The 25 Funniest TV Shows Of All Time

Everyone loves to laugh, and TV comedies allow us to do that in the comfort of our own homes. Since the heyday of The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show and All in the Family, American viewers have been gathering around their television sets to laugh along with their favorite characters.

The medium of television is so flexible that it’s allowed for a few different comedic formats. From sitcoms like Seinfeld to talk shows like Conan to sketch shows like Key & Peele, these are the funniest TV shows ever made.

25 It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

The comedic conceit of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is as simple as they come: the worst people in the world do terrible things without caring about the consequences. But that simple premise has given us two decade's worth of laughs.

That conceit is loose and flexible enough to incorporate any satirical target. It's Always Sunny has episodes about abortion, gun control, and child beauty pageants, and it also has plenty of episodes where the Gang just goes off on a crazy scheme and gets in way over their heads (those are often the best).

24 The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Dick Van Dyke Show taught a generation of kids that their dream job was a viable career path. Rob Petrie is a comedy writer who gets paid to joke around with his friends all day, then goes home to Mary Tyler Moore.

Rob and Laura's marriage is refreshingly equal and communicative. We've seen countless sitcoms about toxic relationships, but Rob and Laura's relationship is "us versus the world," not "us versus each other."

Community started off with a pretty traditional premise: a ragtag study group joins forces on a college campus full of weirdos. But the series that followed that jumping-off point was anything but traditional.

Throughout its six seasons, Community had a zombie episode, a paintball warfare episode, and a multiverse episode about chaos theory. It's one of the wildest sitcoms ever imagined.

22 Key & Peele

Before Keegan-Michael Key went on to become the funniest supporting actor in every comedy movie and Jordan Peele went on to become an Oscar-winning horror visionary, they teamed up for one of the best sketch shows ever made. Key & Peele is a delightful satirical snapshot of a very specific view of the world.

Key & Peele satirized Black culture and America's changing racial climate under the Obama administration. But they also parodied all the nerdy things they love.

21 30 Rock

Tina Fey turned her experiences as the head writer of Saturday Night Live into one of the zaniest sitcoms ever made. 30 Rock is practically a live-action cartoon — it's bursting with imagination.

Very few shows cram quite as many laughs into each episode as 30 Rock, and none of them are cheap gags. 30 Rock's jokes are so subtle and layered that you don't even notice some of them until your 10th watch.

20 Saturday Night Live

Over the past half a century, Saturday Night Live has had plenty of great shows, plenty of mediocre shows, and plenty of outright terrible shows. SNL's hit rate is surprisingly low, but that's bound to happen when you do a brand-new live show every single week for more than 50 years.

In all that time, SNL has proven to be the most reliable training ground for American comedy talent. Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Kristen Wiig, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Gilda Radner, Bill Hader — they all cut their teeth on the boards of SNL.

19 Veep

Armando Iannucci's searing brand of political satire turned out to be even better suited to the U.S. political climate. Veep's ruthless insult humor is as shocking as it is hilarious — just like the current state of American politics.

Veep brilliantly highlighted why politicians are so frustratingly inefficient. Julia Louis-Dreyfus' iconic turn as Selina Meyer captured just how self-serving and career-oriented these supposed public servants really are. It's not about making the country a better place to live; it's about consolidating power.

18 Conan

After the debacle with Jay Leno and The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien emerged like a Highlander, stronger than ever. O'Brien's TBS show, narcissistically entitled Conan, doubled down on all the best parts of his Late Night tenure.

Conan had great interviews and great remotes, but what really made it stand out was its ensemble of oddballs. With lovable supporting players like Jordan Schlansky and Sona Movsesian, Conan felt as much like a workplace sitcom as a talk show.

17 The Larry Sanders Show

The Larry Sanders Show was way ahead of its time. It paved the way for the vérité awkwardness of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the self-aware inside-baseball showbiz satire of 30 Rock, and single-camera comedies in general.

Garry Shandling forewent a laugh track to allow the cringe comedy to shine. He had celebrities play themselves to blur the line between fiction and reality.

16 Atlanta

Donald Glover was already one of the great comedians and one of the great musicians when he created, wrote, directed, showran, and starred in Atlanta. I didn’t think I could be any more impressed by his talent, and then he showed us his uniquely surreal vision as a filmmaker.

Atlanta starts off with a relatively traditional premise — the hook of a burgeoning music career; the satirical setting of the cutthroat hip-hop industry — but it quickly morphs into something else entirely. Atlanta is one of the most imaginative shows ever made; from one episode to the next, you have no idea what character you’ll be following, what tone it’ll have, or even which genre you’ll be in.