[Freestyling buck wilding Stijn Stijnen]

The Eric Andre show was one of the funnier things I've watched in recent years, and is available to watch for nowt on more4/all 4.
Review with Forrest Macneil was interesting, with some belly laughs along the way.

[Freestyling buck wilding Stijn Stijnen]

Canadian, not American, but I really enjoyed the first 8 or so seasons of trailer park boys, which i'd dismissed as a 'lets laugh at the rednecks' show, but has a surprising amount of heart.

[Freestyling buck wilding Stijn Stijnen]

Thought of another one, eastbound and down was diverting, my memory is telling me that it peaked and troughed throughout, but the pros outweighed the cons.

[Freestyling buck wilding Stijn Stijnen]

Both Parks and Recreation and Community take little bit to hit their stride but when they do, boy, is it worth it! (apart from that one series of Community when Chevy Chase pulled a power play and the decent staff walked).

I've got a lot of time for The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, both by the same guy who did Parks and Rec, and I've enjoyed Superstore for what it is. There's only been one season so far but . While not traditional sitcoms, Nathan For You and Tim & Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job! are must-sees, and I've never been let down by It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. If you can do animated shows, and don't get triggered by depression issues, Bojack Horseman is another incredible show.

With Tim and Eric, I've gotten into 'on cinema at the cinema', starring Tim Heidecker of T&E, there are ten seasons, each with ten episodes per season running at ten minutes per episode... Not to mention annual oscar specials, and the commitment to some of the longest running jokes I can think of has won a place in my heart. It exists within a self created universe that i enjoy visiting.
It's all available on youtube via the adultswim channel.

[Wouter D]

We started Arrested Development. Can recommend, although an intimate knowledge of the themes of the GWB administration helps in appreciating some of the jokes. I forgot a lot.

[matt j]

I binged a lot of Brooklyn 99 recently. It has its moments, but I find it completely forgettable for the most part. I guess that's okay.

The Good Place is very good. Bojack Horseman is amazing, but you have to put your mind in the right place. At least the first two seasons of Arrested Development are some of the best things ever put on TV.

Community was my favorite show for a long while, then they kind of shot themselves in the foot for one season, recuperated a bit, and then I haven't watched anything from the yahooTV (I think) era.

I admit to both loving and hating Curb Your Enthusiasm at the same time. I'm not sure I can explain it more than that.

[Patrick Thistle]

We are working our way through Community for the first time and enjoying it. We are midway through the 4th season. Is that the Chevy Chase power play season? He's been absent a few episodes. I find his character really annoying anyway so it's no great loss. The weak episodes are the ones that feature the Dean or Chang too much. It kind of veered into Scrubs territory with the Dean's quirks becoming a regular bit.

How I Met Your Mother is still decent for binge watching. Although don't bother with the last couple of series. Superstore is great. Very funny. I gave up on Brooklyn99 half way through season 5. It was the episode where Gina says goodbye to everyone. Gina is an ok bit character but less is definitely more with her. If she took a major role it was unwatchable.

The Good Place is my favourite US comedy show of the decade just gone.

[lambers]

We started Community just over a week ago, will close up the first season tonight. We were actually close to dropping it in after the second episode, but decided to give it another chance, the third and fourth episodes were better and the rest of the season has been some of the funniest TV I've seen.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Letterkenny of course, though personally I'd break the binge with something else every three or four episodes. (Like Trailer Park Boys Canadian not US, but whatever...)

Sadly The Larry Sanders Show misses your front end cut-off by a couple of years but I'm including it anyway, because its stone brilliant.

[Ray de Galles]

'30 Rock' was the last truly great US sitcom. Watching multiple episodes of it and 'Frasier' is sustaining me through lockdown.

[Patrick Thistle]

30 Rock was very funny, but I tend to ding TV shows about TV shows as being self indulgent. Tina Fey is a comedy goddess though. I'd watch her watching paint dry.

My Name is Earl is one from the noughties. Chuck was a great show in its first couple of seasons.

[Ray de Galles]

30 Rock was very funny, but I tend to ding TV shows about TV shows as being self indulgent

I always find it strange when people focus on the sit rather than the com, the setting for a show doesn't matter if it's funny.

I mean, the premise of 'Detectorists' is completely uninspiring but it's a gem (and probably the best sitcom of the last decade).

[Nocturnal Submission]

Another vote for Arrested Development which I think is quite brilliant and some of my favourite ever TV.

I really like Big Bang Theory but I'm aware that it's not much liked on OTF.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I loved Malcolm in the Middle at the time, but I've no idea how it stands up now.

[Foot of Astaire's]

I can't imagine anything in that category ever topping Seinfeld but Curb and The Office (US) both run it pretty pretty close.

[nmrfox]

I mean, the premise of 'Detectorists' is completely uninspiring but it's a gem (and probably the best sitcom of the last decade).

I'd definitely second that.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I'd definitely second that.

Yes, I'll have to check it out. I always come to comedies a long time after everyone else. This Country was my most recent late discovery.

[Levin]

I'd recommend The Office (up until about series 7), Community is good for the first 4 series as mentioned, Parks and Rec is comfortable. Better Off Ted is amazing but was only a couple of series.

Has anyone watched Veep? New Girl was very good but I stopped watching it when I stopped having a TV.

Man, Scrubs. I loved that when I was younger but I've watch a couple of episodes more recently and it's painful.

[Cal Alamein]

Another overlap, 1997-2010, and not for everyone, but King of Hill is easily my favorite US TV comedy. Mike Judge and his writers nail suburban Texas and Oklahoma.

[Levin]

Lots of links between that and Parks & Rec I believe.

I know, not US, but Friday Night Dinner is brilliant.

[Patrick Thistle]

.

I really like Big Bang Theory but I'm aware that it's not much liked on OTF.

Well I've watched all of it and thought it was pretty good. Lost its way a bit at points, but I don't know any show that retained its consistency over its entire run and 10 years is a long time. I really laughed at the guy who dismissed it as "blackface for nerds". (I think that was an Our Valued Customers comic panel.)

Modern Family is another show that started strong but has been mediocre for a couple of years now.

Better Off Ted was very funny. Cheers Levin for reminding me of it.

The Middle starring her off Everybody Loves Raymond and the janitor off Scrubs was a decent fam-com.