Comedies That Make Me Laugh

As I have gotten older my idea of what's dramatic, adventurous, thrilling, scary and too over the top have evolved. One thing remains constant though and that is how comedies are able to tell a story that can make you laugh really hard, feel really sad and in the end extremely happy when all is said and done. From foul-mouthed kids and adults, to something as simple and mundane as a "documentary" about an ordinary paper company, comedies are probably my favorite shows on television today. They roll everything into one and are able to be light hearted and fun throughout but also really serious and make me care about the characters just as much as I did in Fullmetal Alchemist, Fringe, Game of Thrones and more serious shows.

So in no particular order, as I love all these shows equally and have watched them all multiple times, my favorite comedies on this week's What Wood Is Watching.

New Girl:

At first, I thought this was going to be primarily directed at women with Jess being the main character and it mainly revolving around her problems for the longest time but after the first season, like most comedies and sitcoms, the other characters started to get their own story and make this a great ensemble show. The premise is simple Jess (Zoe Deschanel) comes home one day to find her boyfriend cheating on her and so she moves out into a loft with what she thought were three women from a craigslist ad, but turn out to be Nick, Schmidt and Winston, (pictured above left to right respectively) and due to her desperation to find a home, moves in. Jess's best friend Cici, (furthest left) becomes a bigger role in season 2 because of her dynamic with one of the guys above (no spoilers) and what ensues is gut wrenching, heartwarming and funny all at once all the way up to where we are today with season 5 of the show. New Girl airs new episodes Tuesday nights on Fox. The past 4 seasons are available on Netflix and with Hulu you can watch the new episodes the day after they air on cable.

Always Sunny in Philadelphia

This comedy is more irreverent, inappropriate and outlandish than anything besides South Park, but that's because it's literally 3 friends who wrote this, cast two of their wives in it, and somehow got Danny Divito to play himself in it with a fake name. The setup to this show is that Mac, Dennis, Frank, "Sweet" Dee and Charlie all are owners of a bar named "Paddy's Irish Pub" and starting off a majority of the episodes revolved around ways they could get rich using the bar, but quickly devolved into ways to showcase their stupidity in the funniest possible ways ranging from finding an original "Hitler painting" or creating an underground Vietnam vs Korean fight club and casino in the basement of Paddy's. 11 seasons in, this show is one of the few that actually get me to ask "What the hell?" through tears of laughter as I can't believe they go as far as they do to just get a laugh. For example, the actor that plays Mac (far right/fat)  decided that it would be funny if Mac got fat for a season so they could make fat jokes. Instead of a fat suit, he put on 50lbs because "it would be hysterical". He only told his wife (actress that plays Dee) what he planned to do and they all got extremely worried, but damn that was a funny season. Always Sunny just finished their latest season on FXX but you can watch their previous 10 on Hulu, Netflix or FXNow**.

Note**: I always have to direct people to this scene from season 3 when I say why you should watch the show..

Brooklyn Nine-Nine:

When The Office ended, I was left with a void in my life of a sitcom about the doldrums of working for some kind of company in America. Enter Brooklyn Nine-Nine where we get to see inside a police precinct from NYC detectives. While it isn't presented like a documentary and more of an episode of Family Guy, this show is so witty and funny that I compare it to the way Family Guy used to be when it was the show everyone was watching and excited to watch. Episode 1 starts of with Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) doing his job as a detective as lazy as ever and not following rules and regulations but staying within the law as the whole precinct mirrors his attitude from the lack of a captain that cares. However, when the captain retires abruptly and Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher) takes over, the Nine-Nine has to adjust to a more involved and stricter captain. There is fighting and hijinks in what is the 2nd best Halloween episode for a series ever, but everyone in the Nine-Nine eventually come together and make themselves better people in the process. Over the course of 2 seasons (so far) we have seen Jake, Terry (played by Terry Crews) and even Captain Holt grow as characters but still hold to their original introductions as much as they can. The show airs on Fox Tuesdays and the past season can be seen on Hulu, as well as new episodes the day after they air. 

The Office:

The last shows on this list are why I can't number these in a favorite shows of comedy because they are all so good and hold such sentimental value to me. The Office is filmed like a documentary about a seemingly ordinary paper company called Dunder Mifflin located in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The workers are caricatures of your coworkers at your office and yet they are still all their own outlandish comedy character that feels so real that you can't believe Jim and Pam aren't really married in real life. Between some of the best pranks, most awkward meetings called by Michael Scott (played by Steve Carrel not pictured above), love triangles, irreverent humor, Dwight (enough said) and many other parts that made this show last 9 seasons,  this show will always have a special place in my heart for what got me to love comedies and see that they can make you do more than just laugh. All 9 seasons are available on Netflix and are a must watch.

Rick and Morty:

From Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, two people most people have never heard of, comes this animated cartoon that doesn't have bad episodes. Dr. Rick Sanchez, (blue hair above) comes back home after travelling the universe to his daughter, Beth, who is in a loveless/sexless marriage, her inept husband Jerry, their teenage "mistake" daughter from prom night Summer and Morty (yellow shirt above) who has no friends and is a loser. Rick takes pity on Morty and decides to befriend him and try to raise him compared to what Beth and Jerry have been doing to give him some confidence taking him on trips throughout the universe and dimensions. This irreverent, crass, hysterical random show is so clever and unique that it as a must see for any adult viewer. 2 seasons have already aired and it has the internet demanding more Rick and Morty. The show airs on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network but is on hiatus right now between the new season and summer lineup of shows. You can find season 1 on Hulu.

How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM):

How I Met Your Mother is what got CBS started on it's now dominant late night presence, but none of them are as good as HIMYM in my opinion. The premise of the show was so simple. "Kids? Have I ever told you the story of how I met your mother?" Flashback to 2005 where we see Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) living in NYC with his former college roomate Marshal (Jason Segel) in an apartment above a bar named "MacLaren's". Together the two of them and Marshal's fiance Lily (Alison Hannigan) and their player of a friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) all approach their lives differently and make an impact on how Ted met the mother of his kids in this adult sitcom. The group of 4 becomes a group of 5 when Robin (Cobie Smulders) a Canadian news reporter trying to make it big in NYC joins the group and Ted instantly falls in love with her. That's all it took to set off a cultural phenomenon which started things such as "The Bro Code, Suit Up!, Pineapple Incident, Slap bets and CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!" all popular phrases that were used in the show's prime. However while all of these were funny it was a truly emotional roller coaster with break ups, deaths in the family, relationship deal breakers, and the "mother" of all bait and switches that I have ever seen a show do. TO DATE, THE ONLY SHOW I HAVE EVER CRIED WHILE WATCHING AN EPISODE**

All 9 seasons are available on Netflix and is again a must watch show in my opinion.

**The speech that did me in below: 

Community:

From Dan Harmon, (watch Rick and Morty), comes an NBC show that was cancelled not once, not twice but three times before the fans were able to bring it back every time for a total of #sixseasons (#andamovie hopefully) that was my favorite comedy for the longest time due to how meta and outlandish it was. Harmon based the show off of his own experiences at Community College and then threw in what he wished happened at the college. The fictional story however follows Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) who is disbarred when he is found to have forged a diploma from Columbia University. Jeff is told he can come back if he gets an actual degree in any major so he enrolls at Greendale Community College. Jeff has no interest in actually doing the work, but takes an interest in "the hot blonde in spanish class" named Britta (Gillian Jacobs). To try to prove he isn't the douche she thinks he is, he sets up a spanish study group to help her but when people actually show up, he realizes he has to actually work and talk with these people. By the end of season 4 (when Jeff graduates) they aren't taking spanish yet remain a study group in a "blowoff" class they all try to be in together. Each character right from the pilot establish themselves in a certain way but by the end of the series, they have changed like actual people would that you feel a real connection to them. However for the most part you are just laughing at how outlandish they are, from paintballing in the school, an oil fight when the BP Oil spill occurred, a parody episode of Out-lander, and so much more makes this one of the best comedies out there.  My proudest academic achievement came from this show when I slipped in the phrase "streets ahead"to a final paper thanks to Pierce (Chevy Chase) using it in an episode that infuriated the characters because it isn't a real phrase even though Chevy thought it was an actual phrase. The first 5 seasons of the show can be found on Hulu and season 6 can be found on Yahoo Screen, a free to watch app or website.

One of my favorite episode gags. Care for bagels anyone?