There was an eipisode of Everybody Loves Raymond when the family visits Italy and Ray is taking a bath in an old fashioned tub. There’s a rope of some sort that he pulls that doesn’t seem to do anything, except that an italian woman rushes in and starts scrubbing his back. He’s trying to brush her off but she keeps scrubbing his back. Patricia Heaton is laughing uproariously at this situation.
The part in Krusty Towers (Spongebob Squarepants) where Patrick first tries to check in.
Patrick is as dumb as a stone, and Squidward, who hates his job, isn’t trying to help, so it’s this big long runaround that’s just…hilarious. It manages to have that comedic escalation appropriate for a self-contained sketch without going beyond simple dialogue.
I’m just surprised someone actually found that funny. I saw the original episode, and I thought that was the least funny, and therefore, least plausible part of the episode.
I see it as a punchline without a setup.
Seeing this thread again I’m compelled to mention some of the great Dave Chapelle sketches. The Rick James ones and the Prince one are all great, but the most hilarious in my opinion is the Wayne Brady one.
But that’s not going to be funny in 20 years, because you have to know a lot about Wayne Brady, and possibly that Dave Chappelle made fun of his image and Wayne Brady was kind of hurt by it, so Dave had him come on for that skit.
Did…did I just hear the phrase “It’s like jamming his dick inside a hornet’s nest” from a Disney Channel show?!
i think triumph the insult comic dog had a great moment with the below links.
For some reason I can’t find it, but Triumph did another hilarious video similar to this at the 2008 NY Comic Con.
I’m sure this one from Friends will be one. (It’s the Ross Rachel fight after they reconcile at the beach house).
Interesting, especially since I saw it as the perfect ending summing up the entire experience of the main character in that episode up to that point. The Sis!Boom!Buzz! stuff? It combined the fact that they had to do a bee sketch with the references to being the new girl versus the head cheerleader the two main characters had earlier (“I don’t care if you have the greatest Bah since…sheep independence day!”). References to being the “new bee” of course refer to the main character being the new addition to the cast and having to fit in with the rest of them, with the “Queen Bee” being the other girl she was having the main problems with (also a reference to that girl’s idea for the sketch). The whole multiple “-umbling” rhyming part was a direct result of HER idea of the sketch being called the “Stumbling Bee”, which the other girl refused to take part in.
And of course, the whole rap song aspect, with the references to Lil Jon (Bumble Crunk?) at the end and the glasses (a Run DMC reference?), along with the little girl using the stinger as the needle on the record. And I always laugh the hardest when the main girl backs into one of the guys and accidentally stings him, he yells, and she takes time out from the rap to say “Sorry!”. Perfect.
I guess I just don’t understand your complaint about it being “a punchline without a setup.”
A stick, actually – but that’s funnier…
There has been some discussion about Good Boys/Bad Boys and how the ladies are always attracted to the latter. Consensus is that Frasier is a Good Boy which is why he can’t get laid - to which he responds “Would a Good Boy do this?” runs around bar “I am running with Scissors!! And now I’m going out to pet stray dogs”
I didn’t watch much of the show Mad About You, but I did watch the Thanksgiving episode - the one where they go through like three turkeys and have to keep running down to the corner store to buy a new one? I think the dog eats one, Jamie throws another out of the window (“I panicked!”), I don’t remember what all else. I remember that being hysterical. But I haven’t seen it in years; don’t know if it holds up.
Another Frasier episode: the brothers are out trying to find a birthday present for Frasier’s son. He wants something special but high demand that’s impossible to find, and Niles gets sidetracked by some flashy blinking robot helmet type thing. He’s playing with it and tries to get a very distracted, discombobulated, and grouchy Frasier to tell him what it’s doing, but no dice. For years after, “what’s it doing now?” could put me into hysterics.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along should make the list. As should Sports Night.
I know Mr. Show was never that popular. The skits are really hit or miss. Many of them are just flat out weird and I understand why it can be a turn off for some. Anyway, this is my favorite skit from the series. Somehow it seems to get funnier every time I watch it…
I liked “Sports Night,” but I don’t recall there being one real laugh out loud moment through the show’s two seasons. I guess my mileage varies.
Here’s the “Over” gag. I thought that was hilarous too, I wonder if it was original for Family Guy or if it was inspired by something else?
Was that a criterion of the OP?
Sort of. I am looking for funny moments in the last 20 years TV that are already or will become classics.
You win. I had forgotten about that.
“You can choose from all kinds of guys who have no idea how to please you.”
“You’re like some kind of SUPER nerd! You look like you were built in a laboratory from the parts of lesser nerds.”
“Future nerd in there?”
“Yes, future nerd.”
“When is he due?”
“June 27th.”
“Ah. That’s the last time he will ever see female genitalia.”
“Which of these buttons calls your parents to come pick you up?”
I recall when one of the anchors had writer’s block and absolutely could not think of a single word. One of the other characters (Natalie, maybe?) snuck up behind him and blew an air horn. The anchor said something like “It’s WRITER’S BLOCK – not hiccups!”
triumph has a ton of good stuff, just not “findable” on youtube.
I loved the one where he goes to Westminster Dog show only to be stonewalled because he was there before and the powers that be didn’t want them there, so he went to the dog toy floor and made it seem as if all those dog toys were dog sex toys. Who doesn’t like a real dog humping an inflatable dog? Or even Triumph humping a real dog and getting mixed up on which end to hump.
The stuff you can watch on youtube are subpar at best and accentuates the fact that Triumph isn’t that great at improv and comebacks as it seems in the Star Wars convention portrays him to be.
I personally find a lot of funny moments in sitcoms are from not as popular shows like Malcolm in the Middle (there’s a reason why Bryan Cranston is winning best actor for male lead for breaking bad two years in a row), King of Queens (Kevin James is hilarious), Everybody Loves Raymond (Ray Romano and the family interaction have moments) and The Drew Carey show (the rivalry between Mimi and Drew).
Whose Line also has a huge library of funny moments in them, it’s just that the singing bits gets too repetitive and a lot of their jokes are similar to the ones they are good at. Like they give suggestions and game parts to certain Improv actors rather than giving them to the ones that don’t do them as well. For example pretty much always giving Colin Mochrie the reporter job in front of the green screen and having 2 guys giving him questions and remarks so he can figure out what’s behind him. Ive never seen anyone else attempt the guessing, woulda been nice to see Wayne Brady take a stab at it or even Ryan Stiles.