I spend most of my working life thinking about software, so when I switch off, I do not want anything that asks me to think. I want to laugh. Over the years I have become quietly opinionated about what counts as genuinely funny television since 2000, and since this is my site and nobody can stop me, here is the short version of my argument.
My one rule is that a comedy has to actually be funny, not merely clever or heartwarming or important. A lot of what gets called the best comedy of the century is really very good drama with jokes in it. Fine, but that is a different category, and I am here for the shows that make me laugh out loud alone on a sofa, which is the only honest test.
The ones that pass the sofa test
The American workplace comedies of the 2000s mostly hold up, because awkwardness ages well and nobody has ever stopped finding a boss who tries too hard funny. The British half-hours, shorter and meaner, hold up even better, because they end before they fall in love with their own characters. And the animated comedies quietly became the bravest writing on television, because a cartoon can say the thing a live actor cannot.
I notice I keep returning to the shows that are confident enough to be a little uncomfortable. Comfortable comedy is just background noise. The funny ones take a small risk in almost every scene.
Why I think comedy is underrated as a craft
Here is the founder in me sneaking back in. Making something genuinely funny is one of the hardest creative problems there is, far harder than making something serious, because a joke either works or it does not and the audience tells you instantly. There is no hiding behind importance. I have a real respect for that kind of feedback loop, the brutal, immediate kind, which is probably why I admire great comedy writers more than almost any other artists.
So no grand conclusion here, just a recommendation. The next time you have had a long week, skip the prestige drama everyone says you should watch and put on something that was built, with enormous skill, to do nothing more noble than make you laugh. It is harder to make than it looks, and on a Friday it is worth more than almost anything more serious.