# What's the Least Funny TV Show Ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 29, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292 "2005-11-29T23:25:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/41 "2005-11-30T20:19:29Z")
What was that horrid sitcom from the 80’s with the inventor who invented a little girl robot that he adopted as his daughter? That had to have been the least funny show trying to be funny ever. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/42 "2005-11-30T20:55:32Z")
What, no “Welcome Back, Kotter?” It was extremely unfunny the first time around. Try watching it in syndication now. Aye, aye, aye. It it terrible. TERRIBLE! ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/43 "2005-11-30T21:01:05Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > What was that horrid sitcom from the 80’s with the inventor who invented a little girl robot that he adopted as his daughter? That had to have been the least funny show trying to be funny ever. That’s _Small Wonder_, which has been mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/44 "2005-11-30T21:07:03Z")
**When Hyenas Attack**. You’d think it’d be a laff riot from the title, but those midnight snack scenes are pretty grim. ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/45 "2005-11-30T21:34:33Z")
When I read this thread my first thought was “has anyone mentioned **Small Wonder** yet?” I had to watch that show twice to confirm that it was as awful as I thought it was. Let me add one for Canadians (I’m pretty sure this show didn’t travel). [**The Pig and Whistle**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199261/) was a Canadian variety show set in an English pub. Maybe it was a precurser to reality tv. It ran for 10 years. It seemed to try to be funny. I grew up with 2 channels. So when a clunker like this was on it was a real crisis if there was news on the other channel. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/46 "2005-11-30T21:34:46Z")
While I’m in the minority, I’ll admit that _Monty Python_ always bored me to death. I thought that _Spamalot_ was decent, though. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/47 "2005-11-30T21:49:56Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > **Good Times**. The poverty saddens me, and the lame humor saddens me even more. They had a marathon of this on TVLand a few days ago. I had never seen it, but I’ve often heard people referring to it, so I figured I should check it out. Wow. I watched a couple episodes, and I don’t think I laughed once. The show was still kinda interesting, in a time-capsule sense, and just in the way it portrayed the experiences of a certain group of people, but for something that (based on the audience’s laughter) was supposed to be uproarious, it was terribly unfunny. But yeah, Full House has to take the cake. Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/48 "2005-11-30T22:36:19Z")
Does the show have to try to be funny? I nominate **Meet the Press**. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/49 "2005-11-30T23:17:57Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > That’s _Small Wonder_, which has been mentioned. Ooops. Evidently it was so horrible I am incapable of rading posts about it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/50 "2005-12-01T00:15:44Z")
> [@ArchitectChore](#): > > The studio ‘audience’ certainly thought it was funny. I’m surprised they even got a laugh track machine to laugh at it, to be honest. Maybe they show the machine episodes of another show. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/51 "2005-12-01T00:32:20Z")
I’m proud to be among the Full House majority. That was a shit storm in my brain. I’m surprised that no one has mentioned Sagat’s other crowning achievement: America’s Funniest Home Videos. Other classics: Hardball—Baseball comedy on FOX, in the aforementioned beartrap spot. I think it lasted 6 episodes. That dinosaur show from the late 80s/early 90s TGIF bloc (k omitted intentionally)—The baby dinosaur was perhaps the most hateful character ever divised by man or beast. ---
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/52 "2005-12-01T00:37:30Z")
**Tom Goes to the Mayor** ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/53 "2005-12-03T03:32:58Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > They had a marathon of this on TVLand a few days ago. I had never seen it, but I’ve often heard people referring to it, so I figured I should check it out. Wow. I watched a couple episodes, and I don’t think I laughed once. The show was still kinda interesting, in a time-capsule sense, and just in the way it portrayed the experiences of a certain group of people, but for something that (based on the audience’s laughter) was supposed to be uproarious, it was terribly unfunny. Did anybody catch the Janet Jackson hosted episode of _SNL_ last year? She starred as Willona (her former TV mom) in a send-up of _Good Times_ that was absolutely hysterical. It worked in “Damn! Damn! Damn!”, poverty, unwanted pregnancy, Sickle Cell Anemia, domestic abuse, “Dy-no-MITE!”, etc., all into the same few minutes. If they’d only had a cameo by an original cast member or two (don’t tell me Jimmie Walker or Bern Nadette Stanis are too busy) it would have been a classic sketch. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/54 "2005-12-03T12:31:02Z")
**Different Strokes** has to be one of the dumbest and unfunniest shows ever made. Worse, it made a star out of Gary Coleman. ---
**Author:** ![Contradictory\_Statement](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2bfe46/32.png) [@Contradictory\_Statement](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contradictory_Statement)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/55 "2005-12-03T18:08:24Z")
I have ALWAYS despised with an unending loathing the horrible cocktail of suck, MadTV. I forget where, but I heard somebody describe it as everything that has gone wrong in SNL going wrong, and that is the most honest assesment I have ever heard, it is just low-brow humor repeating itself over and over, and the writers don’t bother to create new unfunny characters, they find three unfunny characters and ressurect their rotting necrotic flesh to trudge the already-depleated characters corpse through a story that is exactly the fucking same as the previous five skits about them. I feel I have understated my loathing of MadTV, but that is inevitible for the simple reason that english does not have enough words to descrie my feelings. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/56 "2005-12-03T18:18:24Z")
Cop Rock. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/57 "2005-12-03T18:36:30Z")
Too many to mention, really. I’ll quadruple _Full House_ --there wasn’t one actor that I didn’t want to take out back and bitch slap. Many have been mentioned. That Adam Corolla show is just moronic–it’s not “edgy”, his voice is whiney and he has mistaken crassness for humor. _Alice_ --not funny. And kiss my ass, not my grits. _Happy Days_ --in the last seasons (actually, I never found it funny, but I did watch it)–and all it’s spinoffs–ALL. And their spinoff spawn, too. That show with the ex-con comedian and the wife and the 3 boys. Look! We never see the neighbor’s face! (ripoff from _Rhoda_’s doorman-which WAS funny). Basically, the 80’s and 90’s sucked for sitcoms, pretty much. The heyday was MTM, Bob Newhart, Rhoda etc. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/58 "2005-12-03T19:51:36Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > Basically, the 80’s and 90’s sucked for sitcoms, pretty much. The heyday was MTM, Bob Newhart, Rhoda etc. Hey! The 80s and 90s included Cheers, Taxi, The Cosby Show, Roseanne, Friends, Seinfeld… ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/59 "2005-12-03T21:21:24Z")
I know I’m in the minority here, but **Family Guy** is one of the unfunniest shows I’ve ever been subjected to. Its popularity is a complete mystery to me. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292/60 "2005-12-03T21:57:25Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > **Good Times**. The poverty saddens me, and the lame humor saddens me even more. Before I saw this post I was thinking of that simple minded travesty called **My Mother The Car.** But I think you have come up with a worse one. Let us not forget **Green Acres, Petticoat Junction** , and possibly the worst of the lot, **The Beverly Hillbillies.** I know that was number one in the ratings, but there’s no accounting for taste. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-funny-tv-show-ever/333292.md?page=4)