And I didn’t even mention Jerry mugging the little old lady for the marble rye!
Does The Critic count?
While the lead character of The Dick Van Dyke show wasn’t really dysfunctional, he was surrounded by some really odd types: Sally, Buddy and most notably Alan Brady. The work side focused on the insides of the comedy business, but the family side of the show dominated most of the time.
Some later shows borrowed a lot from this prototype.
And Mel. Mel was miserable. Largely because of Alan but Buddy didn’t help with his constant ribbing.
Do the Bob Newhart show count? They were not about comedians, but he was the central actor in both and he was miserable.
And he was pretty enthusiastic about Taking A Vacation From Himself in that episode where they grow mustaches. (George pulls off the look; Jerry doesn’t.)
Yeah, Bob Newhart’s shows don’t seem to count. He was, respectively, a shrink, an inn owner/writer, a comic book writer.
I checked the specs on the latter, Bob, and he wrote a super hero comic, not a humor one which might have qualified.
Anyway, this got me thinking about The Duck Factory with Jim Carrey. Animator for the Dippy Duck cartoons. So sort of a comedy-type person. Lived in a fantasy world, IIRC. Miserable, dysfunctional? Maybe the latter???
Along similar lines of “probably not” is Caroline in the City. Lea Thompson as a cartoonist. Not really miserable/dysfunctional other than the usual sitcom single female tropes.
Not sure if the 1969-70 sitcom “My World and Welcome to it” starring William Windom quite fits. It was based on the cartoons and humor of James Thurber.
There was an early 80’s UK show called Shelley(sp?). I think the character Shelley was a dysfunctional comedian. Can someone confirm?
Bumping because After life with Ricky Gervais is pretty good and worth watching too.
The Bernie Mac Show. Bernie Mac played himself, as a comedian and comedic actor. His nieces and nephew were from a dysfunctional family, and Bernie and Wanda were trying to make them functional.
I never watched Seinfeld, so I don’t know how they compare regarding meta-references, but TBMS was, IMO, very skillful in that regard. Bernie looked at Vanessa’s (older girl) college applications and said, “What’s this – ‘Guardian: Bernard McCullough’?” “That’s your name.” “Yeah, but who the hell’s Bernard McCullough? You wanna put Bernie Mac!” There was a full episode about Bernie being in a children’s film because it was appropriate for all the kids, and whaddya know, Briana (younger girl) was terrified, on account of Bernie had played the villain. And there was the neutral zone, but Titus did that first.
But it doesn’t really fit your OP does it? He’s not a comedian in the show, he’s a local journalist.
Crashing seems to meet the criteria, depending on how loosely you want to interpret “miserable or dysfunctional”. It’s a fictionalized version of Peter Holmes and his start in stand-up. There’s certainly some miserable or dysfunctional moments but I think at his core the character is reasonably well balanced. It’s a good show, I enjoyed it.
The intent of the thread wasn’t that the main character is a stand up comic in the show, more that the main character is played by an actor who is a stand up comic and plays a miserable character.
The Sarah Silverman Program sounds like a fit for this thread but I’ll admit I haven’t watched it.
No, Shelleywas a philosophical layabout, mostly unemployed. Not a comedian.
You may be conflating with Kelley Monteith’s BBC show, also called Kelly Monteith.
English comedian Jack Dee in Lead Balloon.
Also Bojack Horseman started his career doing stand-up before moving into sit-coms.
EXTRAS by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
The main character is not so much a “comedian” as - in the show’s second and more brutal season - an aspiring dramatic actor forced to degrade himself in a wretchedly awful BBC sitcom.
Like everything that Gervais and Merchant created, it’s brilliant, but do not expect laugh-a-minute hijinks. It’s a show full of vicious cynicism, brutal emotional gut-punches, and cringe-inducing awkwardness. If that isn’t your thing, do not even bother.