Comedy's a big interest of mine, so I spend a lot of time watching it. I also tend to write about it in the blog (blatant shill, sorry!). Anyway, my all-time top 10 would look a lot like this:
01. Seinfeld
The greatest sitcom ever, and my favourite TV show ever, by a mile. From season 4 til it finished, it was just untouchable. Great main, and peripheral, characters, a liberal dose of surrealism and great dialogue are just a hell of a combination. Then, Jerry himself aside, the cast was just a set of great actors.
02. Simpsons
It's been off the boil for the last few years, but at its best was a mix of satire, smart dialogue, slapstick and compelling storylines. Kinda like Seinfeld, then. Maybe the greatest level of re-watchability of any programme I've seen.
03. Curb Your Enthusiasm
The best of this current breed of hyperreal comedy. What really sets this apart is the insane storylining ability of Larry David. That he manages to make the episodes more structurally complex than Seinfeld, with only the one lead (as opposed to four) is just an insane achievement. Helped by a great set of improvising comedians.
04. Brasseye
All seven episodes are just perfect parodies of news/magazine shows, that work so well, they actually infiltrate my perception and expectations when I am watching actual news. That. and it's just got a hilariously bizarre sense of humour.
05. Frasier
A weird pick, in that it doesn't make me laugh out lud as much as other programmes on the list, but it's such an effectively-written old-school comedy that I can't deny it. Very sharp dialogue (witty, rather than funny), with under-rated examples of comic timing and slapstick. The brothers are a great team, and it had a massively good hit rate for a show with so many episodes.
06. I'm Alan Partridge
First series was obviously better than the second, but a fine show overall. First series was a masterclass in developing a very dislikeable character that was strangely sympathetic (big influence on Gervais). What made this special was the ridiculous situations Alan would find himself in and, of course, how he reacted to them. Can't beat a scene like the one with Chris Morris's farmer character.
07. Arrested Development
Ths might well be higher the next time I do a list, as I wanted to be sober about this one. Got into it this past summer, as I just hoovered up the first two seasons, and it is insanely good. On every level. Main characteristic is how fast paced it is - the jokes and scenarios never let up and, as soon as one gag has been made, they've already been setting up the next. Great, dumb, characters, dialogue that is often smart and stupid at the same time, and a grand narrative that both glues the mania together and provides laughs in itself. If only there were more seasons to come...
08. Father Ted
Arguably the ultimate in British Isles seedy, low-key comedy. Obviously not low key in terms of content (again, a nice wodge of surrealism), but it's got that 'a few blokes in a dump' aesthetic that we like from our comedy. One of those shows I can watch over and over again, with some moments that are just laugh til you cry levels of funny (like father Jack's wake).
09. Futurama
Thankfully, this programme has had a lot of love since it got cancelled, andI reckon there's just enough of it. Like Frasier, it's a programme that was big enough that it never realy sucked, and had that professional smooth writing to it. Like Simpsons, made a virtue of the fact it was animated, and it really made the most of its setting. Love it.
10. The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin
Probably what turned me onto surreal comedy as a kid, I prefer it to contemporaries like Fawlty, Rising Damp and Monty Python precisely because of the titular fall and rise, and also he path Perrin took the story. His rise in business was good enough, but then I got my mind blown when he started up that cult thing. I should really re-watch it sometime, because the episodes I do watch (even low key stuff like the trip to the safari) are gold.