Seinfeld… Elaine and Puddy…
Elaine: So you’re just going to sit there and stare at the back of the chair?
Puddy: That’s right.
Have to agree with most of NewsRadio.. specifically the scene where Bill makes up the word "Adequatulence" after being described in a magazine article as being an "Adequate" anchorman.All in the Family
Archie’s managed to lock himself in the unheated basement in the middle of winter while Edith is gone for the week. He gets drunk and thinks he’s going to freeze to death, so he starts talking about dying and going to heaven when he suddenly hears a voice.
Voice: Mr. Bunker, is that you?
Archie: Yeah, is that you, God?
V: Ok, just hold on, I’m coming.
A: Oh, thank you God, thank you…
V: Hold on, I’m going around to the front door.
A: Aw, I was kinda hoping to see you walk through the wall…
V: Ok, Mr. Bunker, I’ll be right there!
A: Ok, God, I’m ready to go! Come get me!
(Man opens the door to the basement. He’s black.)
(Pause. Archie stares.)
A: Ah, geez. Jefferson was right.
When I saw this I laughed and I couldn’t stop. I just kept laughing for hours, could barely breathe. Seriously considered calling 911. Even as days passed I would still think of it and start laughing uncontrollably. I’m serious. I’ve never laughed like this at anything. I’ve never seen any person laugh like this.
Third Rock from the Sun:
Throughout the whole episode we see that Harry is accumulating a variety of bottles on the coffee table in the living room. All different bottles from all over the house. Shampoo, Javex, everything. In the first seen we see just a couple bottles, but as the show progresses scene to scene more bottles accumulate. No mention is made of the collection. It’s all just happening in the background.
At the end of the show the table is filled with different bottles. Harry sits on a comfy chair and settles in to start his work. He picks a bottle at random, takes off the cap, and drinks from it. After a few moments pass, he takes out his notebook.
“Orange juice: non-toxic”
.
.
Where are the Brits in this thread?
I’m Alan Partridge
The Office
Don’t know if they’ve made their way over the Atlantic yet and also don’t know whether they’d work over there but these two progs have revitalized the sit-com genre IMO. Brilliantly funny, amazingly written and acting that is fantastic. You laugh and also have a stroke because of the agony some of the characters put you through.
I’d have to agree with yojimbo here.
Both I’m Alan Partridge and The Office arfe quite brilliant.
The last episode of The Office (screened in the UK earlier this week) was the possibly the funniest single episode of any sitcom (if, strictly speaking, you can call it that) I think I’ve ever seen. I cries with laughter on two occasions which is a record! I’d describe the scenes but they just don’t seem funny written down and I wouldn’t do them justice.
I’m not sure if it would work so well outside of the UK though.
I arfe rarely brilliant though.
Not a hugely popular show, but my vote goes to the Christmas episode of Rik Mayall & Ade Edmondson’s Bottom.
The two main characters - Eddie Hitler and Richard Richard - have invited friends (Spudgun and Dave Hedgehog) around for a miserable Christmas lunch. Retiring to the living room afterwards, they hear a knock on the door. A baby has been left on the doorstep.
As the four characters kneel down by the cradle, wondering what to do next, Spudgun comments on how terrible it must be to be left on Christmas Day. He decides that the child can have his box of Terry’s All Gold chocolates (“although we’ll have to wait for his little teef to come through before 'e can have the chewy ones”).
Similarly moved, Eddie donates the rubber Frankenstein mask he’d planned to scare Richie with. Dave Hedgehog, furthest away, offers the bottle of aftershave - “Grrr, for Men” - he’d been given by his wife. As the baby cries, Richie wraps a towel around his head to play peek-a-boo.
The setup complete, Richie pauses, towel around his head like a biblical headscarf. The three others are kneeling around the cradle, gazing down while wearing paper crowns. He pauses -
“Gold - Frankenstein - and Grrr!”
(the rest of the episode follows the newly renamed “Richard Mary” and his attempt to convince the others that he is the new wife of God)
There was also a protracted joke involving Eddie giving Richie a betting slip for his birthday, for a horse named “Scarlet Lady”. Richie, misunderstanding, assumes it’s a voucher to see a prostitute, and the scene ends with the classic exchange:
Eddie: “But I’ve given you a red hot tip!”
Richie: “Yes, and there’s NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT!”
Thanks for remindign me - I’ve just preordered the “I’m Alan Partridge” Series 1 DVD.
Talking about The Office, few things have made me laugh as much as Gareth saying so innocently “Two lesbians, possibly sisters. Just me watching”.
I always thought the best thing about the WKRP ‘Turkey’s’ bit was that it was almost all done off camera. It’s just Les Nessman doing a remote report and the guys (Andy, Johnny and the rest) in the studio reacting to what he’s saying. The mass jump of disbelief with Les yells, “One just went through the windshield of a parked car!” is perfect.
I’ll stick with WKRP for my nominee…
“Don’t you realize? This is the phone company. They’ve got their own covert police force! Hide me!”
That’s brilliant. And a bit too close to home in the early 80s.
The Nile’s Valentine episode of ** Fraiser ** is definitely the funniest-SitCom-Scene-of-all-time-with-absolutely-no-dialogue. It’s priceless.
On the Dick Van Dyke show, there was an episode where Dick discovers a woman with a similar name to Laura’s was in the hospital and had a baby boy the same time she did. So he is convinced they got the wrong baby. He calls the people, and the husband comes over. Doorbell rings, Dick opens door, and his mouth just falls open and he stares for two minutes. It’s hysterical the way he does it. And in walks * Greg Morris *.
Dick: Why didn’t you tell me?
Greg: And miss seeing the look on your face?
There’s also a scene from ** Roseanne ** where her mother Bev tells Roseanne she’s sold her share in the restaurant. Roseanne says “To whom? You’ll never find a buyer in this market.” Bev “Oh, it wasn’t hard,” and she looks at Leon (Martin Mul), who is calmly eating his sandwich. I had just swallowed some tea, and I literally choked at that one.
The Nile’s Valentine episode of ** Fraiser ** is definitely the funniest-SitCom-Scene-of-all-time-with-absolutely-no-dialogue. It’s priceless.
On the Dick Van Dyke show, there was an episode where Dick discovers a woman with a similar name to Laura’s was in the hospital and had a baby boy the same time she did. So he is convinced they got the wrong baby. He calls the people, and the husband comes over. Doorbell rings, Dick opens door, and his mouth just falls open and he stares for two minutes. It’s hysterical the way he does it. And in walks * Greg Morris *.
Dick: Why didn’t you tell me?
Greg: And miss seeing the look on your face?
There’s also a scene from ** Roseanne ** where her mother Bev tells Roseanne she’s sold her share in the restaurant. Roseanne says “To whom? You’ll never find a buyer in this market.” Bev “Oh, it wasn’t hard,” and she looks at Leon (Martin Mul), who is calmly eating his sandwich. I had just swallowed some tea, and I literally choked at that one.
The one I haven’t seen yet is the Thanksgiving episode from the original Newhart. Where the guys are spending Thanksgiving at Bob’s apartment and the ladies are all out of town.
“Don’t look in the dishwasher!”
My two are from Seinfeld
I think my favorite scene of all time is in the episode when Jerry heckles a woman who works in Elaine’s office, and she runs out into the street, gets hit by a street-sweeper, and loses her pinky toe. Kramer’s recounting of his finding the toe and rushing it to the hospital is the funniest 2 minutes I’ve ever seen on TV.
I also loved the scenes where Elaine and Putty were arguing over religion. Putty asks Elaine to grab her neighbor’s newspaper. When she refuses and tells him that if he wants it he can get it, he replies, “Sorry, thou shalt not steal.” 
and then:
Do the opposite, stage one:
Time for the feats of strength!
and finally:
The first “Married with Children” Christmas show. A wino Santa is supposed to parachute out of a helicopter and distribute gifts at a nearby shopping mall. The chute fails to open, and he freefalls hundreds of feet into Al Bundy’s back yard instead. Splat! I was * howling *.
“Token Dumb Guy” on Wings = Lowell Mather, played by Thomas Haden Church.
Where are the Wings reruns these days??
One of the funniest lines from a sitcom that I remember came from “Are You Being Served?” where the staff is asked to work late one night. Mrs. Slocum refuses because she is unable to make proper arrangements for the care of her cat.
"At seven o’clock, my pussy is expecting to see a friendly face…"
We nearly died at work the next day retelling that line over and over…
This far into the thread, and no mention of The Andy Griffith Show?
How about the scene where Barney tells Andy he can still remember the preamble to the Constitution from having memorized it in elementary school? And then Andy has to prompt him all the way through it? The look of triumph on Barney’s face when he gets to the end is priceless.
From Seinfeld, how about the scene where George tells the story of removing the obstruction from the whale’s blowhole, and then punctuates the story by producing a golf ball. Kramer:
“Titleist?”
I don’t normally like The Royle Family, but I have never laughed so hard at a TV show as I did at an episode repeated a few weeks ago…
Jim just wanted peace to “have a crap” but everyone kept talking to him, so he huffed and said he would “just let it bake for a bit…”
It’s not even funny now, but just the way he said it…the tears were tripping me.
Father Ted has some incredibly funny scenes too, and I can’t pick a favourite at present. Except maybe the “Ted, I want out” line (see here )
‘Chicken Pot - Chicken Pot - Chicken Pot Piiiiiiiiiiiiiieeee’
I want that ep. of Just Shoot Me on DVD.
~t