The Big Bang Theory
The characters may be just caricatures, but the actors are so good it doesn’t matter. It’s also one of the few consistently funny sitcoms on nowadays.
Conan
Conan’s TBS talk show really hit its stride in 2011. It really feels like its own show now, not an attempt to recapture anything from his previous two shows. The cable time-slot lets Conan and his cohorts be even more outrageous and surreal. It feels like the show they were trying to make all along.
Happy Endings
This show is what Friends would have been, if it had been witty, multi-cultural, and featured a likable group. Happy Endings’ characters feel like they belong in the real world and act like an actual group of friends. This grounds the sometimes over-the-top comedy.
the New Girl
The New Girl relies mainly on Zooey Deschanel’s charm as adorably awkward girl, who doesn’t seem to know how the world works yet, despite being an adult. Most of the situations in the comedy come from her worldview clashing with her male and much more cynical roommates. And it works pretty much every time, because Zooey is perfect at playing that girl.
The Simpsons\South Park\It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It’s odd to lump these very different shows together, but it’s because they’re all comedies with very little rules that have managed to stay funny after multiple seasons. You’d think that just by having borderline insane characters and virtually no limits it would be easy to crank out season after season of hilarity, but Family Guy proves that’s not true.
The Simpsons have had a quite a renaissance the past few years, by focusing on the core family. Now episodes just place the Simpsons in situations that will be funny, instead of concentrating on overall social and media satire.
Meanwhile South Park has become the place for social and media satire. The show skewers anything it feels like and the satire is almost always biting and relevant.
Lastly, It’s Always Sunny continues to be “Seinfeld on crack”. How many crazy schemes can these unlikable characters come up with before it stops being funny? It seems like the writers have a few good years left. I guess it helps that nothing seems too outrageous for the gang, even hiding a dead crack whore.
Up All Night
This show is rare in that it concentrates a lot of its humor around raising a baby (not a child, those shows are abundant, baby shows aren’t). There’s a lot of truth to the parent’s fears and frustrations in it, which help make the show humorous and help make it work.