20 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time, Ranked

Sitcoms are a real TV staple. They make viewers snigger, whereas permitting them to get to know a solid of characters and a comfortable setting over the course of many episodes. They have a tendency to comply with a formulation the place every part goes to prove alright for the characters on the finish of every episode, and because of this, they’re the proper sort of TV present for these in search of the proper consolation watch.

Drama exhibits typically get extra consideration for his or her episodes, however there are a selection of really phenomenal sitcom episodes on the market. Generally, these episodes embrace the traditional sitcom format to actually ship the most effective of the most effective. Different instances, these episodes subvert the construction as a way to create one thing really revolutionary and one-of-a-kind. Excluding two-parters, these are the 20 finest sitcom episodes of all time, ranked.

20

“Dinner at Eight-ish”

‘Cheers’ Season 5, Episode 20

In Season 5 of Cheers, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) enters a relationship together with his fellow psychiatrist and preliminary rival, Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth). In “Dinner at Eight-ish,” the 2 announce that they’ve moved in collectively, they usually wish to host Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane (Shelley Lengthy) for dinner as a thank-you for pushing them in the direction of one another within the first place.

Awkward dinner events are a sitcom staple, and Cheers’ “Dinner at Eight-ish” undoubtedly had a serious affect on this. Frasier and Lilith get into a serious struggle proper earlier than the dinner, resulting in an particularly uncomfortable night for Sam and Diane. Issues solely worsen when Diane mentions her previous engagement to Frasier, not realizing that he by no means advised Lilith. By the top of the night, each Diane and Lilith have locked themselves within the lavatory out of anger in the direction of their boyfriends.

19

“Slap Guess”

‘How I Met Your Mom’ Season 2, Episode 9

Operating gags are top-of-the-line elements of sitcoms, and How I Met Your Mom’s slap wager is among the best working gags of all time. It began with the long-lasting Season 2 episode, “Slap Guess.” The occasions of the episode kick off when Robin (Cobie Smulders) expresses her extreme aversion to malls. Everybody turns into obsessive about the key purpose why, and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Marshall (Jason Segel) make a wager about what Robin’s secret might presumably be.

The wager is, after all, a slap wager: whoever wins will get to slap the opposite as laborious as they presumably can. By the top of the episode, it seems that neither one was proper, however Barney nonetheless slapped Marshall prematurely. To make up for this, Marshall now will get 5 slaps that he can dole out at any time, and this continues to repay all through the course of the collection. Robin’s secret is a good one, too: it seems that she was a teen pop sensation in Canada, the place she glided by the identify Robin Sparkles and carried out songs referred to as “Let’s Go to the Mall” and “Sandcastles within the Sand.”

18

“Karaoke”

‘Abbott Elementary’ Season 4, Episode 17

It is at all times numerous enjoyable when a office comedy takes its characters out of the office, and Abbott Elementary at all times does these kinds of episodes very properly. Its Season 4 episode, “Karaoke,” takes the Abbott Elementary College employees out for an evening in town after they get a coupon for their very own room at a karaoke bar. Whereas everyone seems to be off singing collectively, Ava (Janelle James) passes on karaoke to exit on her first date with O’Shon (Matthew Regulation).

“Karaoke” is such a enjoyable episode that takes the primary characters out of their common setting as a way to heighten each the comedy and emotional stakes. Gregory (Tyler James Williams) could be very late so as to make more cash as a rideshare driver, however he in the end exhibits as much as sing a duet with Janine (Quinta Brunson). Zach (Larry Owens) returns with a brand new boyfriend (Matteo Lane), which each pushes Jacob (Chris Perfetti) to lastly put himself on the market once more, and provides a sequel to one of many present’s finest jokes.

17

“Dinner Social gathering”

‘The Workplace’ Season 4, episode 9

Many sitcoms have accomplished the awkward feast, together with Cheers, Crashing, and, most not too long ago, Adults, however The Workplace’s model, titled “Dinner Social gathering,” may simply be essentially the most iconic. It is revealed early on within the episode that Michael (Steve Carell) has been attempting to get Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) to return over for dinner for fairly some time, however that they have been continually arising with excuses to get out of it. At the beginning of “Dinner Social gathering,” Michael lastly backs them right into a nook.

What follows is a deeply uncomfortable and wildly humorous feast hosted by Michael and Jan (Melora Hardin), and attended by two extra {couples}: Angela (Angela Kinsey) and Andy (Ed Helms), who had been additionally invited, and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) and his former babysitter (Beth Grant), who weren’t. Over the course of the night, the fractures in Michael and Jan’s relationship present, as Pam and Jim wrestle to make it by the dinner.

16

“Mom”

‘Veep’ Season 5, Episode 4

Veep Season 5 is a stand-out sitcom season, and a variety of its episodes might be thought of the collection’ finest. “Mom” is a very spectacular, hilarious, and surprisingly emotional episode that each develops season’s predominant election storyline and provides Selina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) a big family-centered storyline. When Selina’s mom (Shannon Welles) has a stroke and is said brain-dead, Selina has to make the choice to take her off life assist.

There isn’t any love misplaced between Selina and her mom, so she is much less targeted on this loss, though Catherine (Sarah Sutherland) takes it a lot more durable. Selina’s predominant focus is the election, and she or he’s overjoyed when public sympathy helps her approval ranking. The episode strikes a robust steadiness between darkly humorous and subtly emotional, all culminating within the scene the place Selina learns that she has misplaced each Nevada and the favored vote at her mom’s funeral. All of a sudden overcome with feeling, Selina bursts into tears in regards to the election, unable to get by her eulogy (though everybody in attendance believes that this can be a heartfelt show of grief).

15

“The Field”

‘Brooklyn 9-9’ Season 5, Episode 14

Brooklyn 9-9 boasts a variety of improbable episodes, together with its single Halloween heist installment per season. Nonetheless, its Season 5 bottle episode, “The Field,” is among the most compelling and creative sitcom episodes up to now. The episode’s premise is easy: Jake (Andy Samberg) and Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) interrogate their lead suspect, a dentist named Phillip Davidson (Sterling Ok. Brown), in regards to the suspicious dying of his enterprise accomplice, Robert Tupper.

The execution, nevertheless, is actually phenomenal. The three characters share the house very well, as Davidson is aware of all the correct strains to reply to the interrogation with, and the entire proper stress factors to infuriate each Jake and Holt. He will get on the root of the stress of their relationship: Jake is insecure that Holt is doubting him, and Holt is doubting him fairly a bit. Jake steps up in the long run by taking a web page out of Davidson’s guide and concentrating on his personal deadly flaw: his vainness. The confession scene is an all-time nice, and it is the proper pay-off for what’s already a stellar installment.

14

“A Darkish Quiet Loss of life”

‘Mythic Quest’ Season 1, Episode 5

Mythic Quest’s departure episodes are among the most spectacular contributions to sitcom style because it will get, and its first one, Season 1’s “A Darkish Quiet Loss of life,” is the present at its finest. The collection leaves its predominant characters for an episode to inform the story of two seemingly-random individuals 25 years earlier. Doc (Jake Johnson) and Beans (Cristin Milioti) meet in a online game retailer, constructing an intense connection that leads them to develop into a online game energy couple because the creators of A Darkish Quiet Loss of life.

“A Darkish Quiet Loss of life” appears like Mythic Quest’s personal little film, however it ties again to the primary storyline by its themes and site. Doc can not help however promote out, prioritizing fame and fortune over their inventive integrity. It is a tragic collection of choices that results in the downfall of his and Beans’ private {and professional} relationship, and to the destruction of their sport’s legacy. It is later revealed that their former workplace house is now the ground the place the Mythic Quest workers work, and the place Ian (Rob McElhenney) and Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao) may simply be susceptible to falling into the identical lure, 25 years later.

13

“Tuttle”

‘M*A*S*H’ Season 1, Episode 15

M*A*S*H has a variety of unimaginable episodes, together with its deeply emotional collection finale, “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.” As a single half-hour episode, although, Season 1’s “Tuttle” stands out as an extremely well-written and wildly humorous installment. Whereas delivering an unsanctioned donation to the native orphanage, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and Trapper (Wayne Rogers) inform a white lie that spirals uncontrolled in one of the best ways.

The 2 create the faux Captain Tuttle, a diligent officer and kind-hearted man who not solely donates provides to the orphanage, however has made certain that they may now get his wage as properly. All through the episode, the parable of Captain Tuttle solely builds, to the purpose the place everyone by some means has a fond opinion of him. When Captain Tuttle is awarded a medal for his work, Hawkeye fakes Tuttle’s dying in a darkly humorous second, and presents what he claims are Tuttle’s dogtags.

12

“Is not It Romantic?”

‘Golden Women’ Season 2, Episode 5

Golden Women had a definite reward for taking the most straightforward premises and turning them into a few of its funniest episodes. In Season 2’s “Is not It Romantic?”, Dorothy’s (Bea Arthur) school buddy, Jean (Lois Netteleton), comes to stick with her a short time after the dying of her longtime accomplice, Pat. Jean is a lesbian, which each Dorothy and Sophia (Estelle Getty) know. Jean and Dorothy determine to maintain this from Blanche (Rue McClanahan) and Rose (Betty White), although.

“Is not It Romantic?” was an extremely groundbreaking episode for 1986, through which Jean and her sexuality are each handled with respect, and through which Sophia tells Dorothy in a heartfelt second that she would settle for and embrace a toddler of hers in the event that they ever got here out as homosexual. It is usually only a wildly humorous episode that milks every of the character’s funniest traits, with nice moments like Blanche complaining that Jean has a crush on Rose and never her.

11

“The Marry Prankster”

‘Joyful Endings’ Season 3, Episode 12

The prank battle could be a very enjoyable sitcom trope, and to this present day, none have accomplished it higher than Joyful Endings’ “The Marry Prankster.” One of many advantages of getting such an intense, tight-knit, and co-dependent buddy group at its middle, was that Joyful Endings received to offer them a variety of weird rituals and traditions that felt very real to the group. At the beginning of “The Marry Prankster,” the buddies play a easy prank on Max (Adam Pally) to make him assume that he received a profitable lottery ticket, and he vows to actual his revenge.

In a mock-suspenseful episode, Max has everybody strolling on eggshells as he fastidiously plans a variety of particular and too-big pranks to get again at them. On the identical time, Pete (Nick Zano) is planning to suggest to Penny (Casey Wilson), however Penny believes that that, too, is only one of Max’s pranks. All of it builds as much as Max’s final prank, the place he fakes his dying by blowing up his personal limo and solely supply of earnings.