The sitcom discussion thread

[The Curmudgeon]

I write this as Mrs C watches, as she has done with every episode, How I Met Your Mother. It's insanely popular and yet each time I sit in on it I can't shake the feeling it's the worst show ever made.

It's just..not..funny. The terrible canned laughter from the 70's, the people acting like no humans on earth. The self conscious "wackiness"...ugh. Fuck off forever.

Comedy is, of course, personal taste so let's talk about what kind of sitcom makes us tune in. Zany pop culture referencing yuk fests like How I Met and Big Bang Theory just turn me cold. In fact, anything with a laugh track is almost out of bounds now, it just seems so antiquated. It's fine for older comedies but now? I've yet to see a good one.

Scratch off crazy adults acting like teenage morons; all wacky white people using black slang and being so hilariously lame. No time for that shit either.

I like quirky, intelligent comedy with, and this sounds pretentious, "layers." Not just five handsome people making gags at each other. Ricky Gervais' work. Wilfred. Episodes. Chris Lilley sitcoms. Clever shows that are funny without resorting to lazy lowbrow humour but can still be shocking and not afraid of breaking taboo's.

Its hard to put into words, but I don't do "cosy" comedy. What about you?

[trashcanman]

Good luck with that. As far as I'm concerned, the sitcom is a dead genre.

[The Curmudgeon]

Well, that discussion lasted...!

I dunno, I think there's plenty of mileage in the 30 minute comedy format, it just needs to be something that doesn't revolve around the Handsome People Say Something Funny Every Thirty Seconds to Canned Laughter format that just seems like 100 years old now. Modern Family, for example, is a recent TV show that took the traditional family comedy and made something genuinely great. And of course, Community, Arrested Development..

So there's really been no situational comedies that have rocked your world recently, Trash?

[trashcanman]

Can't think of any. I know Gervais has that Netflix series I still need to check out, but it's just competing with too much right now. Maybe after I finish Dexter.