When you take into consideration that I have seen hundreds of comedies, the number of Hollywood movies which have made me laugh is 37. Below is a list of the movies and how many times they made me laugh.
Predator (1), The Last Boy Scout (1), Eraser (1), True Lies (1), Yes Man (1), Bachelor Party (2), Total Recall (2), Anger Management (2), I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2), Revenge of the Nerds (3), Coming to America (3), The Naked Gun (3), Hudson Hawk (3), Judge Dredd (3), Scary Movie 3 (3), Blade Trinity (3), Bad Boys For Life (3), Lethal Weapon (4), Lethal Weapon 2 (3), Lethal Weapon 3 (4), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (5), Bad Boys II (6), Silver Streak (6), Rush Hour (6), Rush Hour 2 (6), Rush Hour 3 (6), Sex Drive (6), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (7), Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (7), Bad Boys (7), Dirty Grandpa (7), Pulp Fiction (8), Striking Distance (9), Commando (10), National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon (11), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (12) and Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (13).
As for live-action TV shows (except documentaries and reality shows), 76 of them have made me laugh (the figures are an indication of watching an entire series once):
Star Trek: Voyager (1), Breaking Bad (1), Blue Bloods (1), Veep (1), Ballers (1), Limitless (1), The Grinder (1), Miami Vice (2), The Equalizer (2), Martial Law (2), One Tree Hill (2), The Wire (2), Louie (2), Chicago Fire (2), The Blacklist (2), Black-ish (2), Blindspot (2), Stan Against Evil (2), Legends of Tomorrow (2), Dexter (3), Bored to Death (3), Hannibal (3), About a Boy (3), Atlanta (3), Young Sheldon (3), The A-Team (4), Curb Your Enthusiasm (4), Californication (4), Arrow (4), Barry (4), CHiPs (5), Lucifer (5), Sick of It (5), Schooled (5), House of Lies (6), Speechless (7), Lethal Weapon (7), The Big Bang Theory (10), Modern Family (10), Elementary (11), The Flash (11), The Inbetweeners (12), Vice Principals (13), MacGyver (14), Six Feet Under (17), The Mentalist (17), 30 Rock (19), Star Trek: The Next Generation (20), The Golden Girls (23), Will & Grace (23), Due South (24), Nash Bridges (24), Seinfeld (29), That `70s Show (31), Friends (34), The King of Queens (35), Parks and Recreation (35), Hawaii Five-0 (38), Two and a Half Men (41), Rules of Engagement (48), Everybody Loves Raymond (52), Entourage (63), The Middle (71), NCIS: Los Angeles (80), The Goldbergs (83), Silicon Valley (91), Scrubs (107), Eastbound & Down (110), Monk (185), Cheers (195), Psych (200), Magnum P.I. (262), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (266), NCIS (268), Frasier (278) and House (310).
For me, the funniest episode of…
The Middle is Orlando (21).
That `70s Show is Prank Day (23).
Frasier is Good Grief (27).
Monk is Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized (32).
Magnum P.I. is Paper War (34).
As for Will Smith’s sitcom, this is the breakdown of laughs…
Season 1: (52).
Season 2: (80).
Season 3: (43).
Season 4: (45).
Season 5: (6).
Season 6: (39).
The first two seasons of Cheers didn’t make me laugh. It became funny when Frasier joined. Likewise, Woody was funnier than Coach; while Rebecca was funnier than Diane.
Magnum P.I. deserves to be singled out, because that’s the show that people talk about when they hail Moonlighting for being the first TV series to have action, comedy, drama and romance being coalesced into a wide range of narratives. MacGyver, the most creative `80s series, was the Breaking Bad of its time. I can’t imagine the reboot making me laugh nowhere near as much, if at all. It’s such a shame that it was never remastered since the video transfer cheapens it despite the series having a bigger budget than Magnum P.I.
The reality TV show that has made me laugh the most is Impractical Jokers (663). Second to that is Hotel Hell (237 times).
Season 3, episode 3 of Hotel Hell is the funniest episode that I’ve seen in any TV series. It made me laugh 56 times. It’s about a hoarder. What makes it funnier than the other episodes is that…
1) There is little to no sentimentality.
2) It’s the first of a two-parter hence why there’s no feel-good ending (gushy emotions and mushy music).
As for animated shows, The Simpsons = 307, The Ricky Gervais Show = 226, South Park = 128, American Dad! = 102, Beavis and Butthead = 79, The Cleveland Show = 16, Rick and Morty = 14, Bob’s Burgers = 8, Family Guy = 5, Gary and His Demons = 3, Daria = 1 and Jeff & Some Aliens = 1.
For me, the funniest episode of The Simpsons is Homer: Bad Man (the one where he’s wrongly accused of sexual harassment). It made me laugh 22 times.
Gordon Stainforth (British editor) discussing the possibility of Stanley Kubrick liking The Simpsons in this most overlooked of quotes: “I can’t imagine Stanley not really relishing it, so close is it in many ways to his own very droll sense of humour.”
In the December 2013 issue of Metal Hammer, Dave Brockie (who performs as Oderus Urungus in GWAR) talked about his guest appearance on The Jerry Springer Show (1997): “It was great. It was all staged. The mom wasn’t the kid’s mom. He wasn’t even a GWAR fan. I didn’t know until after the show, while we all were partying, when the mom was hitting on me then told me – Oh no, they paid me to say I was his mom; I’m an actress. All those reality shows – and I’ve done enough to know – they are not reality.”
The Meryl Streep of eighties and nineties chat shows was Wally Ann Wharton, who didn’t get much film work because it would shatter the illusions that cynical TV producers fooled audiences with. Producers would be constantly molding her to fit the part that any given show needed for each topic. Re-runs (or YouTube uploads) of shows like Donahue and Geraldo will show you that Wally was more respected than any actress who worked in the adult industry – one of the reasons why you won’t see her act in mainstream movies and TV shows, but…hey, she found a niche while others had struggled to find their bearings.
Pop Cult Master 