And though I wasn’t always the biggest fan of Everybody Loves Raymond, every now and then there was an episode that was so perfectly crafted you had to give them props.
In one, Raymond complained that he doesn’t get to make enough decisions around the house. Deborah calls his bluff and lets him do all the deciding for a while. One of his first acts is to buy a garden hose that is way too short. Then, a series of poor decisions, in part involving facial tissues and bug spray, somehow leads to the kitchen curtains catching fire. The payoff gag has Ray rushing in trying to douse the fire with the too-short hose. (No, my description doesn’t do it justice. Hilarious episode.)
David Hyde Pierce as Niles Cramer in Frazier was a master at physical comedy. His apex was probably the Valentines Day episode, completely in mime, where he’s trying to get ready for a date and keeps passing out whenever he sees the blood from a cut finger. The description doesn’t do it justice, but I saw a rerun a couple of weeks ago and it still holds up as well as the first time I saw it.
It probably won’t hold up as a classic, but if we’re talking the funniest moment of the last two years or so from today’s perspective, I’d probably go with Amy Poehler’s Palin Rap.
I think the best part of that is when he goes to get the scissors, realizes the time and takes a couple running steps. He then stops, carefully adjusts the scissors so they’re point down and slowly walks back to the ironing board.
Reminds me of one of my favorite Cheers/Frasier Crane moments. I don’t remember the context, but he’s running around the bar with big shears open in his hand, “I’M RUNNING WITH SCISSORS!!”
Third Rock from the Sun–Vicky (Jan Hooks) and Harry (French Stewart) and the Thanksgiving leftovers. When Harry put the turkey carcus on his head, I died laughing.
The priceless moment from Roseanne when Bev told Roseanne she had a buyer for her share of the restaurant and the focus shifted to Leon eating that sandwich.
That reminds me of a scene that I could watch again. Dick gets trapped in a stairwell somehow and slowly becomes stir crazy. About all I remember is him making a literal sock puppet and singing Danny Boy. I couldn’t catch my breath from laughing so hard.
Thank you (“Accursed mountebank!”). The top 100 funniest moments of the past 20 years of TV all came from MST3K; this episode (“Space Mutiny”) is a good way to sum it up.
But for broadcast TV, I’ll go with a few from 30 Rock:
The Oprah episode (“I’m snitting next to Blorpo!”). Or when we see that Kenneth sees the world in Muppet-Vision, followed by a shot of Tina Fey walking like a muppet.
1989-Present means that the final episode of Newhart, with Bob waking up and finding himself in his old Chicago apartment next to Suzanne Pleshette, makes the cut.
Also from Everybody Loves Raymond “The Sculpture” where Marie makes an abstract that reminds everyone of a female anatomical part. Doris Roberts’ “Oh my God, I’m a lesbian!” was topped only by Peter Boyle’s final “HOLY CRAP!”
And one scene from Frasier with David Ogden Stiers as the long-time research partner of Frasier and Niles’ mother. Eddie the dog stops short and stares in turn at Stiers, Frasier and Niles in total confusion.
I remember LOLing at that one when I first watched it. I recently watched all of Third Rock again and when that one came up I didn’t laugh quite as hard as the first time around. Altho it was still pretty funny
Lots of good ones from Third Rock. The one where Shatner says he had a dream about seeing something on the wing of a plane and Lithgow says “I had that dream too!” was utterly hilarious if you know the backstory (both actors played in a Twilight Zone episode where they saw a monster on the wing of a plane they were in - obviously one was a remake of the other).
I agree with the Newhart one. I remember watching it with my parents when it aired and since I’d seen a couple episodes of The Bob Newhart show, I got it and it cracked me up.
I used that “Chicken pot pie…” line just today. Definitely a classic
What about scenes from Malcolm in the Middle? That’s a pretty kickass show. What about when Hal does his roller skating dance? I think I remember reading that Bryan Cranston actually worked at it and was able to do it all himself.
