I can second a lot of these, like “Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean” and Frasier’s radio drama. Another good bit from MCMB is when he and Irma Gobb (his SO) are exchanging their gifts.
Irma stands with her lips puckered, not wanting to hand over his gift until she gets a kiss. He does the classic “look over there!” and grabs it from her. He opens it, and it’s a modeling kit. “A classic ship!” he mutters (I believe he talks more in this episode than any other). “Look at all the guns!” Then he hands over Irma’s present. Earlier on, she’d pointed excitedly at the display window of a jewelry store; now she opens the large, flat package to find…the cardboard stand-up photo of a man and a woman smiling lovingly at each other while she displays a diamond ring. “See? It can stand here or here or it could even just stand there!”
While he’s proudly demonstrating this, Irma goes over to sit on the bed, sniffling. Bean follows her sheepishly and produces a very small box. You just have to see the relief, forgiveness, happiness and expectation play across her face before she opens the box to find…
…a bent screw, for the purpose of hanging the picture on the wall.
She leaves while Bean is hanging it up; he looks around, steps down, then goes to get the mega-cracker, with about fifteen of those explosive strips in it, that he constructed earlier. “Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean,” he says morosely, and pulls it.
Cut to exterior of his flat: the windows are nuclear white.
Some other good scenes from Roseanne: Jackie, drunk on beer and explaining incoherently to Darlene how Roseanne “kicked into the gutter” her dream of going to the police academy. Finally, she flops down on the bed, appearing to pass out, then rouses herself to declare, “I…am a good…cop!” Raises fist and falls plunk to the floor.
The IRS episode: Roseanne, Dan and Jackie in the kitchen, trying to figure out if the Conners are in tax trouble or not; then the scene at the IRS office. Also, the tag scene, where John Goodman appears out of character, imploring people to believe that an honest, tax-paying actor such as himself has the deepest respect for the IRS.
The Young Ones: Vyvyan sticks his head out of a train window and gets decapitated. His headless body stumbles over the tracks to his surly head, kicks it, and continues chasing it as it rolls unevenly down the track.
Rick digging into a party guest (Jennifer Saunders!)'s handbag and pulling out a tampon. "You’ve brought me a present. A telescope! A telescope with a mouse in it!
Neil’s monologue in “Summer Holiday”, that starts with someone drawing on his face with a green sharpie and ends with Elephant Head singing “Stop in the Name of Love.” Also the scene where Rick gloats about how great his summer will be with his family. Every one of Mike’s responses is leading up to announcing that Rick’s parents are dead. Mike’s deadpan remarks, Rick’s reaction to the news, Neil’s refusal to give up the title of He Whose Life Sucks Worst, and Vyv’s intervention with his cricket bat, all add up to (IMO) the best example of all four personalities playing off each other.
South Park: Anything from “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe”.
Kenny having explosive diarheaa (sp?).
Cartman doing the German Dance.
Mr. Mackey and Ms. Choksondik getting it on.
All in the Family: Archie thinks he has botulism. Long story short, they want to call the store where he got the suspect food item. Gloria knows the number, but she has a head cold. Everyone else is already hysterical by this time. Lugubriously, she gives the number: “Five…five…[gasp]…five…six…[ah-choo!]…four…one…”
Mike: Okay, what’s the seventh number?
Gloria: I gab you seben nubbers!
Mike: You gave me six numbers! One of the numbers was a sneeze!..Well, what do you want me to do—do you see a sneeze on this dial?!
They all head out for the hospital, including Gloria, who’s wrapped in a blanket and wearing slippers. Mike opens the door from outside, pushes her back in, and jabbers, “You can’t go to the hospital—you’re sick!” Gloria sneezes once more before fadeout.
Another scene that is funny more because of the context, not because it’s comedic gold: Archie opens the front door in the morning to get the paper, and there’s a swastika painted on the outside. When I saw that in syndictation when I was a kid, I would laugh myself purple. My mom would get furious, but my dad laughed too. He says it’s because a) people laugh when they don’t know how else to react, and b) Carroll O’Connor’s comic timing is priceless.
I think he’s right on both counts, but I also think the first is more important. That episode would have been broadcast in the early '70s, and even when I was watching the show (and I saw these reruns many times) in the mid-to-late '70s, the Third Reich was still a very taboo subject. I mean there was no shortage of documentaries, but you just couldn’t mention swastikas or Hitler or anything like that if you weren’t doing straight-up history. So the negative associations with that symbol were still very strong and potent. The live audience laughed, but in a very uncomfortable manner. (I wonder if they really did react with silence to the end of that episode, or if their response was edited out.)
