The Best Comedy Series to Start Now
Most comedy recommendations are the same handful of sitcoms you've already seen twice. This list leans the other way: shows worth starting now, most of them from the last decade, plus a few classics kept because nothing has replaced them. It's for anyone who wants to laugh tonight and still be watching next week.
The useful split is between hangout comedies and comedies with a story. Abbott Elementary, Detectorists and Parks and Recreation are hangouts: you visit people you like, and almost any episode works on its own. Hacks, Barry and The Good Place tell one long story, get better the more you watch in order, and will occasionally make you sad. Pick a hangout for a weeknight and a story for a weekend.
Content varies a lot. Abbott Elementary and The Good Place are the two to watch with kids in the room; Veep, Hacks and The Studio swear constantly. Several finished on their own terms, which makes them safe to commit to, and the notes say which. The Bear wins comedy awards, but we've put it under Prestige Drama Series, where it belongs. For something to half-watch, see Background Shows for Working; for gentler picks, Cozy Shows to Unwind With; for a film instead, Funny Movies.
Abbott Elementary
Series · 2021The easiest recommendation here. Quinta Brunson's mockumentary about underpaid Philadelphia teachers who keep showing up anyway is gentle enough to watch with tweens and sharp enough that the adults laugh harder. Season one is short, so it's a quick way to find out whether it's for you.
Ted Lasso
Series · 2020An American football coach hired to run an English soccer club, with no idea what offside means. A comedy built on decency rather than cringe, and very quotable. The first two seasons are the best; the third runs long. A fourth arrived in 2026, with Ted coaching a women's team.
Hacks
Series · 2021Jean Smart as a Las Vegas comedy legend and Hannah Einbinder as the young writer forced on her. The best-written show about comedy itself, and it ended in 2026 after five seasons on its own terms, so you can commit knowing it lands. Expect constant swearing.
The Good Place
Series · 2016A woman wakes up in a heaven-like afterlife she knows she didn't earn. Four seasons, completely finished, and the end of season one is one of TV's great twists, so avoid spoilers. Nobody there can swear (it comes out as 'fork'), but the sex jokes are steady, so it's best for families with young teens.
What We Do in the Shadows (2019)
Series · 2019Three ancient vampires, an 'energy vampire' who bores people to death, and their put-upon familiar share a house on Staten Island. Better than the 2014 film it spun off from, because it has room to get stranger. Six seasons, finished in 2024, and Matt Berry's line readings never stop being funny.
Schitt's Creek
Series · 2015A rich family loses everything except a small town they once bought as a joke. The first season is spiky and the family is hard to like; by season three it's one of the warmest comedies ever made, and its six seasons end exactly where they should.
The Studio
Series · 2025Seth Rogen as a newly promoted film-studio boss who loves movies and keeps nearly destroying them. Shot in long unbroken takes and stuffed with real directors playing themselves, it won 13 Emmys in its first year, a comedy record at the time. Funniest if you care how movies get made. Heavy swearing.
Only Murders in the Building
Series · 2021Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez start a true-crime podcast about a death in their New York apartment building. Each season is a new murder, so it's easy to sample. The first season is the tightest; later ones lean on celebrity guest stars, which is either a bonus or the problem.
Derry Girls
Series · 2018Four Catholic schoolgirls and one English boy in 1990s Northern Ireland, with the Troubles in the background and detention in the foreground. Three short seasons, all excellent, and a finale that earns its tears. The accents are thick and fast; turn on subtitles and nobody will judge you.
Widow's Bay
Series · 2026The rare horror-comedy that's good at both, though comedy wins most scenes. Matthew Rhys plays a hapless mayor as the straight man to a town full of locals who believe in its curse, and the fog-bound island looks properly eerie. It took the 2026 Emmy for outstanding comedy series.
Reservation Dogs
Series · 2021Four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma scheme to get to California after a friend's death. Funny in a loose, deadpan way, then suddenly devastating, often in the same episode. Made almost entirely by Indigenous writers and directors, and finished in three seasons, so it's a contained commitment.
Jury Duty (2023)
Series · 2023A real man named Ronald thinks he's serving on a real jury. Everyone else, including James Marsden playing a vain version of himself, is an actor. It should be cruel, and instead it's one of the kindest things on TV, because Ronald turns out to be a genuinely good guy. A separate second season followed in 2026.
Shrinking
Series · 2023A therapist still reeling from his wife's death starts telling his patients exactly what he thinks, and his senior partner, played by a gloriously grumpy Harrison Ford, tries to stop him. From Bill Lawrence of Scrubs and Ted Lasso, with the same mix of jokes and crying. Heavier than it looks, and the language is strong.
Nobody Wants This
Series · 2024An agnostic podcaster who talks about sex for a living falls for a rabbi. Kristen Bell and Adam Brody have such easy chemistry that the show mostly runs on it, and the half-hour episodes go down fast. The best pick here for a couple who want a romantic comedy about the work of being together.
Somebody Somewhere
Series · 2022Sam is middle-aged, grieving her sister and stuck back in Manhattan, Kansas, until a co-worker pulls her into a ragtag community of local misfits and she starts singing again. Bridget Everett's voice will flatten you. Small and very funny; it wrapped up after three seasons, and almost nobody you know has seen it.
Fleabag
Series · 2016The comedy that made talking to the camera feel new again. Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays a woman joking her way around a grief she won't name, and the second season, with Andrew Scott's priest, is as close to perfect as half-hour TV gets. Frank about sex throughout.
Barry (2018)
Series · 2018Bill Hader as a depressed hitman who wanders into an LA acting class and wants out of killing. The early seasons are very funny, with Henry Winkler as a vain acting teacher; it gets darker every year until the last season is barely a comedy. Brilliant, and violent.
Veep
Series · 2012Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a vice president surrounded by staff even more incompetent than she is. The insults are the most inventive profanity on television, and its cynicism about politics has only aged better. Seven seasons, and it stays sharp almost to the end.
Parks and Recreation
Series · 2009Skip or skim the first season, which is short and still working out who Leslie Knope is. From season two on it's one of the great ensemble comedies, and the ideal first sitcom for anyone who finds The Office's awkwardness too painful to sit through.
The Office (US)
Series · 2005The sitcom every mockumentary since is measured against. Season one is a stiff copy of the British original and seasons two through five are the peak. Steve Carell leaves near the end of season seven, and stopping there is a perfectly reasonable choice.
Arrested Development
Series · 2003A rich family's patriarch goes to prison and his one sane son tries to hold everyone together, narrated by Ron Howard. Running jokes pay off episodes later, so it rewards attention and a rewatch. The original three seasons are the essential ones; the later revival seasons are for completists.
Detectorists
Series · 2014Two men in a small-town metal-detecting club wander English fields hoping for Saxon gold. Almost nothing happens and it's quietly perfect: funny, melancholy and very kind, with Mackenzie Crook writing, directing and starring opposite Toby Jones. Three short series and two specials, and the most underseen show on this list.
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Picks are editorial recommendations. Streaming availability changes by region and over time — the “where to stream” links check current availability on JustWatch.