Dying is easy; comedy is hard, so the saying goes. It’s also pretty subjective.

The New York Times catalogued what it considers to be the 21 best comedies of the 2000s yesterday, and it’s a great list. It’s not terribly controversial, though they did leave off mega-popular Veep, and you may or may not like the inclusion of HBO’s Girls, (though it is a show that was noteworthy for more than just the infamy of star Lena Dunham.) But in order to make room for that show there were several shows that didn’t make the cut that should have. Some very, very good shows, in fact.

Part of the problem is the sheer volume of televised content available to viewers now. Before streaming platforms added hundreds of new shows to their servers, we had only what the networks (and there were plenty of those) had to offer. Now there seems to be dozens of new offerings every week. When it takes an hour just to peruse the menu of even one streaming service, how do you know what to watch?

The NYT list has some genuine highlights, especially since it hit on some underrated gems like Party Down on Starz, which starred Adam Scott before he really hit it big in Parks and Recreation, and also because it showed affection for underdog comedies like Community and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; neither of which pulled in the huge viewership it deserved. But their critics’ list somehow managed to omit some pretty amazing shows, which this article will (we hope) not.

Fleabag – Amazon Prime, 2016-19
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s one-woman show became a limited run comedy/drama/romance that managed to be both gut-bustingly funny and heartbreakingly devastating. At the same time, even. The unnamed title character, played by Waller-Bridge, is a romantic f*ck-up, to put it mildly, but as her character breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the camera, she allows viewers to see why she is the way she is. Her character is nakedly open about everything from her strained relationships with her family to her inability to really love someone else. The arrival of Andrew Scott as the Hot Priest that starts Fleabag’s redemption arc, and it really is as romantic, sexy and emotional as everyone online is saying it is.

WandaVision – Disney Plus, 2021

Though it was ultimately much more than a TV comedy, WandaVision was a sitcom, and one that played with the conventions of the genre to boot. Before viewers knew why it was happening, they were immersed in the show’s unusual premise: two characters from the Marvel Avengers movies were suddenly dropped into a black and white situation comedy, complete with co-stars, laugh tracks, and wacky hijinks. Week by week the show morphed into an homage to classic comedies from TV history, like The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, and Malcolm in the Middle, all while concealing the underlying mystery of why it all was happening. Eventually the show switched out of sitcom parody mode, only to become something even more extraordinary. WandaVision was a show with layer after layer of intriguing story.

Rick and Morty – Netflix, 2013-

Community creator Dan Harmon got into animation with Rick and Morty, a show with less heart than Community but with a thousand times the audacity of his earlier work, which is saying a lot. Rick and Morty is not for the faint of heart. It’s grotesque, rude, mean and sometimes disgusting. But it is also clever, witty, funny, and it even stretches at times into the heartwarming, family togetherness stuff of normal sitcoms – though not so much that it ever feels treacly. Mad genius Rick and his doofy grandson Morty (both voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland) are a mismatched team traveling through time and space and wreaking all sorts of havoc in this sort-of buddy comedy. Expect the unexpected in Rick and Morty, but even then you’ll be unprepared for what happens next.

Catastrophe – Amazon Prime, 2015-2019

Comedians Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan made a comedy about marriage that was so real, raw and hilarious, you’d be forgiven for thinking they are a couple in real life. The comedy about an intercontinental one-night stand that turned into a marriage ran for four short seasons on Amazon Prime. Delaney and Horgan, who created and co-wrote Catastrophe, are brilliant together; you can see why their characters (also called Rob and Sharon) stay together, and it’s not just because she got pregnant on their one-night stand. This is a couple that while they do have problems, really belong together; their chemistry is palpable. The cast, including supporting players like Mark Bonnar and Ashley Jensen as friends Fran and Mark, are deft comedians and the writing sparkles with wit and romance, even as the comedy turns to domestic disasters like childcare and in-laws.

Scrubs – NBC, 2001-2010

Rewatching Scrubs while listening along to the excellent Fake Doctors, Real Friends podcast, it’s hard to understand why Scrubs didn’t make the NYT list. Created by Ted Lasso showrunner Bill Lawrence and based on real-life stories from his doctor best friend, Scrubs is the story of J.D.(Zach Braff) an intern at Sacred Heart Hospital. He’s surrounded by a cynical janitor, a belligerent head M.D., a sarcastic mentor, and his best friends, Turk, Carla, and Eliot, who all work with him at the hospital. Though this all may seem like a familiar formula, Scrubs eschews the traditional three-camera sitcom setup and adds a layer of absurdity that makes the whole thing seem fresh and radiant. Scrubs looks at major issues like healthcare costs, authority complex, race and sexism without making it seem preachy, and it delivers some heartfelt moments, which is unexpected in a sitcom but not surprising from a show set in the life-and-death world of medicine. Scrubs also has one of the best, if not the best, portrayals of a guy-on-guy best friendship on television. The show is a real winner…but maybe just forget the last season every happened.

Of course there are more shows out there that are worthy of mention: Ted Lasso, The IT Crowd, Psych, Review, and probably tons more we haven’t seen. No one can watch everything these days. If we missed anything, leave a note in the comments!