funniest thing you've ever seen on television

in whatever era, whatever genre - including commercials, variety shows, game shows - whether scripted or impromptu or a mistake or a "home video" -- what is the funniest thing you've ever seen on television?

I waver between two or three sketches on the Carol Burnett Show to Ken Jennings' "what is a ho?" on "Jeopardy!" to various animal videos.

Yours?

Big snowstorm, weatherman is reporting about it outside on the shoulder of a roadway, and the snowplow comes by and buries him!

The weatherman predicted a big snow storm up north. The storm didn't dump very much. He throws it back to the anchor woman after his reports. The anchorwoman says, "So much for the 18 inches you promised me last night."

They had to cut to commercial from laughing so hard.

By saying what he did to Tucker, he was funny on several levels. Both the intellectual as well as the "dick 'n fart" humor.

Neither of which most will have seen.

Excel Saga is an anime series poking fun at anime. They truly take the genre and wrap it around itself.

Ebichu is another anime. But in this case the producers decided to see to what limits they could push the censors. Its about a hamster that belongs to a office girl who is watching her youth disappear. Its really kind of difficult to explain. They really do test the limits and it is freaking hilarious if twisted.

Specifically, her appearing in The Dress, with the curtain rod proudly on display. That was magnificent, but when harvey Korman as Rhett compliments her outfit, her reply is classic: "Thank you. I saw it in the window, and couldn't resist it."

My family and I howled.

Another is when Tim Conway, as a cousin of Eunice's husband Ed (?), goes off on an unscripted tangent about Siamese elephants joined at the trunk.... :rofl:

Some of the best on her show.

And then Carol turned to Vicki and said, "Go ahead it's your turn Mama" and Vicki replied (talking about Conway),

"Is that little asshole finished?"

funny funny!

and she was so underrated.Carol Burnett had some great classic comedy moments.

....make for good crackups! :rofl:

El Presidente for Life Mike, and his secret police henchman Vyvian.

"Yes, Neil, Scumbag College?"

"Um, can I go to the toilet, please?"

SCUMBAG! SCUMBAG!!!

I had TOTALLY forgotten this!

THANK YOU for reminding me and making me root out my old Young Ones tapes lying dusty and ignored (poor souls!) in the basement.

Have had a blast revisiting my youf!

WKRP In Cincinnati

"...they're hitting the ground like bags of wet cement!"

I don't mean to diss anybody's sensa humor, but there were funnier scenes on KRP. The one I always think of had nothing to do with the story line; it was just thrown in to fill a minute or something. Mr. Carlson was trying to open or close the blinds in his office, and one side would go up, then the other... well, you know what blinds do.

In the middle of all this, Andy comes in and stands there watching. Finally, Carlson gives up, and as he turns to face Andy the blinds crash to the floor. He gets this look on his face and says, "Well, whadda YOU want, dammit??"

Thought I was gonna die. :rofl:

slippers as the assistant Gameshow host on Mad TV.

(Michael Hitchcock--http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0386871/ )

Gosh can we all feel the shared experience?

Good one.

Let's see, also

Monty Python - The Fish Slapping Dance
Monty Python - Close Order Poofing Drill
Monty Python - "Cuidado, las Llamas"
SNL - Bass-o-Matic
SNL - Christopher Walken as the Continental
Simpsons - Mr. Sparkle

and 95% of the Daily Show

I nearly died laughing at that one too.....

Too damned funny. The post below it too.

My favorite SNL Walken moment is when he's being interviewed by the census taker (Tim Meadows). "That's not a passport, that's a novelty birthday card making you an honorary citizen of Florida"

:D

when the teacher makes Cartman take off the Hitler costume for a nice "normal" ghost outfit that makes him look like a member of the Klan. I knew right then what all the hub-bub of South Park was about.

I don't think the script idea parodies were over-the-top enough, though.

about Kyle's mom.

That is one of the funniest things I have ever seen! I almost pissed my pants, I was laughing so hard.

television has ever had to offer.

Several Lucy episodes as well ...the choclate assemblyline episode being my favorite

Everyone pulls out money to settle all their bets.


That was a classic sitcom episode.

A classic.

...being kicked out of office by her own back-stabbing bunch of weasels. There was a huge frisson of satisfaction in seeing the Uber-Bitch being pistol-whipped by her own toadies.

That and watching the "moist" Oliver North lying through his teeth at the Iran-Contra hearings.

and every time I see a film of the sketch, I still fall into hysterical laughter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nairobi_Trio

It's almost zen-like in its perfection.

It has two men staring at each other from opposite ends of a life raft in the middle of the ocean. The raft is bobbing, and they're both looking very dazed. Then we see a close-up of one man dropping a couple of Alka-Seltzer into a glass of water. He drinks it, then we see the full raft again, and there's only one man in the life raft. The voice-over says:

"Alka-Seltzer. For when you've eaten something you shouldn't have."

:rofl:

Tobias is auditioning for the Blue Man Group and he's covered in blue makeup and says to Michael Bluth:

"I blue myself."

Michael replies: "There has got to be a better way to say that."

The opening scene where Bart switches the hymn selection with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", or as it's read in the church - "In the Garden of Eden by I. Ron Butterfly". Then Homer asks Marge if she remembers when they used to make out "to this hymn"... And the priest catches on saying "Wait a minute. This sounds like rock and/or roll." Cracks me up every time I hear it!

"The Daily Show" pretty much goes without saying, though we have learned the hard way not to watch TiVoed episodes while eating dinner. Choking not fun...

As for unscripted moments, right now something on yesterday's CNN coverage of Hurricane Wilma stands out. There was a live report going on by one of the female reporters in Key West when some redneck walked right behind her holding a very large live ROOSTER! My husband and I lost it laughing at this WTF?!?! momment...

in which Lewis Black ripped Pat Buchannan's racist rantings in promotion of his then new best-seller, "The Death of the West." At one point, TDS showed a clip of Buchannan claiming that the only spot in America in which the "white race" was increasing in population was (his exact words) "in a place called Utah." There were some other clips of Pat spewing some insane shit, and then the camera focused on Lewis Black saying that he had the solution to some of Pat's fears. Then they cut to a graphic of Lewis Black amid a cartoon pastoral background, holding an infant while several caucasian toddlers crawled beneath his feet, standing next to a sign that read: "Lewis Black's White Baby Farm."

My roommates and I saved that image on our TiVo and left it there for nine months.

Brit sci-fi comedy--something about going back in time and by accident thwarting the Kennedy assassination, don't remember exactly what happened, only that I laughed hysterically and it just kind of kept building, went on and on, got more and more hysterical-- not just one or 2 laughs and that's it.

Been a while since I've seen it. Don't remember the other episodes being so funny-- you know like three days later you still laugh when you think about it, now that's a good measure of "funny."

had me stitches for the rest of the show and still crack me up to think about it.

SNL Celebrity Jeopardy, especailly ther ones with Sean Connery.
SNL Delicious Dish, especailly the Schweddy Balls one.
Ed Ames and the tomahawk on the Tonight Show. When I first saw it at 12 years old, i nearly peed my pants laughing.
Old School SNL Consumer probe bits.
Super Bass-O-Matic '76!
Tom Green doing Jaegermeister shots on an episode of Leno a few years back.
Conan O'Brian's Masturbating Bear.

I was laughing so hard I was gasping for air.

Unscripted: A local TV news show had extended coverage of a "blizzard" in our area, and they were running out of things to do. So they're interviewing this regular person, who was holding a tiny chihuahua. Every time the interviewer would hold the mike toward the interviewee, the chihuahua would go nuts, attacking the mic and the guy's hand. Hysterical. The interviewer kept trying to cut off the interview, but you could tell the staff back at the newsroom were talking in his ear and telling him to keep going, just for the comic value.

The turkey episode.

nothing even remotely as funny comes to mind.

The announcer is saying something to the effect ot "I'm sure =Trujo's home run is the last thing he's thinking of (referring to the pitcher)"

Suddenly - CRACK! - Home run, right field.

SNL...land shark - still gets me every time (had to explain what a 'candy gram' was to my kids though).

Dick vanDyke .. when he thought ritchie was swapped at birth with another baby (and the parents turn out to be black) hilarious and groundbreaking at the same time.

barney miller - when they all ate hash brownies - I think the first time anyone did that on tv.

monty python - the argument sketch (and the lumberjack, and twit of the year, and...)

thats enough.

The landshark was pretty funny too.

Let's not forget Rev. Jim taking his driver's exam on Taxi.


Almost any scene involving Bob Newhart w/ Larry, Darryl and Darryl.

Cross-dressing midgets.

Trust me. You don't know unless you've seen it. I think I nearly peed on myself I laughed so hard.

That was a hilarious clusterfuck. Also, Vampiro piledriving Que Monito in CMLL last year. You haven't seen it all until you see a midget in a monkey suit being spiked into the ground. The best part is at the end when Monito is carried off on a normal sized stretcher.:rofl:

On "Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour"

Pat stood at the top of an eight foot deep tank of water and announced very seriously that if there was absolute silence he could walk on water. After a good deal of setup and concentration Pat (wearing a suit) steps off and of course sinks to the bottom. Later in the show he came back and announced that he had heard someone giggling that had broken his concentration and he again set up the gag and actually made you believe he was going to pull it off---and again went to the bottom.

Okay, maybe it doesn't sound that funny, especially if you don't remember Pat. You really had to see it.

Latka Gravas was pure brilliance.

One contestant can't speak English and his interpreter/wife freezes like a deer in headlights when she's on camera. We never find out what his answers were.


I I snorted the apple cider I was drinking through my nose the first time I saw this.

;)

We used to watch it on CBC here in Detroit when it first aired.It blew every other comedy show at that time out of the water.

"Give me a minute Bundy, I thought I was here to save a human soul," Takes a drink from flask.

Larry crying "titmouse" when he saw a mouse & Cheryls response, in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Also from Curb, the 'Beloved Aunt' reveal in season one & the sympathetic tourettes at the end of season 3.

and in Arrested Development when Lindsay did her version of the Chicken Dance in Michael's office ... then Gob overhead & joined in.

But my all time favorite was the David Icke interview on the Terry Wogan show when Icke suddenly annuounced he was the son of God.

Oregon Dept of Transportation's version of dead whale removal.

http://www.perp.com/whale/video.nc.html

Private Enterprise"

2. David Letterman Top Ten list 09/19/89



3. SCTV, John Candy as a Finnian the leprechaun selling meat in a Rainbow Luncheon Meats tv commercial.

4. The first time "Super Happy Fun Ball" was run on SNL

5. Many "Deep Thoughts"

Jay

From Monty Python - the Fish Slapping Dance; Conrad Poohs and His Dancing Teeth; the Dead Parrot skit

The WKRP episode with the turkeys - probably the funniest thing in s US sitcom ever. "They're bombing the mall with LIVE TURKEYS!!"

Ed Ames throwing the tomahawk on Johnny Carson eons ago (often replayed)

Loved it, loved it, loved it!:rofl:

right after the case where the owner SWORE the dog would never bite anyone and won.

The dog actually bit through Doug's pants and the injury was followed up on a later show.

was hillarious

I can't describe it. Anyone who's seen it will know what I'm talking about.

singing Freelove Freeway on The Office.Actually almost every second of every episode of The Office.

of Frasier, when Roz wins a trip to a ski lodge with free skiing lessons with a French instructor (played by James Patrick Stuart), but can't go, so she gives the package to Frasier. He and and Niles, Martin , Daphne and her friend Annie, all go to the lodge. Guy the instructor has a crush on Niles, Niles has a crush on Daphne, Daphne has a crush on Guy, Annie has a crush on Niles and Frasier has a crush on Annie. Martin has an ear infection and can't hear that well.
A. Total. Laugh. Riot. I couldn't believe something that funny would be on American telly.

But I've seen loads of stuff. I remember laughing my ass off at Carol Burnett, Johnny Carson, Letterman (having the Aussie shepherd steer a small flock of sheep through Radio City Music Hall, into the lobby, out the front of the building and into a waiting cab was beyond hilarious, a couple things on his morning show left me in stitches), John Stewart (his other show was very hilarious), Seinfeld-I mean it's hard to draw a line and stop making a list here now...

he was "reporting" from the huge fire in Colorado and lit up a cigarette off the flame. I nearly died.

:rofl: