From sketch comedy to family sitcoms, 2023 delivered a range of promising new shows and returning seasons of cult favorites. What follows is our list of this year’s top five best comedies, but we’ll start with our honorable mentions and a tribute to another splendid season of uproarious television.
2023 Gave Comedy Fans Plenty to Love
There’s a reason sitcoms like The Office and New Girl have seemingly bottomless rewatchability for audiences – comedy offers an often-light-hearted respite from the world. That being said, the plethora of television available ensures a diaspora among comedy fans – each finding their own curated islands among a sea of stellar offerings. It’s worth mentioning some of the larger landmasses and smaller shores within 2023’s comedy archipelago before diving into the year’s top five.
Barry, Ted Lasso, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Ghosts (UK), Never Have I Ever, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and the upcoming tenth season of Canadian comedy Letterkenny each rank among the year’s biggest final seasons of comedy. While all of the aforementioned comedies have been brought to an end by the accord of their creative teams, other series weren’t as fortunate. The Great, iCarly, Home Economics American Auto, Up Here, and two of our honorable mentions below were among the comedies that saw new episodes in 2023, only to be met with disappointing cancellation news.
In addition to the ended series, new seasons of fan favorites like It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Shoresy, Our Flag Mean Death, Good Omens, The Righteous Gemstones, This Fool, Killing It, and the returning Party Down padded 2023 out with some worthy laughs. Newcomers onto the scene, such as Shrinking, Everyone Else Burns, and Dreaming Whilst Black, also drew audiences into brand-new comedy worlds this year.
Before diving into the honorable mentions and top five, it’s worth delineating that Abbott Elementary and other network comedies were unfortunately robbed of a full season’s worth of television in 2023 due to the studio’s inability to swiftly resolve the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike.s For this reason, Abbott Elementary did not quite crack the top five, though episodes like “Festival” made brilliant entries to this year’s comedy landscape. Fortunately, the Abbott Elementary drought is nearly over, with Season 3 arriving on Feb. 10, 2024.
Lastly, The Bear is nothing short of exceptional television, but it is simply not a comedy despite the Golden Globes’ assertions to the contrary.
Honorable Mentions
This year’s four honorable mentions each denote a worthy television comedy that’s flown somewhat under the radar in comparison to its peers. Without further ado, here are some of the 2023 television comedy landscape’s lesser-sung stars:
Rap Sh!t Season 2
From Insecure‘s Issa Rae, Rap Sh!t constitutes not only a great entry into the comedy genre but proves a standout voice among the plethora of television offerings that explore fictional musicians. This year alone saw buzzed-about series like Daisy Jones and The Six and The Idol, with Rap Sh!t unfortunately flying too low below the radar. The series explores the friendship and musical collaboration between Shawna Clark and Mia Knight as they navigate the rap industry from a fresh, funny, and female-driven perspective.
The Afterparty Season 2
From Only Murders in the Building to Based on a True Story, 2023 proved an excellent year for mystery comedies, with The Afterparty among the year’s best entries and most devastating cancellations. The AppleTV+ series featured an uproarious ensemble across its two anthology seasons, including comedians Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Ben Schwartz, and Ken Jeong. Beyond the overarching whodunnit mystery, The Afterparty offered revolving genre parodies in its exploration of each suspect’s account of the evening.
The Other Two Season 3
The Other Two joins The Afterparty among the ranks of comedy cancellations that came too soon for fans (though its downfall came from accusations of alleged behind-the-scenes workplace toxicity). The series possessed a 30 Rock sensibility when it came to skewering the entertainment industry through the lens of the entertainingly flawed Dubek family’s viral rise to Bieber-like fame.
Class of ’07 Season 1
One of the most underrated comedies of 2023 arrived in the form of Australian survival series Class of ’07, a delightful mix of Yellowjackets and Derry Girls. Stranded at their Catholic school’s ten-year reunion as the result of an environmental catastrophe, a dysfunctional group of women must concurrently confront their adolescent indiscretions alongside their new post-apocalyptic obstacles.
The Top 5 Television Comedies of 2023
Despite a year flooded with expectational television, five contenders have risen in the ranks to earn 2023’s top spots. Though comedy can be extremely subjective and offer a variety of flavors more appealing to specific audiences, these five new and returning television comedies have strongly captured our hearts this past year:
5) What We Do in the Shadows Season 5
The fallout of Guillermo de la Cruz’s attempted vampiric transformation in Season 4’s finale took center stage in the horror comedy What We Do in the Shadows’ highly anticipated fifth installment. This season both continued the laughs, from Matthew Berry’s pronunciation of “Chilaquiles” to a nocturnal pride parade, and expanded on the series’ lore by introducing an urgent care for vampire’s familiars and the Council of Energy Vampires.
Standout episodes of Season 5 included “Pride Parade” and “Local News,” which saw the spiraling madness after Nandor the Relentless accidentally compromised the vampire’s undead status on live television. In addition to the show’s familiar brand of supernatural humor, Season 5 delivered heart as Guillermo grappled with his identity as a Van Helsing descendant at the crossroads of vampiric transformation.
Already love What We Do in the Shadows? Check out HBO’s genre comedy Los Espookys or the What We Do in the Shadows film’s lesser discussed spin-off, Wellington Paranormal.
4) I Think You Should Leave Season 3
The internet was handed a fresh batch of meme-worthy material from Tim Robinson and company in the third installment of the cult sketch series I Think You Should Leave. Fan favorites Sam Richardson, Biff Wiff, Conner O’Malley, Tim Heidecker, and Patti Harrison returned as a variety of whacky characters, with new guest stars, such as Ayo Edebiri, Tim Meadows, Fred Armisen, and Jason Schwartzman, joining in on the chaos.
Some of the season’s best sketches included the monstrous Darmine Doggy Door, The Driving Crooner, Zipline, and Club Haunted House. I Think You Should Leave continued to instill invaluable wisdom like avoiding TK Jewelers and the assertion that “we should be able to look at a little porn at work.”
Already rewatched I Think You Should Leave multiple times? Robinson and Richardson’s Detroiters makes delightful paring, as does the long-form sketch series Documentary Now!
3) Primo Season 1
This “Oops! All Uncles” freshmen comedy from Shea Serrano and Mike Schur presents a delightful hybrid of the classic network-style family sitcom and the more contemporary streaming era of comedy. Ignacio Diaz-Silverio stars as Rafa “Primo” Gonzalez and imbues the coming-of-age protagonists with indelible charm as he struggles with collegiate decisions, a crush on the new girl in town, and, of course, the bottomless opinions of his five hilarious uncles. Primo poses important, open-ended questions about which fireworks are most erotic and how to properly settle debts with ghosts.
Not only did Primo debut with an incredibly strong, established voice, but the episode “Game Champ” immediately entered the series into conversation with sitcom juggernauts like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and New Girl. The episode’s titular game, which combines elements of “every board game,” is reminiscent of beloved fictional sitcom games such as CharDee MacDennis and True American.
Looking to pass the time while anxiously awaiting news of Primo‘s hopeful Season 2 renewal? Give family sitcoms like One Day at a Time (2017) and Speechless a try.
2) Jury Duty Season 1
Thanks partially to TikTok virality, an unexpected contender rose quickly through the ranks of the year’s best comedies in Jury Duty. The Truman Show-esque long-form prank on Ron Gladden was equally parts goofy and heart-warming. Gladden endeared himself to both audiences and the actors surrounding him throughout the show’s fictional trial.
Comically terrible courtroom animations, the invention of “Jorf,” and the particularly zany spotlight on an abstinence loophole known as “soaking” all contributed to Jury Duty‘s delightful humor. James Marsden playing a particularly ridiculous version of himself served as the cherry on top of Jury Duty‘s appeal.
Already burned through Jury Duty? Check out NBC’s hidden gem of a courtroom mockumentary, Trial & Error, or another hybrid comedy/reality series like Nathan for You.
1) Reservation Dogs Season 3
Reservation Dogs brought a healthy dose of both laughter and tears in its final season and proved nothing short of a rare television gift. The coming-of-age comedy flanked its often heavier explorations of topics such as grief and cultural trauma with the more hilarious members of its ensemble like Zahn McClaron’s Bug, Jana Schmieding’s Bev, Kirk Fox’s Kenny Boy, and Gary Farmer’s Uncle Brownie.
Spirits, aliens, the Deer Lady, and White Jesus all made appearances in a season that was equal parts a grounded exploration of growing up and a rich mythologically inclusive tale about community and ancestry. The show’s family members each graduated into the next stage of their journeys in Reservation Dogs‘ satisfying and uplifting series finale.
Want more of Schmieding’s hilarious antics? Check out the actor and comedian in Rutherford Falls, a delightful Peacock comedy that likewise centers on native stories and creators.
For more of our Best of lists for 2023, check out the following:
Best Animated TV Shows of 2023
Published: Dec 26, 2023 08:45 pm