Funniest SitCom Scene of all time.

Cafe Society
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WKRP: since the turkeys have already been mentioned, I’ll mention another of my favorites. Les is telling everyone about a dream he had, one in which Mr. Carlson is a muffin. “‘I’m a big, fat muffin who loves to eat/I’m a big fat muffin who has no feet/But mostly I’m a big fat muffin who loves to explode!’ and then you did.”

The John Larroquette Show: Larroquette’s character eats some pot brownies and literally starts climing the walls.

Fawlty Towers: the one with the hotel inspectors. Basil uses signs to tell Miguel to take luggage up to #7 and Miguel reponds with his own sign. Cracked me up the first time I saw it.

Red Dwarf: Lister teaching Kryten how to lie. Smegging hilarious.

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I agree with a lot of the selections here, but two more I’ll add:

1- In the mid 1980s, Showtime produced a series called BROTHERS. It was so-so, but controversial at the time because it had two openly gay characters, one of whom was Donald, a flamboyant just-shy-of-stereotypical queen. Donald worshipped his prizewinning cat and when he had to go out of town he entrusted it to one of the titutlar BROTHERS, a nice-but-stupid aging jock who has just taken his girlfriend to see “that new Spielberg movie, THE COLORED PEOPLE.”
The cat dies of natural causes while in the care of the brothers. They put its corpse into a bag and wonder how to tell Donald his favorite living creature is dead. When Donald returns, one of them finally blurts it out and he has a panic attack. One of the brothers yells “He’s hyperventilating, give him a paper bag!” The nice-but-dumb brother gives him… guess which one.
The actor who played Donald deserved an Emmy, Oscar, Tony, and Grammy for his reaction.

2- From Blackadder’s Christmas Carol- Baldrick’s description of the poorhouse Christmas pageant in which the baby who played Jesus died just before the show (“this high infant mortality in Victorian England is a real downer at the holidays”) and is replaced by a sheepdog. All is well until one of the shepherds brings on his sheep, also played by dogs, one of whom is in heat, “…and as the angel says ‘Behold, a king is born to you this day!’, the baby Jesus leaps from his manger and begins riding the sheep all around the stage…”
Blackadder: 'That would seem rather undignified behavior for the only begotten son of God, I suppose…"

In the same episode, Baldrick makes Blackadder (who is actually a philanthropist and all around nice guy in this one- until he meets Robbie Coletrane as the very drunken GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST) a Christmas card. “Why thank you Mr. Baldrick! You know, Christmas actually starts with a C… and it has an H… and an R… I… then an S, T, M. A, and S…”

Same episode: the Christmas carol sung to the tune of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlmen’ by several very obese orphans:
“God bless you Mr. Blackadder and Baby Jesus too, and if we was little piggies we’d sing piggy wiggy wiggy woo…”

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Another Newsradio scene:

In Jon Lovitz’s second appearance on the show, he was a depressed man who somehow manages to get into Dave’s office and that hangs himself out his window from a rope, threatening to cut it if he doesn’t get to read his manifesto on air. Joe riggs up a rope (he made it himself) to allow him to visit him outside on the building and does stuntman rolls out Dave’s office window. When Dave asks him to stop doing that he says OK and dives headfirst out the window. The reactions are priceless in this scene.

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Here’s another one from Seinfeld

Episode - "The Hamptons"

Jerry has directed Rachel to the wrong room. She walks in on a naked George…

Rachel: (She screams) Oh my God! I’m sorry, I thought this was the baby’s room. I’m really sorry. (She exits)

George: I was in the pool! I was in the pool!

Jerry and George talking in Jerry’s room.

George: Did she do it on purpose?

Jerry: It was my fault, I told her the wrong door.

George: I was supposed to see her. She wasn’t supposed to see me.

Jerry: So what?

George: Well ordinarily I wouldn’t mind. But…

Jerry: But…

George: Well I just got back from swimming in the pool. And the water was cold…

Jerry: Oh… You mean… shrinkage.

George: Yes. Significant shrinkage!

Jerry: So you feel you were short changed.

George: Yes! I mean, if she thinks that’s me she’s under a complete misapprehension. That was not me, Jerry. That was not me.

Jerry: Well, so what’s the difference?

George: What if she discusses it with Jane?

Jerry: Oh, she’s not gonna tell Jane.

George: How do you know?

Jerry: Women aren’t like us.

George: They’re worse! They’re much worse than us, they talk about everything! Couldn’t you at least tell her about the shrinkage factor?

Jerry: No, I’m not gonna tell her about your shrinkage. Besides, I think women know about shrinkage.

George: How do women know about shrinkage? (They see Elaine walking down the hall) Elaine! (She enters) Do women know about shrinkage?

Elaine: What do you mean, like laundry?

George: No.

Jerry: Like when a man goes swimming… afterwards…

Elaine: It shrinks?

Jerry: Like a frightened turtle!

Elaine: Why does it shrink?

George: It just does.

Elaine: I don’t know how you guys walk around with those things.

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ok…someone spoil the Newhart ending for me!

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It was definitely one of the greatest surprises in TV history. They did this whole plot in which some developement company wants to buy the entire town. Dick (Newhart’s character), though he isn’t considered a ‘local,’ is the only person who resists when they offer a million dollars to each and every resident of the town. So it is looking like he and his inn will be the last original part of the town left after big business has its way. As a parting shot, they decide to go ahead and do the play they’ve been rehearsing (I don’t remember which one, but I think it was a musical). There is mention of this being the only all-millionaire production ever done. Here comes the surprise:Then, we see him wake up in a bed. It’s not the bed we usually see, but it is strangely familiar. He turns on the light and tells the woman next to him he just had a really strange dream in which he was an innkeeper. She calls him Bob as she rolls over. It’s Suzanne Pleshette, and we realize this is the bedroom from the old ‘Bob Newhart Show.’ So the entire run of ‘Newhart’ was just a dream from the mind of psychologist Bob Hartley.

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Quick off the top pick:

The ‘Jeopardy’ scene from Cheers.

:slight_smile:

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MASH:

AIR RAID!!!

“Like stepping through the tulips for me son.”

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Red Dwarf gets another vote from me - especially the episodes Backwards and Polymorph. Polymorph is the episode where the shape-changing mutant sneaks onboard Red Dwarf and attacks each of the crew members by sucking from them a particular emotion. There are two hilarious moments in this episode.

The first is when the Polymorph is sneaking around the ship and enters the dining area where Lister is enjoying his meal, he’s eaten one of the kebabs and he shakes some pepper onto the other as he tells Kryten (who has returned to continue his vacuuming) about his culinary creation and in particular, how hot and spicy it is. Lister suddenly notices the kebab move and a second later, his meal is wrapped round his throat! “Do you seriously like them that hot!?” Kryten shouts as Lister struggles to stop the kebab from strangling him. Suddenly it scurries under a cabinet. Lister can’t find it and picks up a pair of his red boxer shorts. He is only wearing a dressing gown and needs to dress so that he can investigate this further. He puts on the boxer shorts (they are of course the Polymorph).

“There’s something very weird going on…. Ahhhh!!!” he shouts as his boxers get tighter. “Oh no, my boxers are getting smaller… help me… PLEASE!!” He falls back writhing on the floor. Kryten rushes over to help him and sits on his legs trying to get his shorts off. Kryten’s groin pipe flails around helplessly while he clutches frantically at Lister’s shorts.

At this point Rimmer walks in and watches in a sort of mild shock as Kryten pulls off a pair of shorts that would have been too small for actionman! “Well, I can’t say I’m totally shocked,” he says, “You’ll bonk anything wont you Lister?”

The second moment is after the Polymorph has swiftly attacked each member of the crew. Lister has no fear, The Cat has no vanity, Kryten has no guilt and Rimmer has no anger. Given their present states, they are still trying to hunt down the Polymorph, with passive Rimmer suggesting that they form a peaceful committee to address the situation. He thinks that their committee should be named either The League Against Salivating Monsters (TLASM) or the Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Rehabilitation into Society (CLITORIS).

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One from the first episode of ** 3rd Rock **. Tommy tells Dick they have to leave the planet cause he (Tommy) is going through puberty and can’t take it. Dick can’t understand, so Tommy says “Give me your brain for a minute, Dick.” There’s a great scene when 6 foot 4 John Lithgow is staring down at 5 foot tall Joseph Gordon Levitt looking up at him, both with dead serious looks on their faces. Finally, Dick says “That’s disgusting.”

Maybe you have to see it. But it is hilarious.

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Ok, I’ve got another News Radio moment…

When they are having a staff meeting and they are all talking about their nationalities (heritage, whathaveyou).

Matthew (to Katherine): “Oh, you’re from Africa?”

Katherine: “Shut up Matthew!”

Matthew: “Say something in African.”

Katherine: “Okay, shut the f-” and it cuts to the next scene.

I swear, I was laughing for about 30 seconds after that one.

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I remember when “Fraiser” made its debut. “Cheers” was just such an awesome show and I didn’t think anything could even come close to that. And the last character I would have picked for a spin-off was Frasier. Anywho, I reluctantly watched the first episode just to see how bad it would be. It ended up being one fo the funniest shows I’ve ever scene.

Frasier is trying to come to grips with the fact that his father is moving in with him and his perfect little condo is going to ruined. Throughout the episode, Marty and Frasier are arguing about who we think is a degenerate friend of Marty’s. Finally, Fraiser throws up his hands and agrees that “Eddie” can stay there. The camera pans to the left and we see who “Eddie” really is. :slight_smile:

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Has anyone seen Yes, Dear? It’s this mediocre comedy on CBS on Monday nights that is so-so, but it’s a lead-in to Raymond so it gets good ratings. It’s about a well-to-do family in Los Angeles (a man and a woman in their early 30’s and their little toddler) and the woman’s loser sister and brother-in-law (also in their early 30’s with two young kids) who live in the well-to-do family’s guesthouse.

Anyhoo, in the first season, there’s an episode where the two men wind up in Las Vegas with the well-to-do guy’s (Greg’s) toddler. Greg has been taking his video camera everywhere to record the toddler’s first steps. Wouldn’t you know it, he takes his first steps there on the casino floor! Greg hurriedly starts taping. Then, on the way home, they realize that Greg’s stick-in-the-mud wife would have a fit if she found out they took the toddler to a casino. So, they take the tape to a friend who works for a movie studio, and he dubs a different background over the casino but keeps the video of the boy walking.

When they get home, both families sit there and watch the boy take his first steps on the video. The video guy has put the boy in this exquisite Victorian-looking park, complete with gazebos, lush vegetation, etc. Eventually the boy walks right across the surface of a pond. The look on the peoples’ faces as the boy was walking across the water was priceless!

Guess you had to be there…

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My favorites:

  1. Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton learning to do the Mambo on “The Honeymooners.”

  2. Felix Unger and Oscar Madison dressed in a horse costume on “Let’s Make a Deal.” You never see their faces, but when you hear the horses’ rear end (Oscar) neighing “T-a-a-a-a-a-ke the envelo-o-o-o-o-pe” and the horse’s face (Felix) saying, “A waffle iron???”, it’s absolutely priceless.

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Fred, Grady, and Bubba as King Kong, Cinderella, and a Viking on the LET’S MAKE A DEAL style show on Sanford and Son was also classic.

Bubba’s “I want my Daddy’s records!” episode is also up there.

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Murder she Roast from Wings - Brian has to stay with Fay while his room gets fumigated and catches a “America’s Most Wanted” that features a pensioner who poisons her friends and collects insurance money on them. They computer age a old picture of the woman who becomes - Fay. From then on, Brian is sure Fay is trying to kill him off.

The dinner ‘send off’ is priceless as Joe and Helen mercissly tease Brian by pretending to be poisoned. The scene where Joe takes a bite of salad, says “no its great”, then goes into spasms as he pretends to be poisoned absolutely cracked me up everytime I watched it.

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ninevah, I hate you. I was going to post the Red Dwarf “you’ll bonk anything” scene, probably one of the funniest in that entire series. Howver, I have a backup:

The episode “Kryten” which introduces the beloved mechanoid (although not played at that time by Robert Llewellyn). The scene where Lister, Rimmer and the Cat, hoping to meet the three lovely young women that Kryten has been caring for, instead find three skeletons. Kryten is oblivious/in denial, of course. He goes into the pantry for a moment, leaving our heroes alone with their ‘dates.’

Lister (to Rimmer): I think the blonde one’s giving you the eye!

Rimmer: I can’t believe this. The first intelligent life in three million and two years and it’s the android version of Norman Bates!

(Kryten comes back in with a tea tray).

Kryten: Is anything wrong?

Lister: Wrong? They’re all dead!

Kryten: Who’s dead, then?

Rimmer (indicating around the table where the three skeletons are sitting/propped up): They are dead. They’re all dead.

Kryten: My God. I was only away two minutes!

Rimmer (exasperated): They’ve been dead for centuries!

Kryten (peering at Rimmer distrustfully): Are you a doctor?

Rimmer: You’ve only got to look at them – they’ve got less meat on them than a Chicken McNugget!

Kryten (pointing to one of the skeletons): What about this one?

Rimmer: Here’s a simple test. Girls, hands up, those of you who aren’t dead!

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I can’t beleive ‘Black Books’ hasn’t been mentioned.

Too many scenes to mention, but possibly the funniest is in the first episode when Bernard is trying to avoid his taxes and keeps puting it off with increasingly outlandish plots (including considering chopping off his own hand).

He then sees the recently calmified Manny (who was a bumbling stress-mess at the beginning of the episode -‘I hate my job’ jowls flutter-) who has escaped from the hospital where he’d been after swallowing the ‘little book of calm’ (‘no, little… a little book, of calm… yes little… no, little…’).

Manny is intent on ‘calming’ a group of skinheads out for action. Mannys advice is wonderfully new age-y, the sort of thing that would be in a ‘Little book of calm’ (-‘imagine you are a river’) Bernard comes running out of the shop and insults the Skinheads with increasingly ludicrous taunts until they smack him a ‘right good one’ (off-screen) and he avoids his taxes. Possibly the best taunt is ‘This is you’ -proceed to do mincing dancing walk., which the skinheads don’t understand.

Insanely funny stuff! My wife leaves the room when I watch, claiming I laugh too much and too loud! Tee hee!

Gene-o
(who enjoys parentheses)

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Frasier - the Valentine show where Niles sees a wrinkle in his pants, decides to iron them, stains them, cuts himself, faints at the sight of blood, uses cleaning fluid on the pants, sets them (and Frasier’s couch) on fire, puts them out with the dinner he cooked, …

All without dialog.

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Two more to add:

Hal showing Malcolm his award-winning roller skating routine

and

Ross and Monica doing their dance routine on Dick Clark Rockin’ New Years Eve