Just because I like making lists. I had originally planned a Top 5 but couldn’t stop.
30 Rock
Brooklyn 9-9
Derry Girls
Modern Family
Parks & Recreation
Schitt’s Creek
Ted Lasso
What We Do in the Shadows
The Good Place
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Fisk
Depending on what you mean, the last few seasons of Frasier original run were 21st century.
Community
Scrubs
The Good Place
Ghosts UK
Ghosts US
Coupling UK but sadly not aging well.
I hate cringe humor so Parks & Recreation is completely out for me.
Derry Girls, Ted Lasso & 30 Rock were all good. I would add How I met your Mother, The IT Crowd(UK) and The Big Bang Theory to that group.
I honestly think only the first season of Parks and Recreation was really cringe humor. Maybe the second, but by the end of that season it had transitioned to something else.
My Name is Earl
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Abbot Elementary
Not everybody’s cup of tea, but I got a lot of laughs out of AP Bio.
Personally, I liked The Mick more than AP Bio.
But for this thread, in addition to what I’m already seeing, I’ll add Life In Pieces.
If you include radio sitcoms: Cabin Pressure
Community
Party Down
Veep
Parks and Recreation
The Good Place
How I Met Your Mother
Modern Family
How is 30 Rock not primarily “cringe humor”?
Parks & Rec and The Good Place are both great shows for their metaphorical depth beneath the basic format of a sitcom, but in terms of audacity in stretching the envelope of what a sitcom could be, Crazy Ex-Girlfrient and the shockingly yet-to-be-mentioned Arrested Development are really top of the heap.
Stranger
30 Rock got over it fairly quick, P&R, not so much.
Really, Parks and Recreation wasn’t cringe humor but instead a workplace comedy.
I don’t think either 30 Rock or Park and Rec are primarily cringe humor. Probably 30 Rock moreso though as Liz has a lot of cringe moments. The only part of Parks and Rec that’s consistently cringe is Tom, and he’s also by far the least funny part of the show.
Another great 21st Century workplace comedy (I thought, at least) was ‘Superstore’. It had interesting characters, it was funny, and it snuck in some trenchant observations about the soul-crushing nature of working at a large retail corporation.
I think that one kinda slipped under the radar. I liked it and IIRC have watched it two or three times now. And, as someone working in retail, albeit at a mom and pop store, many of those customer interactions seemed like they were written by people with retail experience.
As someone who grew up watching Kids In The Hall, I’m embarrassed at how long it took me to realize that was Mark McKinney.
Not sure I’m contributing anything that hasn’t already been mentioned, but I’ll add my list, undoubtedly leaving out a few I’ll think of later:
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
What We Do in the Shadows
Modern Family
Fisk
30 Rock
My Name Is Earl
Arrested Development
BoJack Horseman
Schitt’s Creek
No love for The Office? Also Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
The Wikipedia description of “cringe comedy” basically feels tailor-made to describe 30 Rock:
Cringe comedy is a subgenre of comedy that derives humor from social awkwardness, guilty pleasure, self-deprecation, idiosyncratic humor, and personal distress A type of a cringe comedy are pseudo-reality TV shows, sometimes with an air of a mockumentary. They revolve around a serious setting, such as a workplace, to lend the comedy a sense of reality.
Typically, the protagonists are egotists who overstep the boundaries of political correctness and break social norms. The comedy will attack the protagonist by not letting them become aware of their self-centered view, or by making them oblivious to the ego-deflation that the comedy deals them. Sometimes an unlikable protagonist may not suffer any consequences, which violates people’s moral expectations, and also makes the audience cringe.
Seems to fit the bill to a T.
I would argue that it was actually an incisive commentary on the delicacy and dysfunctionality of democratic governance which is nonetheless sustained by a cadre of dedicated civil servants even in the face of indifferent leadership, limited resources, an unappreciative public, and of course a brutal history of decidedly non-democratic repression of natives and various communities, all in the guise of a workplace comedy. And also why you should stay away from the library.
Stranger