10 Essential Comedy Shows You Need To Watch Before You Die

Image via NBC Published Aug 7, 2026, 3:08 PM EDT Dyah (pronounced Dee-yah) is a Senior Author at Collider, responsible for both writing and transcription duties. She joined the website in 2022 as a Resource Writer before stepping into her current role in April 2023. As a Senior Author, she writes Features and Lists covering TV, music, and movies, making her a true Jill of all trades. In addition to her writing, Dyah also serves as an interview transcriber, primarily for events such as San Diego Comic-Con, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival. Dyah graduated from Satya Wacana Christian University in October 2019 with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, concentrating on Creative Writing. She is currently completing her Master's degree in English Literature Studies, with a thesis on intersectionality in postcolonial-feminist studies in Asian literary works, and is expected to graduate in 2026. Born and raised between Indonesia and Singapore, Dyah is no stranger to different cultures. She now resides in the small town of Kendal with her husband and four cats, where she spends her free time cooking or cycling. Sign in to your Collider account There is a craft to making people laugh, and the most obvious manifestation of it is the comedy genre. Over the years, comedy shows have come and gone, finding humor in everything from the ups and downs of raising a family to the hopelessness of finding love and the mediocrity of everyday work. Yet only a select few have endured as cultural icons, proving that comedy can take all shapes and forms. Some reinvented the sitcom format, while others redefined what it means to be funny. Whether through sharp writing, unforgettable characters, or timeless running gags, these series have left a lasting mark on television and continue to influence the comedies that followed. With that said, here are the essential comedy shows you need to watch before you die. 10 'The Golden Girls' (1985–1992) Image via NBC Even in the '80s, comedies were already taking a progressive step with The Golden Girls. Television has a bad habit of favoring younger actors as its leads, but The Golden Girls features not one, but four elderly women at the center of the show. Far from the typical portrayal of older people, these women are sassy, outspoken, and full of life. The Golden Girls proves that great humor only gets better with age. Instead of older women being treated as the punchline, the four women of The Golden Girls create the punchlines. And when you've lived as many years as they have, there are certain issues they can joke about while still offering profound wisdom, including aging, widowhood, and, at the time, the misconceptions surrounding HIV/AIDS. 9 'Seinfeld' (1989–1998) Image via Netflix In a television climate that prided itself on family values and moral goodwill, Seinfeld abandoned all that for a group of self-serving misanthropes who somehow get along. Popularizing the "show about nothing" structure, Seinfeld has no moral lessons to preach or lingering messages to share—it simply exists as a comedy about everyday hijinks. It's a risk, considering the first season doesn't immediately take off. But from Season 2 onwards, it's proof that the best comedies are the ones that let their casts grow organically. That chemistry takes time to mature, allowing the jokes and running gags to land even better, making Seinfeld an essential watch to see how even the zaniest comedies become timeless once their cast finds its rhythm. 8 'Friends' (1994–2004) Image via NBC No other comedy has brought people together quite like Friends. Despite its American-centric origins, the language of friendship transcends languages and cultures. Through the main six's everyday shenanigans, the show is about having a group of people to laugh, cry, and grow up with. Even if you've never had that kind of friend group, Friends somehow makes you feel like you're already part of it. Friends also makes young adulthood feel far less intimidating and worth laughing over. Whether it's struggling to find a job, getting your heart broken, or simply having no idea what you're doing with your life, Friends reminds audiences that those anxieties are normal. The hardships may be temporary, but friends are forever. 7 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' (2005–Present) Image via Patrick McElhenney / ©FXX /Courtesy: Everett Collectionf It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia broke so many boundaries that it's unbelievable the show has managed to come away largely unscathed. Following five loose-lipped, insensitive, underachieving misfits, the gang is always cooking up ridiculous schemes to keep their dingy Paddy's Pub in South Philadelphia afloat. In a world that demands perfection and good morals, IASIP is an essential comedy because it unapologetically throws every rule off the rails. Comedic writing has long dabbled in satire and physical gags, but IASIP takes both to the extreme. Unlike the polished sets and well-adjusted characters most comedies are known for, Always Sunny embraces its DIY nature, taking pride in its characters' flaws and exploiting them to hilarious ends. 6 'The Simpsons' (1989–Present) Image via Fox More than three decades after its debut, The Simpsons has become the blueprint for the animated family sitcom. Across numerous seasons, Homer and Marge have stumbled their way through the highs and lows of raising Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, proving that no family is ever too dysfunctional to love. Although it's remembered for Homer's slapstick antics and its uncanny ability to "predict" real-life events, The Simpsons endures because of its heart. Beneath the absurd humor is a family that never stops showing up for one another. Also, there's no other animated comedy notorious for its eerie future predictions. Some of The Simpsons' best predictions range anywhere from the invention of smartwatches to Donald Trump's presidency. Collider Exclusive · TV Medicine Quiz Which Fictional Hospital Would You Work Best In? The Pitt · ER · Grey's Anatomy · House · Scrubs Five hospitals. Five completely different ways medicine goes sideways on television — brutal, chaotic, romantic, brilliant, and ridiculous. Only one of them is the ward your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out exactly where you belong. 🚨The Pitt 🏥ER 💉Grey's 🔬House 🩺Scrubs FIND YOUR HOSPITAL → 01 A critical patient comes through the door. What's your first instinct? Medicine under pressure reveals who you actually are. AStay completely present — block everything else out and work through it step by step, right now. BTriage fast and delegate — get the right people on the right problems immediately. CTrust my gut and move — I work best when I stop overthinking and just act. DAsk the question everyone else is ignoring — what's the thing that doesn't fit? ETake a breath, make a joke to cut the tension, and then get to work — panic helps no one. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Why did you go into medicine in the first place? The honest answer says more about you than the one you'd give in an interview. ABecause I wanted to be where it matters most — right at the edge, when someone's life is actually on the line. BBecause I wanted to help people — genuinely, one patient at a time, in a system that makes it hard. CBecause I was drawn to the intensity of it — the stakes, the drama, the feeling of being fully alive. DBecause medicine is the most interesting puzzle there is — and I needed a problem worth solving. EBecause I wanted to make a difference — and also, honestly, I didn't know what else to do with my life. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What do you actually want from the people you work with? Who you want beside you under pressure is who you are. ACompetence and calm — I need people who don't fall apart when things get bad. BTrust and reliability — I want to know that when I pass something off, it's handled. CConnection — I want colleagues who become family, even if that gets complicated. DIntelligence and the willingness to be challenged — I have no interest in people who just agree with me. EFriendship — people I actually like spending twelve hours a day with, because those hours are going to happen either way. NEXT QUESTION → 04 You lose a patient you fought hard to save. How do you carry it? Every doctor who's worked a long shift has had to answer this question. AI carry it. All of it. I don't look for ways to put it down — that weight is part of doing this work honestly. BI process it and move — you have to, or the next patient suffers for the one you just lost. CI feel it deeply and lean on the people around me — I don't think you're supposed to handle that alone. DI go back over every decision — not to punish myself, but because I need to understand what I missed. EI grieve it genuinely, find some way to laugh about something unrelated, and try to be kind to myself — imperfectly. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How would your colleagues describe the way you work? Your reputation on the floor is usually more accurate than your self-image. AIntense and completely present — no small talk during a shift, but exactly who you want there. BSteady and dependable — not the flashiest in the room but never the one who drops something. CPassionate and occasionally chaotic — brilliant on the hard cases, prone to drama everywhere else. DBrilliant and difficult — right more often than anyone else, and everyone knows it, including me. EWarm and self-deprecating — not the most intimidating presence, but genuinely good at this and easy to like. NEXT QUESTION → 06 How do you feel about hospital protocol and procedure? Every institution has rules. What you do with them is a choice. AProtocol is the floor, not the ceiling — I follow it until the patient needs something it can't provide. BI respect it — the system is broken in places, but the structure is there for a reason and I work within it. CI follow it until my instincts tell me not to — and my instincts are usually right, even when they cause problems. DRules are for people who haven't thought hard enough about when to break them. EI try to follow it and mostly do — with a few memorable exceptions that still come up in meetings. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What does this job cost you personally? Nobody works in medicine without paying a price. What's yours? AEverything outside these walls — I've given this job my full attention and the rest of my life has gone around it. BMy idealism, mostly — I came in believing the system could be fixed and I've made a complicated peace with that. CStability — my personal life has been as chaotic as the OR, and that's not entirely a coincidence. DMy relationships — I am not easy to know, and the people who've tried to would probably agree. EMy sense of gravity — I use humour as a coping mechanism, which not everyone appreciates in a hospital. NEXT QUESTION → 08 At the end of a long shift, what keeps you coming back? The answer to this question is the most honest thing about you. AThe fact that it's real — that nothing else I could be doing would matter this much, right now, today. BThe patients — individual human beings who needed something and got it because I was there. CThe people I work with — I have walked through impossible things with these people and I'd do it again. DThe next unsolved case — there's always another puzzle, and I'm not done yet. EBecause despite everything — the exhaustion, the loss, the absurdity — I actually love this job. REVEAL MY HOSPITAL → Your Assignment Has Been Made You Belong In…Your answers have pointed to one fictional hospital above all others. This is the ward your instincts, your temperament, and your particular brand of dysfunction were built for. The PittYou are built for the most unsparing version of emergency medicine television has ever shown — one that puts you inside a single fifteen-hour shift and doesn't let you look away. You need your work to be real, not romanticised — meaning over drama, honesty over aesthetics. You find purpose inside the work itself, not in the chaos surrounding it. You've made peace with the fact that this job takes from you constantly, and gives back in ways that are harder to name. Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center demands exactly that kind of person — and you would not want to be anywhere else. ERYou are the person who keeps the whole floor running — not the most brilliant in the room, but possibly the most essential. You show up, do the work, absorb the losses, and come back the next day without needing the job to be anything other than what it is. You care about patients as individual human beings, not as cases to solve or dramas to live through. You believe in the system even when it fails you — and you understand that emergency medicine is about holding the line just long enough. ER is television about endurance. You have it. Grey's AnatomyYou came to medicine with your whole self — your ambition, your emotions, your relationships, your history — and you have never quite managed to leave any of it at the door. You feel things fully and form deep attachments to the people you work with. Your personal and professional lives are permanently, chaotically entangled — and that entanglement drives both your greatest disasters and your most remarkable saves. You understand that extraordinary medicine often happens at the intersection of clinical skill and profound human connection. It's messy at Grey Sloan. You would not have it any other way. HouseYou are drawn to the problem above everything else — the symptom that doesn't fit, the diagnosis hiding underneath the obvious one. You're not primarily motivated by the patient as a person — though you are capable of caring, even if you'd deny it. You work best when the stakes are highest and the standard answer is wrong. Princeton-Plainsboro exists to house one extraordinary, impossible mind — and everyone around that mind is there because they're smart enough to keep up. The only way forward here is to think harder than everyone else in the room. That is exactly what you do. ScrubsYou understand that medicine is tragic and absurd in almost equal measure — and that the only sane response is to hold both of those things at the same time. You are warm, self-aware, and funnier than most people in your field. You use humour to get through terrible moments — and at Sacred Heart, that's not a flaw, it's a survival strategy. You lean on the people around you and let them lean back. The laughter and the grief are genuinely inseparable here. Scrubs is a show about learning to become someone worthy of the job. You are still very much in the middle of that process — which is exactly right. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 'The Office' (2005–2013) Image via NBC It's easy to make audiences laugh when a character is naturally outrageous. But when they're as deadpan as the employees at Dunder Mifflin from The Office, it takes much more skill. Yet the show successfully finds comedy in the corporate world, turning one of the least glamorous office jobs into one of television's funniest workplaces. The Office proves that you don't have to be an eccentric funnyman to be funny. The real genius of The Office is how it humanizes characters who should be unlikeable. Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is an insignificant, unreasonable manager with terrible social skills, but the show somehow turns his sheer awkwardness into comedy through every interaction he has. 4 'How I Met Your Mother' (2005–2014) Image via CBS While it's easy to call How I Met Your Mother the second coming of Friends, it's not that simple. Although both revolve around a close-knit group of friends, HIMYM arrived just as social media was beginning to take off and reached its peak alongside the internet's growing meme culture. It became an online sensation that audiences quoted and shared long after each episode aired. That alone shows how comedy can outgrow television. HIMYM is one of those rare shows whose jokes outgrew the screen, becoming part of internet culture in their own right. From Barney's "legen—wait for it—dary" catchphrase to the annual "Slapsgiving" running gag, it's an essential comedy because its humor has become timeless both on and offline. 3 'Modern Family' (2009–2020) Image via ABC There's no television comedy`1 dynamic more relatable than the extended family—they're the first people behind many of life's biggest memories. That's the case with Modern Family. When it first premiered, the Dunphys, Pritchett-Delgados, and Tucker-Pritchetts were still in the early stages of family life, dealing with everything from their children's homework to figuring out how to become better parents. As the show goes on, not only do the children grow up, but so do the parents. Through hilarious and awkward situations alike, they learn lessons along the way. Modern Family makes every stage of life feel funny, familiar, and worth revisiting whenever we refuse to grow up, even if it's just for a little while. 2 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' (2013–2021) Image via Peacock Workplace comedies aren't revolutionary at this point, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine makes the formula even more fun by pairing every episode with a serious case-of-the-week. Some seasons even have overarching conflicts that give the show genuine intrigue, whether it's an internal corruption scandal or the squad getting wrongfully thrown into prison. But when the person handling these cases is someone like Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), who treats police work like it's a game, each investigation is never boring to watch. It takes a certain skill to make a show with actual procedural intrigue, while also letting audiences watch how the characters' personal lives are just as funny in between the work. 1 'Abbott Elementary' (2021–Present) Image via ABC Abbott Elementary brings joy to an otherwise overlooked profession, where the burnt-out school staff—from the overenthusiastic Janine (Quinta Brunson) to the eccentric cleaning staff Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis)—play a part in making school educational, fun, and accessible. Whether it's dealing with ringworm outbreaks, surviving PTA meetings, or going head-to-head with the school district, teachers have it tough. In recent years, television has advocated for representation, and there's no better representation than the overworked, understaffed teachers at a public school. Abbott Elementary is proof that you can find humor in professions most people would consider "mundane." But through the staff's camaraderie, it's an essential comedy that proves everyday professions are just as entertaining. Release Date 2021 - 2026-00-00 Network ABC Showrunner Quinta Brunson A workplace comedy centered around a group of dedicated teachers - and an oblivious principal - in a Philadelphia public school where, despite the odds stacked against them, they are determined to help their students succeed in life.