What about Doc Martin? Say what you will about it possibly skewing more towards an older audience, Martin Clunes is a national treasure. And while we’re on the subject, how about Men Behaving Badly?

Sure Father Ted was a definite predecessor to Rev., but what about The Vicar of Dibley, which did “vicar out of water” before Rev. was even a twinkle in James Wood’s eye?

And are you really going to let me get away with mentioning Peep Show without at least paying some lip service to That Mitchell and Webb Look? In fact, what is with the dearth of sketch comedies on my list? Little Britain? Monty Python’s Flying Circus? A Bit of Fry and Laurie? The Benny Hill Show? And for something brand spanking new: The Johnny and Inel Show?

How about some featuring funny ladies? Miranda, anyone? Keeping Up Appearances? Not mentioning AbFab should probably get my tv writer license revoked.

Nothing with Rowan Atkinson? No Mr. Bean? No Blackadder?

As a site that focuses so much on Sci-fi, you’re really going to let me get away with no mention of Red Dwarf? Or Hyperdrive?

Fawlty Towers?
Are You Being Served?
Yes (Prime) Minister?
The Young Ones?
Porridge?
The Mighty Boosh?

And for the love of Christmas, why didn’t any of us mention The IT Crowd?! What’s that? Oh, we all did? Including me in the original article? Well, glad that’s sorted.

In all seriousness, though: I’m also a fan of many of the shows you guys mention, and will definitely check out the ones I don’t know. Thanks for adding such great options to the list for your fellow readers!

I was focusing on newer comedies that were also available to watch for free on Hulu, because who doesn’t like free quality entertainment? I should have made the Hulu part more pronounced, maybe, but I didn’t want it to seem like some weird advertisement for them. Because they best be paying me for that shiznit, amirite?

PS. regarding Spaced: I just did the laziest Google-fu ever and found eight Unreality articles that somehow praise Spaced. Unreality loves Spaced. Officially. Spaced + Unreality = 4Eva. In fact, now seems like a great time to formally announce our engagement to Spaced. We’re planning a modest ceremony in the spring, and will honeymoon in Bali. We’ll summer in London and winter here in the States. We’ll be hyphenating our names.

Peep Show is one my all time favourites but its quality has dropped dramatically over the last couple of season
Kudos for the Thick of It shout out though, that show has taught me countless, inventive ways of insulting people, god bless Armando Ianucci!

- Leaving out ‘Spaced’ is a bit of a travesty, shame on you Unreality
- Same goes foe ‘The IT Crowd’
- ‘Green Wing’: hospital, hilarity, general brilliance
- ‘ Episodes’ (two of the same cast members as Green Wing and Matt LeBlanc) I know it’s a joint British/American production but it does a fantastic job of detailing the sheer unbridled horror of American remakes
- Without ‘Father Ted’ you would have no ‘Rev’
- ‘The Smoking Room’: probably the greatest thing we’ve lost due to the smoking ban (also starring Robert Webb)
- ‘Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’ does an amazing job of parodying cheesy 80′s horror/sci-fi/everything we love here
- ‘The League Of Gentlemen’ is definitely on the darker side of comedy but it’s damn funny
- ‘Psychoville’ is somewhat of a spiritual successor to ‘The League of Gentlemen’ (you’ll recognise the cast/writers/all that jazz) with added mystery
- ‘Nighty Night’ is delightfuly dark
- If you like ‘Nighty Night’ you’ll like ‘Human Remains’
- And if you really like your darkness then you may want to look up ‘Jam’ – it plays out like a surrealist art film at times and it’s by the brilliant Chris Morris (I can never go long without reccomending his most recent film ‘Four Lions’ to someone – it’s funnier, more intelligent and far more touching than a film about a group of would-be suicide bombers has any right to be)

And thats all I can see without getting my glasses
Happy watching

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226774/

At 48 episodes, it’s not too terribly daunting for anyone wanting to catch up. Season 1 is the weakest season, so don’t be discouraged if you only sort of like it after that season, as it gets better in S2 and peaks in seasons 3-6. Seasons 7 and 8 are still great, but 3-6 are the cream of the crop if you ask me. Hulu has the series for any of my fellow Americans that want to give it a shot. You won’t regret it.