Whenever there is a listing of “classic comedy TV moments” there are a lot of entries from classic shows of the 60’s and 70’s - like the clown funeral from Mary Tyler Moore, Les throwing turkeys out the window on WKRP, and the hilarity of 70’s SNL.
What about from the past 20 years?
I was going to post a clip from Freaks & Geeks but I just watched it again and it wasn’t as funny as I remembered.
But, I still find that Richard Simmons on Who’s Line Is It Anyway? makes me laugh out loud.
More!
If the news of the day is ripe Jon Stewart can pull of a minute or two of the finest and funniest stuff ever done on TV. Just a few hours later is overly ripe and begins to stink.
This is an excellent question, but it will be difficult to answer. It usually takes a few decades of sinking in before we can tell what is destined to be “classic comedy” as opposed to just funny at the moment.
If by “sinking in” you mean “endless reruns”, then yes.
1989 was TWENTY YEARS ago. Nothing that exciting has happened in all this time?
Surely people had laughing fits at the moment of broadcast for all those “classics”, no?
The scene in Extras where andy millman tries to chat up a woman after his agent and his former schoolmate succesfully chat up women…
(funny bit is about 2:35minutes in, but watch the whole thing for the build-up)
The SNL “Really?” segment about Michael Vick at the airport with the fake water bottle made me howl!
I would have said Patrick Stewart on Extras was even funnier.
Or David Brent dancing(skip to 45 seconds in):
Two of my favorites…
Kramer’s “I’m out!” from the Seinfeld episode “The Contest”
Grandpa Simpson howling “I… had… sex!” on the episode of The Simpsons with the sex tonic.
Definitely something from the first five minutes of The Daily Show. That’s just a given.
From Seinfeld, I always loved the conclusion of George’s faking being a marine biologist story when he produces the golf ball without a word.
Two Family Guy moments stand out in my mind.
For some reason, this just cracks me up.
Brian: I swear, I’m going to kill you when this is over.
Stewie: When this is what, Brian? You said “Is” and then “Over”.
I know I haven’t done the scenes justice, and don’t have a way of linking the clips right now, but these two scenes just kill me.
The entire “Stephen Colbert Christmas Special” last year. I thought I was going to pass out I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.
That was, indeed, pretty good.
Several jokes from “How I Met Your Mother” had me in stiches.
In “The Pineapple Incident,” Ted and his friends are asking a girl he brought home from the bar how his night went, since Ted was blackout drunk and none of his friends were there. One of the oddest things was that Ted woke up with a pineapple on his nightstand (hence the name of the episode.) She’s talking about Ted coming back to the bar and picking her up, and out of nowhere Marshall just blurts out:
“For God’s sake woman, just tell us about the pineapple!”
The entirety of “Swarley” was hilarious, as well. All the variations on Swarley had me cracking up (Swarles Barkley being my favorite,) and the fact that guys can detect “crazy eyes” on women…cause we totally can.
I laughed for a full 5 mins after seeing this the first time on Malcolm in the Middle:
The older brother, Francis, had been getting his life together and being responsible at a ranch owned by a German guy named Otto. The younger brothers visit and try to turn him back to the troublemaker he was. At one point, they buy a huge firework, the Commando 3000 or something like that. The fuse is lit along with a bunch of other fireworks and they all look up at the sky
Reese: So when do you think we’ll know when the Commando 3000 goes off?
The entire screen changes from night into fucking daytime!
Francis, after a few seconds when darkness returns: So how long did they say we’ll get our eyesight back?
I laughed my ass off as soon as the scene turned into day
I just watched “The Naked Man” earlier this evening, and I feel the scene in which Barney and Ted compare naked poses (“the Superman”, “the Captain Morgan”, “the Coppertone”, “the Thinking Man”, “the Burt Reynolds”) is destined to become a classic.
Those are the ones that came to mind immediately for me, too.
Natalie Portman Rap is funny as hell. As are the SNL Only Bangkok commericals
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I was never a huge fan of Everybody Loves Raymond, but this scene where Patricia Heaton drops the turkey was hilarious - mostly because it was a blooper that she kept going with and made it into the show:
I’m not a fan either, but that was great 
I really liked the Swarley thing too. I remember "LOL"ing for real.
Sheldon’s reaction to the napkin Penny gave him for Christmas on Big Bang.
ETA: Speaking of Everybody Loves Raymond, Robert’s reaction when he answers the call regarding Marie’s backing the car into Raymond’s house was priceless.