Top 5 funniest shows of all time.

[Straybow]

Top 5 only? AAaaarrgh!

Originally posted by Agathon
Anyway, American comedies "smell like a pair of trousers after the hundred years' war".

Sounds like you pulled that from a Blackadder quip about Baldrick. And that you're still stuck on the unnameable country straddling Mesopotamia.

1. I can't believe nobody has mentioned The Carol Burnette Show. There will never be an ensemble sketch comedy show its equal in a thousand years. All others of that type are but preadolescent giggles or immature pranks in comparison. I recommend emptying bladders and having oxygen available for viewing the "Best Of" video.
2. Monty Python's Flying Circus is of the "immature pranks" class, but so ingeniously done that sets the standard for the genre. Tough act to follow (Fawlty Towers recaptured some of the spirit, though admittedly derivative).
3. The Brits take another honor, but not from TV: The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the original radio broadcasts¹, not the slightly modified book or significantly modified TV show. Sorry, TV just couldn't match the imagination and hearing the zany dialogue beats reading it any day.
4. The Dana Carvey Show is kinda hard to place. Didn't even get a full season because the idiots at ABC put him in the 8:30 time slot. They should be flogged and buried to their necks in an anthill. Nobody can beat Carvey's impression of Clinton's reelection campaign themed as "come suckle on my teats." Pardon me while I compose myself enough to regain my typing skills…
5. M*A*S*H takes its place as the finest of ensemble sitcoms, and for daring to stand in the most unfunny "sit" possible—not the beleaguered dogs in the trenches, not the myopic generals far from the lines of battle, but the hospital where the blighters are stitched back together as much as humanly possible.

Top contenders: shows I (would) hate to miss when (if) they come on:

• Ernie Kovacks
• I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (Douglas Adams' Cleese, Chapman, et al. radio show just prior to HHGTTG Monty Python)
• Yes, (Prime) Minister; Blackadder
• Tick, Eek, Space Ghost C2C, Dexter

Honorable mentions (roughly in order of my exposure to them):

• MTM, The Odd Couple, Barney Miller
• WKRP in Cincinnati, Night Court
• The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (and Jack Parr, from what little I've seen)
• Are You Being Served, Keeping Up Appearances
• Cheers, Frasier

¹ I'm distressed that it appears my link to HHGTTG on Live365 is apparently no longer living.
Edit obvious

[jdd2007]

what is WKRP in Cincinnati?

[monolith94]

I HATE SCOOBY DOO

[Straybow]

Ah, grasshopper, you have much to learn.

There were no stars, just a cast with a remarkable fit and finish. Look it up and you might recognize one name.

Low-rated radio station in Cincinnati changes to a rock format and hires a burnt-out surfer as their anchor DJ, secretary really runs the station, the news reader is hopelessly lost, etc.

Any of these old shows come on some cable channel, give 'em a try.

[Zkribbler]

Of all time??

1) The Jack Benny Show
2) Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows
3) Saturday Night Live
4) Seinfield
5) Burns and Allen (I mean how many shows have the main character go into his den, watch his own show on TV, get bored and turn over to an oat-burner western ?)

[cinch]

1. The Simpsons
2. Seinfeld
3. Futurama
4. Monty Python's Flying Circus
5. Harvey Birdman

What, too soon?

Honourable Mention: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Friends, Kids In The Hall, Undeclared

[Uncle Sparky]

1. Yes, Prime Minister
2. Monty Python's Flying Circus
3. The Simpsons
4. M*A*S*H
5. Frasier

I'd also like to include This Hour has 22 Mins., Kids in the Hall, SCTV, Black Adder, Waiting for God, The Carol Burnette Show, The D!ck van Dvke Show (i don't believe I had to write it that way ), Red Dwarf, Wayne & Shuster, Duckman and early SNL (with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players).

There is also a new Canadian show called Puppets Who Kill that has huge potential,

[redbaron]

Re: Top 5 only? AAaaarrgh!

shows I (would) hate to miss when (if) they come on: I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (Douglas Adams' radio show just prior to HHGTTG)

BBC Radio 7 (Digital and Internet only) is currently repeating ISIRTA every Friday (12:30-13:00 and again at 19:30-20:00 UK time).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7

I agree, it's a classic, but Adams wasn't involved.

http://www.cam.net.uk/~aaa236/isirta01.htm

Edit: Just found this little gem. Sounds like the sort of thing RAH would appreciate:

The Ferret Song
I've got a ferret sticking up my nose.
(He's got a ferret sticking up his nose.)
How it got there I can't tell, but now it's there it hurts like hell,
And what is more it radically affects my sense of smell. (His sense of smell.)
I've got a ferret sticking up my nose.
It pokes its head out every time he blows.
I can tolerate it for a while although it's absolutely vile,
It's not as bad as last week when I had a crocodile. (A crocodile.)

I can see a bare-bottomed mandril,
(Slyly eying his other nostril.)
I really don't know what to do, but if it jumps inside there too,
I shall be the proud possessor of a kind of nasal zoo. (A nasal zoo.)

I've got a ferret sticking up my nose,
And what is worse it constantly explodes.
Ferrets don't explode you say but it happened nine times yesterday,
And I should know 'cause each time I was standing in the way. ('Ding in the way )

Tune: The Rose of England
Composer: Bob Leaper
Authors: Graham Chapman & John Cleese

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by jdd2007
what is WKRP in Cincinnati?

An ensemble sitcom set in a loser radio station in Cincinnati.

[Ming]

One of the funniest moments in TV history...

On WKRP, when they gave free turkeys away for thanksgiving... and they distributed them by DROPPING THEM FROM A HELICOPTER...

He thought turkeys could fly

[Adagio]

Here's my list:

1. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
2. *
3. Married with Children
4. The Simpsons
5. Spin City (From before Charlie took over)

Honorable mentions:
M*A*S*H
Wayne Brothers
Taxi (Some 70's show with lots of (more or less) known actors)


* The show I don't know the english name for... the one with the family, who has Steve Urkel as neigbor

[Ben Kenobi]

ADG:

Family Matters.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Ming
One of the funniest moments in TV history...

On WKRP, when they gave free turkeys away for thanksgiving... and they distributed them by DROPPING THEM FROM A HELICOPTER...

He thought turkeys could fly

I liked the first episode when the elderly gent suggested to Jennifer that she should date him because he was younger than he looked.

She replied, "Are you any richer than you look?"

[Straybow]

Re: Re: Top 5 only? AAaaarrgh!

Originally posted by redbaron
BBC Radio 7 (Digital and Internet only) is currently repeating ISIRTA every Friday (12:30-13:00 and again at 19:30-20:00 UK time).

Thanx!

I agree, it's a classic, but Adams wasn't involved.

Sorry, don't know what I was thinking. (Silly bunt!) Corrected.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by obiwan18
ADG:

Family Matters.

Thx