TV

Five Hilarious Shows That Deserve A Lot More Attention

The list of hilarious shows on television is endless, well to be honest, it’s not really that’s just a phrase people say sometimes to sound impressive. In reality there is a fair amount of funny shows on television at the moment but chances are, if you were to ask a group of people the funniest shows they know, the same shows would keep popping up. Everyone has heard of Seinfeld, The Office, Parks And Recreation and Futurama, but what about the little guys? There genuinely is a multitude of brilliant comedies that never get a look in, too many to mention in fact. So, today I have decided to list the five funniest shows deserve a lot more attention than they garner.

Impractical Jokers

Usually I find prank television repulsive, a bunch of hipster wankers running around outside ruining innocent bystanders days. Youtube is the true home of the good prank, pranks that involve both the prankee AND pranker in the joke. Or at least people pranking their friends so there is a much greater sense of fun to the prank rather than bewilderment. Impractical Jokers combines the best of the two and revolves around a group of friends that make themselves the but of the joke every time.

The Impractical Jokers are Brian “Q” Quinn, James “Murr” Murray, Joseph “Joe” Gatto and Salvatore “Sal” Vulcano, a bunch of high school buddies that together form the comedy troupe, The Tenderloins. This show has one of those concepts that is genius, yet so simple it’ll have you wondering why it hasn’t been done before. One joker is sent out onto the streets of New York City with an earpiece and has to do what he is told otherwise faces a compulsory punishment at the end of the show. These tasks are the kind of things you dare your friends to do in public but never expect them to follow through with, like eat off that person’s plate or take your pants and pretend like it’s normal. Impractical Jokers is now in it’s fourth season and is still as funny now as it has always been.

Unfortunately the show is only available on Region 1 DVD and the US iTunes, so you will have to have a multi region DVD player or change your iTunes’ region.

Detectorists

If you were to ask me what is the best sitcom in recent years I wouldn’t hesitate in saying Detectorists. It’s a very difficult question but Detectorists has a special charm that makes the show very endearing, not to mention the Johnny Flynn’s beautiful theme. Detectorists tells the story of a group of people so involved in their hobby of metal detecting that they have started the club, Danebury Metal Detecting Club. Mackenzie Crook created and stars in the show along side Lucy Benjamin, Rachael Stirling, Aimee-Ffion Ewards and Toby Jones in one of the few roles where he doesn’t play a creeper.

Once you get caught in the swing of life, it can be very repetitive and mundane and Detectorists hinges on this thought. Often the only things in life that can make you happy are your hobbies and it can be very dangerous if you let your hobbies consume you and neglect your responsibilities. While the metal detecting hobby isn’t exactly the most exciting hobby in the world, it opens the door to an avalanche of chuckles and a few real belly laughs. Although when it comes down to it, the jokes aren’t even the best part of the show. It’s the characters and story, the story is absolutely heart-warming and you will fall in love with all of the characters regardless of their flaws.

Again, like Impractical Jokers, Detectorists is only available on the foreign(UK) iTunes. Although the DVD is region 2 which will play in most Australian DVD players.

Drifters

The easiest and probably most common way to explain Drifters would be, “the female version of The Inbetweeners”. Whereas, unlike The Inbetweeners, Drifters doesn’t pretend that these clearly twenty-somethings are in high school. Their attitude maybe stuck in high school, but Drifters centres around a group of young friends stumbling their way through adulthood. Those friends are played by Jessica Knappett (the show’s creator), Lydia Rose Bewley and Lauren O’Rourke. A few more notable members of the cast include Bob Mortimer, Arabella Weir, Anna Skellern, Philip McGinley and Nick Mohammed.

If it is at all possible, Drifters is even more immature than The Inbetweeners and it would be a very bad idea to see any of the show’s characters as a role model. Drifters also has the advantage of telling the female view of embarrassing situations and juvenile activities which may even be more awkward than the briefcase wanker’s stories. After two series, Drifters has been commissioned for a third series to air later in the year.

Series one and two are available on Region 2 DVD and the UK iTunes.

8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown

It’s often said that the British have the best television in the world and that is no exception when it comes to panel shows. To be fair, Australia has some pretty good contenders in Gruen, The Glass House and Spicks And Specks but considering they invented the format it’s hard to take on the Brits when they have the likes of QI, Would I Lie To You and the original Spicks And Specks in Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Up until recently I would have included 8 Out Of 10 Cats in the list of the best British panel shows until they mashed it right up with Countdown and made it even better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGsu7EOikNo

If you don’t know what Countdown is firstly forget Molly Meldrum, it’s not that Countdown and let me explain. Countdown is an incredibly boring show about maths puzzles and anagrams that for some reason is unbelievably popular afternoon television in Old Blighty. You may be more familiar with the embarrassingly, simply titled Australian version, Letters And Numbers. While the original is rather dull, throw in some comedians and a very dim male model and it has now become one of the most entertaining shows on television. Aside from the regulars, Jimmy Carr, Susie Dent, Rachel Riley, Sean Lock and Jon Richardson panellists have included Bill Bailey, Adam Hills, Sarah Millican, Trevor Noah and Jessica Hynes.

These shows are obscure for a reason, this isn’t available anywhere legally. If you are lucky you can find it on Youtube but we don’t condone or recommend breaking the law.

15 Storeys High

On Cats Does Countdown, Sean Lock’s mixture of surly, brash and absurdist humour plays a big role in the show’s hilarity. So it’s no surprise that his sitcom, 15 Storeys High isn’t amazing as well. 15 Storeys High is a twisted version of the Odd Couple that has a unique technique of telling the weird tales of other tenants in the their building as well as the story of the main characters. Sean Lock plays Vince Clark, while Benedict Wong takes on the role of Errol Spears, Vince’s new roommate and often whipping boy.

If you are not into absurdist humour, take a step back, 15 Storeys High is not for you. No matter hard how I try to explain why this show is funny, I probably never will come up with a reasonable answer. This show is unique in every sense of the word and above all else curious. You will never understand why you just laughed and you may not even understand what happened on screen but if you enjoy funny weirdness you will be glad you watched 15 Storeys High.

Series one and two are available on Region 2 DVD in a collection.

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