Items16The creator’s order
  1. 130 Rock (2006)30 Rock (2006) 8.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Oct 11, 2006The benchmark for joke speed. When The Atlantic counted the jokes in a dozen top comedies in 2014, 30 Rock came first, at just over seven a minute. Tina Fey's sketch-show satire never lets a scene breathe: a throwaway line, a flashback and a background sign can all land inside ten seconds, and Jack…0
  2. 2Police Squad! (1982)Police Squad! (1982) 8.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 4, 1982Six episodes, and barely a frame without a gag in it. This 1982 parody of cop shows has Leslie Nielsen playing Frank Drebin perfectly straight while puns, literal-minded misunderstandings and sight gags pile up behind him, often in the background where you have to spot them yourself. ABC dropped it…0
  3. 3Arrested Development (2003)Arrested Development (2003) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Nov 2, 2003The show that rewards a notebook more than any other. The Bluth family saga hides jokes in the background, plants setups episodes ahead of their payoff and stacks running gags until a single word or chicken impression can bring the house down. Buster's eventual run-in with a seal is hinted at…0
  4. 4Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015)Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015) 7.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 6, 2015If 30 Rock left you wanting the same speed with a sunnier lead, this is its Netflix sibling from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. Kimmy's relentless optimism is the setup; the punchlines come from Titus Andromedon's diva meltdowns, Jacqueline's hollow socialite life and a flood of pop-culture asides,…0
  5. 5The Simpsons (1989)The Simpsons (1989) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Dec 17, 1989Best in its classic early seasons Springfield is built for the pause button. Store signs, newspaper headlines, church marquees and the chalkboard in the opening titles all carry their own jokes, layered under dialogue that is already firing on several levels at once. That is why the show's peak…0
  6. 6Futurama (1999)Futurama (1999) 8.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 28, 1999The Simpsons' sci-fi cousin packs its future with throwaway inventions, alien billboards and background signs, some of them written in the show's own invented alphabets for viewers patient enough to decode them. Bender, Zoidberg and Professor Farnsworth each have a dozen catchphrase-ready lines an…0
  7. 7Veep (2012)Veep (2012) 8.4/10 on IMDbFirst aired Apr 22, 2012Insults as an art form. Selina Meyer's staff trade put-downs so fast and so elaborately that one season-long count of jokes per minute called it the show that crammed in more jokes per half hour than anything else on television at the time. Armando Iannucci brought over the verbal savagery of The…0
  8. 8The Thick of It (2005)The Thick of It (2005) 8.7/10 on IMDbFirst aired May 19, 2005The British original behind Veep's style, and the place to hear Malcolm Tucker at full volume. Peter Capaldi's spin doctor delivers abuse so inventive that the BBC made a point of having a swearing consultant, writer Ian Martin, on the team. The handheld documentary look makes it feel loose, but…0
  9. 9Archer (2009)Archer (2009) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 17, 2009A spy cartoon that runs on callbacks. Sterling Archer's ego, Malory's martinis and Cheryl's chaos produce rapid-fire bickering, and the running gags (phrasing, the danger zone, a whole arsenal of obscure references) keep paying off for years. The animation is clean enough that background details…0
  10. 10Family Guy (1999)Family Guy (1999) 8.1/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jan 31, 1999The cutaway gag made into a whole engine. Seth MacFarlane's show will leave the plot for a non sequitur flashback at any moment, which means a joke lands every few seconds even when the story stalls. That makes it the purest example here of quantity as a strategy: when one gag misses, the next…0