TV Tuesday: Bringing the Laughs

[yourlibrarian]

It's been noticed that comedies tend to have fewer fanworks than other types of shows, even though they're usually very popular. Whether you enjoy fanworks yourself or not, which comedies would you recommend to someone else?

Comments

[bleodswean]

Hmmmm...I'm not sure this is a reliable premise. The Office? Big Bang Theory? Our Flag Means Death? BTVS is mostly comedic until it's not.

Admittedly, they can be hard to fic in because of tone and the fact that most writers simply cannot write comedy because comedy is HARD.

[reeby10]

I think sitcoms in particular are very mainstream popular, but they don't make a big impact in fandom. Imo it's probably because they rely on fairly stagnant characterization (there are exceptions of course, but generally characters don't show much growth over the series) and the characters' lives are so contained that there perhaps aren't as many obvious jumping off points for fans to create from. I have noticed that the comedies that do get more popular in fandom tend toward ones with fantastic elements, i.e. Ghosts and The Good Place, or that are multi-genre, i.e. Our Flag Means and Brooklynn Nine-Nine, or that have canonically queer characters, i.e. Schitt's Creek and Shameless. Queer multi-genre fantasy sounds pretty typical of fandom to me lol

I'm not a comedy person in general, I prefer shows that happen to be funny but aren't trying to be funny as their main goal. But that being said, I do have a few that I like! I'd definitely rec Freaks and Geeks, Happy Endings, Ghosts UK, and Better Off Ted.

[mulhollands]

Probably Schitt's Creek (it was recommended to me by a friend and I wasn't sure if I'd like it but ended up loving it)

[wendelah1]

I love comedy. (And I have been told I write it well.) Most vintage sitcoms do not age well. Get Smart, a spy spoof from the sixties, is still funny. Green Acres has moments. I Love Lucy is still funny despite how dated it is. I was not a MASH fan back in the day and I doubt I would like it better now. I don't have streaming so I have not seen most recent comedies. I liked The Good Place, Brooklyn 9-9, and Parks and Recreation. I didn't get on with Ghosts, though maybe I should try it again. Oh, The Big Bang Theory was cute, and its characters did grow and change. So did the characters in The Good Place; it was baked into the premise. Parks and Rec characters developed, too.

[china_shop]

Rosehaven is a low-key smalltown comedy starring Celia Pacquola, which I really like. Apparently Pacquola has referred to it as "hangover tv".

Bojack Horseman is a weird animated self-conscious and sometimes disturbing look at Hollywood, in which some of the people are anthromorphic animals. Definitely for adults. Some excellent background gags, as well as some terrible self-involved behaviour from the lead.

I loved the first season of Rose Matafeo's sitcom, Starstruck, about a New Zealander in London who unknowingly hooks up with a movie star.

Also Timewasters, which is a British sitcom about a time-travelling Black jazz quartet (season 1 is on Youtube). Cheerfully silly and fun.

I could go on, but I'll stop there... except that even though this is tv_talk, if we're talking sitcoms I have to mention John Finnemore's radio sitcom Cabin Pressure, about the employees of a tiny airline. It even has 3,853 works on AO3.

[jo]

Most of my fave comedy series date back to the 70s and early 80s. I'm thinking of shows such as M*A*S*H, SOAP, Taxi, Barney Miller, Maude, Black Adder, Police Squad, Newhart, Yes Minster/Prime Minister, etc. I find most of what passes for comedy these days would be better classed as "mildly amusing" rather than actually funny. I mean, I expect to actually laugh -- not just maybe smile, while watching. But in terms of more recent shows, I'd recommend The Thick of It, Party Down, Coupling (the original British one, not the horrible US remake attempt), Community, and Colin from Accounts.

[requiella]

Veep and Absolutely Fabulous are two of my favorite shows, they're mostly just horrible people who are out for themselves and I have no idea why I find that funny or amusing. But "awful people being awful" is one of my favorite genres in general.

[fleurviolette]

It depends on the comedy in question. Some comedies have big fandoms but it’s generally mainstream with more casual fans sharing memes or humor edits. I remember seeing The Office, Parks and Rec, B99, etc as “incorrect quote memes” with other shows and movies on tumblr a long time ago.

Plus some comedies are lighthearted and well written enough, that I don’t have to seek out any fix it fanfics or fluff fics. (Dramas or movies on the other hand, is a different story…)

At the moment, I recommend watching BBC Ghosts and Abbott Elementary.