In the mood for laughs? We (and Netflix) have you covered. From classics like The Office to quirky series Trailer Park Boys and The Inbetweeners — not to mention great Netflix originals like GLOW — below you’ll find a list of shows that might make for great discoveries or even comfort TV to watch again and again.
This list will continue to grow, but for now, check out our list of the best comedy shows on Netflix below, and let us know some of your other favorites in the comments.
Chappelle’s Show
Created by: Dave Chappelle
One of the most influential comedy shows of the 21st century, Chappelle’s Show holds up as an incredible (and incredibly funny) sketch comedy series from Dave Chappelle. The comedian’s knack for walking right up to the line but never crossing it is his secret weapon, and Chappelle’s Show is as much a social commentary as it is a comedy series. You’ll only find the first two seasons on Netflix, as Chappelle successfully lobbied the streaming service to not carry the abbreviated third season, during which Chappelle exited abruptly and Comedy Central continued with the show anyway. — Adam Chitwood
30 Rock
Created by: Tina Fey
Cast: Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan, Jack McBrayer, and Scott Adsit
If you’re in the mood to laugh extremely hard, watch 30 Rock. This Emmy-winning NBC comedy series ran for seven seasons and throughout its run was lauded for its insane joke-per-minute ratio. The story was partially inspired by Tina Fey’s time at SNL as she plays the head writer of an SNL-like show where she has to juggle the egos of her stars, the stubbornness of her writing staff, and the corporate nature of her boss. This show is not just incredibly funny and fun, but also tremendously rewatchable. – Adam Chitwood
Happy Endings
Created by: David Caspe
Cast: Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally, Damon Wayans Jr., and Casey Wilson
If you’re tired of binge-watching Friends or The Office or Parks and Rec for the thousandth time, try something new with Happy Endings. This ABC sitcom only ran for three seasons, but got the “Friends vibe” spot on albeit under the guise of a single-camera comedy. The story follows a group of friends living in Chicago, two of whom are in a relationship, and two of whom just broke up. The laughs come more from character interactions and behavior than flat-out jokes, which thus makes you as a viewer incredibly invested in the emotions and stories of these central characters. – Adam Chitwood
Creator: Dan Harmon
Cast: Joel McHale, Donald Glover, Alison Brie, Chevy Chase, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong, John Oliver
If you’re down for a comedy show with a meta-bent, tons of hijinks, and a bevy of episodes that are love letters to iconic movies and TV shows from the past, then Dan Harmon’s Community is for you. The NBC series began as the story of a lawyer who’s forced to go to community college because he faked his degree, but it quickly evolved into something more complicated, more emotional, and more inventive. Said lawyer (played by Joel McHale) strikes up a complicated companionship with his study group, and together they try to make it out of this community college alive. The seeds of Harmon’s knack for dark genre storytelling in Rick and Morty can be glimpsed here, but what holds Community together is, well, a sense of community among its characters, sentimentality be damned. All six seasons are currently streaming, but if you want a cheat sheet check out Greg’s fantastic rundown of the best Community episodes. – Adam Chitwood
New Girl
Created by: Elizabeth Meriwether
Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Damon Wayans Jr., Lamorne Morris, and Hannah Simone
One part Friends, one part Happy Endings, but all parts delightful, New Girl is a great comfort watch sitcom. The FOX series debuted in 2011 and started as the story of an offbeat teacher (Zooey Deschanel) who moves to LA and begins living with three men. But quickly the show morphed into a Friends-like relationship comedy, complete with its own will they/won’t they couple at its core. The improvisational style led to some off-the-cuff iconic moments and Max Greenfield is a darn delight, and while the show probably ran a little long, it remains a great show to watch if you’re in need of a pick-me-up. – Adam Chitwood
Schitt’s Creek
Created by: Daniel Levy and Eugene Levy
Cast: Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Daniel Levy, Annie Murphy, Emily Hampshire, Chris Elliott, and Jenn Robertson
If you want to watch a TV show that’s bound to make you feel happy and warm, watch Schitt’s Creek ASAP. The Emmy-winning Canadian series follows a wealthy family who loses everything and is forced to move to a tiny, backwoods town where they own a rundown motel.They slowly begin to accept their new lives and even love their new town and its citizens, despite their many, many quirks, and it’s that focus on humanity that really makes this one special. This is the perfect feel-good TV. – Adam Chitwood
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
Creators: Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin
Cast: Tim Robinson
If you’re into sketch comedy shows like Chappelle’s Show or Nathan For You, then Netflix’s original sketch series I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson is appointment viewing. This is a deeply werid and hilarious romp fromthe mind of Tim Robinson, a former writer on Saturday Night Live who brings his unique comic voice to the screen in a series of bizarre sketches that will leave you hurting from laughing so hard. – Adam Chitwood
Big Mouth
Created by: Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flacket
Cast: Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Jenny Slate, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph, and Jordan Peele
The animated Netflix original comedy Big Mouth is both incredibly dirty and incredibly sweet. The show is an unabashed look at life as an adolescent, with a particular focus on the changes that occur at the onset of puberty. Loosely inspired by the experiences of the show’s creators, the main characters are seventh graders who struggle with everything from growth spurts to horniness, with the latter personified by the “Hormone Monster” who arrives to guide them through their transition to teenaged life. It’s wildly colorful and inventive, and genuinely informative as it pulls no punches in discussing taboo subjects that are relevant to all pre-teens at some point in their lives. And in that way, it’s kind of ideal viewing with youngsters of your own, as long as you’re OK with having some very frank discussions about the human body and sexuality. – Adam Chitwood
GLOW
Created by: Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch
Cast: Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, Sydelle Noel, Brittney Young, Marc Maron, Britt Baron, Kate Nash, Gayle Rankin, Kia Stevens, Jackie Tohn, and Chris Lowell
If you’re looking for a comedy that toes the line between comedy and drama, I highly recommend GLOW. Based on a real-life event, the story chronicles a fledgling professional wrestling promotion called the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, as various aspiring actresses and women from all backgrounds take a stab at this entirely new field. Marc Maron plays the schlock B-movie director tasked with turning GLOW into a show for television, Alison Brie is a theater nerd and aspiring actress taking it all way too seriously, and Betty Gilpin plays Brie’s former friend and soap opera star who becomes the centerpiece of the wrestling event. The 80s setting provides much soundtrack and costume fodder, and while the show only lasted three seasons, the series gets better and better. – Adam Chitwood
The Good Place
Created by: Michael Schur
Cast: Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto, and D’Arcy Carden
If you’re wondering why there aren’t more shows like Parks and Recreation or The Office for you to watch, allow me to point you in the direction of The Good Place. The NBC series hails from Parks and Rec creator Michael Schur but combines his sense of humor with a highly serialized premise that will have you incredibly engaged in where the story’s going. The show takes place in an afterlife where Eleanor Shellstrop (Bell), a recently deceased woman who lived a selfish, spiteful life, has ended up in the “good place” by mistake. With the help of her appointed soulmate Chidi (Harper), she tries to learn how to be a better person as we get flashbacks to Eleanor’s life and the lives of those around her. Meanwhile, the architect of the good place, Michael (Danson), tries to figure out why everything in this utopia is going haywire. Tons of suprises ensue on top of some fantastic comedy and, shockingly, really thought-provoking philosophical storytelling about the nature of morality and what it means to be “good.” And, importantly, it builds to a really satisfying series finale. – Adam Chitwood
Flowers
Created by: Will Sharpe
Cast: Julian Barrett, Olivia Colman, Daniel Rigby, Sophia Di Martino
A dark, quirky British comedy whose cast is led by The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barrett and Oscar-winner Olivia Colman? You need not twist my arm! But Flowers is not a show that is immediately easy to like, but is a reward for those who stick with it. It initially has the trappings of a classic black comedy — the opening scene is of Barrett’s children’s book author Maurice trying to hang himself and the branch breaking to save him— but as it continues it reveals itself more as a closed-in emotional horror. It is also a series that intensely depicts ongoing struggles with mental illness.
The off-putting Channel 4 series, which runs for 2 seasons of 12 half-hour episodes on Netflix in the U.S., focuses on the Flowers family. There’s the aforementioned author Maurice, who created a dark, Edward Gorey-esque book series called Grubbs, and who is experiencing a major depressive episode. His upbeat wife, Deborah (Colman) can’t understand why her family is constantly going off the rails, and she flirts with local builders trying to win back some of the attention her gloomy husband no longer provides. The couple have 25-year-old twins who live at home with them: tinkerer and failed inventor Donald (Daniel Rigby), and Amy (Sophia Di Martino), a reclusive goth musician. The setup is already one full of cartoonish personalities, including Japanese illustrator Shun (played by creator Will Sharpe), but while the characters are large and their bust-ups are always massively dissonant, underneath the noise Flowers hits on some intense truths.
A true auteur with a unique vision, it is exactly Sharpe’s woozy artistry and gut-wrenching illustrations of an out-of-control mind that make Flowers such an absorbingly uncomfortable watch. It’s not meant to encapsulate every experience, but it investigates difficult emotions from a variety of sources in ways that make them recognizable, if extreme examples, of personal trials. — Allison Keene
Sex Education
Created by: Laurie Nunn
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, Connor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Alistair Petrie
For most people, being a teenager is awkward, weird, random, and confusing. Netflix’s series Sex Education, created by Laurie Nunn, not only understands that but leans into it completely. The show stars Asa Butterfield as Otis, a sixth former (high schooler, for Americans — the series is set in the UK) who starts an underground therapy clinic for his peers. Or, as one classmate describes him, he is “that weird sex kid who looks like a Victorian ghost.” — Allison Keene
Russian Doll
Created by: Leslye Headland, Natasha Lyonne, and Amy Poehler
Cast: Natasha Lyonne, Greta Lee, Yul Vasquez, Charlie Barnett, and Elizabeth Ashley
If you like your comedy on the darker side, with a sci-fi twist, check out Russian Doll. This propulsive series from Natasha Lyonne, Amy Poehler, and Leslye Headland, is a brilliant tale of morality and mortality that finds an expert balance between sincerity, cutting comedy, and wild genre flourish. In the first episode, we meet Nadia (Lyonne); an acerbic, chain-smoking software designer in rockstar duds gets trapped a time loop that film fans will quickly recognize; a Groundhog Day rinse-repeat format, where the protagonist is forced to learn a life lesson to break the loop.
If you think the time-loop concept is over-familiar, Russian Doll is way ahead of you. It’s a show that recognizes what it owes to Groundhog Day and tips its hat all along the way. It’s also chock full of twists and turns that subvert expectations at every corner, until it all comes crashing down in the emotionally cathartic (and satisfying) finale. – Adam Chitwood
Trailer Park Boys
Created By: Mike Clattenburg
Cast: John Paul Tremblay, Robb Wells, Mike Smith, John Dunsworth, Patrick Roach
Fair warning: You will either love Trailer Park Boys or you will hate it. Its minimalistic hand-held camera style and improvisational dialogue is particularly halting and jerky in its early seasons, but once it settles in, the show develops into a bizarrely meta world that has spawned 10 seasons, 3 movies and a live tour. Mike Clattenburg’s series, which launched in 2001 and has been running off and on ever since, follows the exploits of two dwellers of the Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia — Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and his best friend Ricky (Robb Wells) — as they try and clean up their lives after a stint in prison. It doesn’t work, and the two are constantly getting involved in crazy schemes with their friend Bubbles (Mike Smith, sporting huge Coke-bottle lenses) and other colorful characters, while trying to steer clear of the petty trailer park supervisor Jim Lahey (John Dunsworth) and his perpetually shirtless assistant Randy (Patrick Roach).
Make no mistake, these are Canada’s ultimate rednecks, and there is a ton of booze, weed, gunfire, and idiocy that fuels all of the show’s plots. Still, it’s hard not to get caught up in Julian and Ricky’s stories, especially since the two actors have such a fantastic rapport, and Ricky’s malapropisms never fail to delight. There are lots of catchphrases to latch onto, and the show never ceases to escalate its audacious humor, while never acknowledging it is anything other than real. Trailer Park Boys is not for everyone, but for some, there are few things better than having out with these sh— birds. — Allison Keene
BoJack Horseman
Created By: Raphael Bob-Waksberg
Cast: Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, Aaron Paul
The washed-up celebrity, as a character, has never felt quite so potently empathetic as it has in the animated personage of BoJack Horseman, the erstwhile star of 1980s sitcom Horsin’ Around, voiced with stinging desperation and cynicism by Will Arnett. Horseman’s attempt at a comeback is the focus of the first two seasons of Netflix’s most ambitious series since Orange Is the New Black, and creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg makes the quite literal horse-man’s addiction to fame, attention, and self-involvement into a melancholic vision of a depleted life. The series also doubles as a scathing indictment of Hollywood and its shallow machinations, but Bob-Waksberg, along with his writers and animators, balances these blue, painful thematic concerns with a vibrant animation style and varied sense of character design, to say nothing of the bounty of dry witticisms. Visually and tonally, Bojack Horseman toes a strange line, but even its oddest moments and creations hide an endearing undercurrent of visceral feeling, evoking a landscape of wounded egos, calcified obsessions, and a few artists trying frantically to make something worth a damn. — Chris Cabin
Documentary Now!
Created by: Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas
Cast: Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and Helen Mirren
One of the most delightfully pleasant surprises of 2015 was the IFC comedy series Documentary Now!, which is the brainchild of Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas. The conceit of the series is something of a mockumentary anthology, in which each half-hour episode takes on the format of a famous or groundbreaking documentary genre and is given the comedy treatment via Hader and Armisen. The result is a series of hilarious installments that tackle everything from Grey Gardens to Wild Wild Country to The Thin Blue Line to Behind the Music, but perhaps the show’s magnum opus (at least thus far), is the tremendous VICE-spoofing installment “DRONEZ: The Hunt for El Chingon.” Documentary Now! is a must-watch, plain and simple, especially if you happen to be of the cinephile persuasion. – Adam Chitwood
The End of the F***ing World
Created by: Charlie Covell
Cast: Alex Lawther, Jessica Barden, Gemma Whelan, Steve Oram
On premise-level alone, The End of the F***ing World has most teenage romances beat by a mile. Alex Lawther’s James is almost positive that he’s a serial killer and when Alyssa (Jessica Barden in a lively breakout performance) takes an interest in him, he thinks he’s found the perfect first victim. In essence, they both want release from the bonds of society and their bodies, with Alyssa seeking that release through exploration and confrontation while James seeks the same through destruction and rejection of humanity. When they impulsively take off together on a road trip, however, the dynamics get a bit more complicated and yield surprising insights. Early on, there’s a fear that the show might veer too hard into the cutesy, but the actors, including Steve Oram of Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and the writing consistently evade letting the gooey overwhelm the unseemly. If the series is given a second season, the creative team might do well to push the story into darker terrain but for now, it’s the kind of engagingly morbid, funny, and surprisingly moving show that Netflix devotees should make time for. — Chris Cabin
Arrested Development
Created by: Mitch Hurwitz
Cast: Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale, David Cross, Jeffrey Tambor, and Jessica Walter
Surely one of the best sitcoms ever made, Arrested Development was far ahead of its time when it debuted in 2003. Its wit and wry sense of humor now feels in lockstep with the modern state of the genre, but at the time it was incredibly different, which led to an early cancellation. But Netflix revived the series in 2013 to mixed results, with credit going to Hurwitz for at least trying something different than before. Regardless of how you feel about Seasons 4 and 5, the show’s previous episodes are undoubtedly some of the silliest, smartest, and funniest TV comedy ever produced. – Adam Chitwood
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Created By: Tina Fey & Robert Carlock
Cast: Ellie Kemper, Jane Krakowski, Tituss Burgess, Lauren Adams, Sara Chase
If the offbeat and goofy sensibility of 30 Rock tickled your funny bone, you’re going to want to watch Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. This was the next series from 30 Rock showrunners Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, and for four seasons it delightfuled in fast-paced jokes and outrageous stories. The show follows Ellie Kemper’s titular character, a woman who was held captive for years in an underground bunker and is now trying to start her life anew in New York City. —Adam Chitwood
