20 ridiculously great Brit-coms

This classic situation farce, created by Monty Python's John Cleese and his then-wife Connie Booth, is considered to be the greatest sitcom in British history. Even if you've only seen one episode, you know why it's ranked so high. 

Fawlty Towers is the name of the most dysfunctional hotel in the whole of Great Britain where Basil Fawlty, played by Cleese, tests the limits of his blood pressure by messing with guests he finds are beneath him and sucking up to the hoi polloi in order to "bring in a better class of clientele." It's one of those "everything that can go wrong will" situations where Basil gets berated by his wife Cybil, played by Prunella Scales, for mucking up the most basic laws of human decency. The funniest episode by far is "Basil the Rat," in which the hotel Spanish waiter Manuel, played to perfection by Andrew Sachs, mistakes a rat for a "Siberian hamster" that he's named Basil and accidentally it set loose in the hotel on the same day a public health inspector threatens to close them down. It's a shame this show only lasted 12 episodes because even the least funny episode elicits screams of laughter. 

If you were a British punk in the '80s or just a kid who got it, you never missed an episode of The Young Ones. 

Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson's destructive sense of humor gets turned up to 11 in this cult series about a group of college flatmates who get up to cartoonishly high levels of mayhem. The show had its finger on the zeitgeist of the times when a youthful rebellion was rising against a ruling class that seemed hellbent on pushing its conservative ideology into everyday life using loud and defiant music and jokes that never met the people it mocked on its level. It was the kind of show the young ones watched with delight because they knew their parents wouldn't get it. The Young Ones launched an alternative comedy movement across the country and even among American audiences who watched the repeats on MTV and Comedy Central in the '90s. 

The long-running Sanford & Son, starring Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson, wouldn't have had a chance to become an American classic without this British sitcom. 

Father-and-son junkmen, portrayed by Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell, played with the conflicting generational gap through its title characters. The dad, Albert Steptoe, and his son Harold, seem to go out of their way to find reasons to fight in almost every episode as Harry tries to think of ways to get rich quickly until the senior Steptoe finds a way to dash those hopes and come out on top. Despite all the bitterness between them, the joy is how they find ways to accept each other and their shortcomings and all the things that drive the other mad. 

Bernard Black, played by Dylan Moran, is a cynical, angry, bitter drunk who runs a bookshop and wonders why customers keep coming to him to buy books. You can probably see where the comedy comes from already, but that's only part of what makes this show brilliant. 

Bernard is only able to get through his mess of a life with the help of Manny, played by Bill Bailey, who is more level-headed, optimistic, and willing to please customers. Fran Katzenjammer, played by Tamsin Greig, usually mediates between the two as they down bottles of wine over lunch and ruminate. The comedy comes from the opposing forces of Bernard and Manny, who only have each other to prop up their lives, even if Bernard abuses Manny in cartoonish and hilarious ways. Black Books isn't afraid to go for cartoonish violence like The Young Ones did, but it finds its voice and style in some genius and truly funny ways. 

These days, sci-fi and comedy are as ubiquitous together as products that combine peanut butter and chocolate. We've got Futurama, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Upload, The Boys, The Orville and more. However, none of them would exist without Red Dwarf. 

The British sci-fi sitcom took a Star Trek approach to comedy storytelling by building a universe and filling it with lore of colorful characters and worlds to explore. The series takes place on a spaceship stranded in the far reaches of the universe. Through a series of unfortunate events, the spacecraft is only occupied by a low-ranking crew member named Dave Lister, played by Craig Charles, and the evolved offspring of a cat he smuggled on board, played by Danny John-Jules. Dave has only one objective: to find a way back home. Along the way, he's joined by an android named Kryten played by David Ross in season 2 and Robert Llewellyn in season 3 and the rest. He's also joined by the insufferable hologram of his roommate Arnold, played by Chris Barrie. The show has fans on the same level as Trekkies, except it's a comedy, and it's brilliant (Star Trek is also brilliant. Don't get your tribbles all twisted in a bunch). 

This workplace sitcom added an extra "B" word to the BBC: bawdy. This '70s and '80s adaptation of an Australian sitcom took place at a department store filled with more innuendos and double entendres than a middle school playground. There's also some comedy produced from the natural friction of a busy department store, but nine times out of 10, the punchline usually involved some stuffy English person unknowingly referring to a naughty body part or activity in their conversation. 

If you fancy yourself more of an intellectual comedy fan who appreciates the art form for more than just a simple innuendo joke, perhaps you'll enjoy this classic bit of British satire. 

Yes, Minister and its sequel show Yes, Prime Minister follows the day-to-day life of the Right Honorable politician Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington. It's one of the first times that British television turned the political process on its head as fodder for a comedy because it doesn't play sides even during a time of great political turmoil. The show intelligently plays with the mess of politics and points out how the idiocy of the status quo is maintained, but it's also not afraid to turn to farce and slapstick for comedy or to get its point across. 

One of British comedy's most enduring characters is this chat show legend created by Steve Coogan. 

Alan Partridge is a famed, fictional broadcaster who seems to lack any sense of timing, politeness, or self-awareness. He first appeared on the satirical news broadcast The Day Today as the sports correspondent before spinning off on his own self-styled talk show, which was one of the first TV figureheads who could make awkward hilarious. The character and its TV incarnations are so popular that it led to a feature-length movie about Partridge's life after television and a one-man show that sold out arenas across the continent. 

If there's one thing that ties humanity together across all cultures and geographies, it's how much being a teenager sucks. Your body is doing all sorts of unusual things to your emotions and urges. You always feel like an outcast and a freak. Few shows capture the abysmal absurdity of this right of passage between than The Inbetweeners.  

The show focuses on four friends going through the most awkward years of their lives at the fictional Rutledge Park Comprehensive School featuring some of the smartest character writing in British comedy history. The surprising part is the direction each episode takes the four boys in every week. Yes, there's some of the expected gross-out humor that goes with the genre, but it's done very cleverly in ways that are hard to see coming. 

This staple of '80s British television is one of the first to incorporate the absurdity of a Monty Python sketch into a satirical sitcom that takes aim at religion, faith, and the church. 

The show takes place in the Irish town of Craggy Island, in which three Catholic priests, Dermot Morgan, Ardal O'Hanlon, and Frank Kelly, attempt to do the church's work in the most absurd hamlet on the continent. Morgan's Father Ted is the level-headed one of the three. Father Dougal, played by O'Hanlon, is foolish and naive and often the catalyst for the group's plots and problems. Father Jack, played by Kelly, is an old, drunk codger who tells inanimate objects to "Feck off" at the drop of a hat. It's a brilliant, low-brow collection of absurd stories that paved the way for religious satire on television. 

Two of the most famous comedy characters in the world during the '90s were this dynamic drunk duo. 

TV comedians Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders created the drunk mum Edina Monsoon and her no-nonsense, level-headed daughter Saffron for their sketch series before it spun off into its own show with Saunders and Julia Sawalha as the daughter. In each episode, Edina and her best fashion friend Patsy, played to perfection by Joanna Lumley, would get up to something hilariously self-destructive thanks to loads of alcohol and drugs. It's heavy on slapstick, but its true brilliance is how it exploits the relationships of its truly original and endearing characters. 

One of the great aspects of British comedy is the freedom that shows have to play with the medium and even outright parody it. One of the greatest TV parodies takes on the tiring genre of the '80s horror miniseries.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is one of those shows-within-a-show concepts in which the fictional horror author, played and co-created by Matthew Holness with co-star Richard Ayoade, puts his ego and self-aggrandizing vision ahead of every aspect of the production. The show is a look back at a lost series that should've stayed lost, and it's genius. Marenghi is like a literary Ron Burgundy who casts himself in his story and thinks every decision he makes is the work of a literary giant, even if the results are hilariously awful. 

The legendary British comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb created one of the nation's longest-running TV comedies. Since most comedies only last two or three seasons, that's saying something. Their accomplishments are just limited to the number of episodes when it comes to this inventive, awkward life comedy. 

Peep Show examines the lives of two Odd Couple-esque flatmates who also happen to be really horrible people. Every shot of the series is from the point of view of one of the scene's characters, so you get a good idea of these two opposing lives and the people surrounding them. The storylines are filled with some of the funniest and least likable characters of all time who constantly find themselves making their lives more awkward than they need to be. It's one of the most addictive shows you'll ever watch. 

Speaking of awkward comedy that's actually funny, we would be remiss if we didn't mention the original Office created by and starring Ricky Gervais.  

The pioneering British sitcom that launched the cult US remake is a documentary-style look at the very boring and tedious life of a paper company. The boss, David Brent, played by Gervais, sees himself as a leader who is worried more about being liked than completing real tasks. He's the boss everyone fears having or at least makes you appreciate the one you have. The subplots involving budding romances and co-worker rivalries create some of the best TV comedy on British and American airwaves. 

The folks behind the Blood and Ice Cream film trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End) got their start on this relationship comedy about two friends who pretend to be a couple to score a sweet apartment. That concept may sound ordinary but it's style and subjects mined territory that TV had yet to tread in its time. 

Spaced  stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes as two pop culture-obsessed slacker friends struggling to make their dreams a viable reality. The style implemented by director Edgar Wright adopts the hyperactive movements of a Sam Raimi movie in a situation comedy that works amazingly well. The comedy is really imaginative as the main characters put themselves in their favorite film, TV, and video game references throughout each episode. If you care about any kind of modern geek comedy, you have Spaced to thank for getting the ball rolling on the genre. 

This Emmy-winning comedy based on the one-woman show written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge is unlike anything we've ever seen on television. 

The life of the show's unnamed anti-hero sprawls across the screen like a dirty picnic blanket. She's conniving, lowdown, judgmental, scheming, and plain angry. She's not above stealing from her own family to get by and seems to make every wrong decision, from her failing business to her hideous love life of meaningless sex and one-night stands that do more harm than good. The POV is totally keyed in on the titular Fleabag's mind as her thoughts and the action dart back and forth with the speed of a hummingbird, creating some hilarious, rapid-fire comedy thanks to the show's top-notch writing. 

Long before British comedian Greg Davies became one of the biggest names in UK comedy or even his TV role as Taskmaster, he was a school teacher trying to navigate the chopping waters of a frustrating career.

Man Down is a retelling of sorts of those early years, only Davies plays a 40-year-old single guy going through the mother of all mid-life crises. His girlfriend has dumped him, and he can't let go that it's over. So, instead of moving on, he spends an entire first season trying to win her back in some truly cringe-inducing but hilarious ways. It also has plenty of great slapstick and embarrassing moments, like a grown-up Young Ones. So it's probably no surprise that Davies' father was played by Rik Mayall, who showed audiences that he still had enough wild energy to be totally insane with his performances. 

The Young Ones stars Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson became comedy rock stars again in the 90s with this violent, rude, and absolutely glorious take on a buddy comedy show. 

Bottom follows in the traditions of Laurel and Hardy or The Three Stooges and not just because all of those derive a lot of laughs from slaps, falls, and possible scarring. Rik and Ade play two friends, Richie and Eddie, who are living at the absolute bottom of life's social and financial ladder. They spend an inordinate amount of time fighting each other by cartoonish means, and every episode usually ends with one or both of them in a body cast, but they accept each other even when the rest of society rejects them. Bottom only made a handful of episodes, but its popularity and resonance pushed them to produce a string of live specials, continuing Richie and Eddie's efforts to live their rude, worthless lives to the delight of millions. 

Chances are you've either heard of this brilliant sitcom that took on nerd culture way before The Big Bang Theory or the awful attempt to United States-ize a pilot for American audiences. Either way, the original run is still just as funny as its first airing. 

The IT Crowd follows the tech department of a huge corporation that's literally just two guys, Roy, played by Chris O'Dowd, and Maurice, played by Richard Ayoade, whose entire jobs consist of telling easily confused employees to reboot their computers to get them to work. The show's universe has a Simpsons attitude towards the corporate machine as something that barely functions on its own. The duo gets to expand their world when Jen, played by Katherine Parkinson, is assigned to their basement office, which helps them navigate a social world that's foreign to them. The fun is watching how these cultures clash in so many ways. 

Rowan Atkinson may be most recognized worldwide as the legendary comedy character Mr. Bean, but he truly shines in this clever series that toys with the absurdity of British history. 

Atkinson plays Edmund Blackadder, a sarcastic everyman whose lineage runs through Great Britain's lineage from the Dark Ages to World War I. The first season, The Black Adder, is an anomaly to the three who followed in that Edmund is a dimwit and doesn't really feel like a strong comedy. The whole series jump started with Black Adder II when Edmund is transformed into a British nobleman in the Tudor era who is much smarter and wittier than his ancestor who has the ear of Queen Elizabeth I played by Miranda Richardson. Black Adder the Third puts Edmund in the role of a butler for a spoiled British prince played by Hugh Laurie. Black Adder Goes Forth puts Edmund in the trenches of the First World War under the authority of a doddering old general played by Stephen Fry. Each season (except for the first one) is full of sharp, hilarious writing and a universe of great characters like Edmund's dimwitted but devoted assistant, Baldrick, played by Tony Robinson.