The 20 cleverest TV shows

Family Guy, like The Simpsons, has been on the air so long that it’s hard to imagine TV without it. Its best days may arguably be behind it, but it’s important to remember that when the show was at its height (mostly in the early 2000s), it was one of the funniest and cleverest shows on television. This was particularly true when it came to its cutaway gags, which often managed to have a crackling wittiness about them that couldn’t help but leave the audience in stitches.

By this point, it’s safe to say that The Simpsons is an American institution. While the show has varied in quality from season to season and from decade to decade, it has always had its finger on the pulse of American society, and it has even been known to predict the future (to an unsettling degree). During its best years, which were arguably in the 1990s, it was also one of the cleverest shows on TV, with a way of being timely without being desperate for relevance.

The premise of Hazbin Hotel is certainly unique, focusing as it does on Charlie Morningstar, the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith, who attempts to redeem the souls of Hell so they can have a second chance at getting into Heaven. It’s a show that moves through a number of different emotional registers, managing to be a musical, a comedy, and a heartfelt drama about redemption. It’s remarkably cleverly written, and the musical numbers are a highlight not just in their performance but also in the sly humor of their lyrics. 

From its first season onward, The White Lotus has reveled in the fact that it is very much a pitch-black comedy and satire of the ways and foibles of the wealthy and entitled. Its particular humor and sensibility might not be for everyone, but there’s no denying that it manages to tap into the zeitgeist in puncturing how a particular group of people descend on exotic locations and cause chaos wherever they go. When it comes to the eating the rich ethos, no one does it quite like The White Lotus.

Despite the fact that The Righteous Gemstones focuses on a family of televangelists, it revels in vulgarity. In fact, there are times when the shoe really does raise the delivery of an obscene putdown into its own art form. The rapidfire wordplay in The Righteous Gemstones can sometimes be a bit overwhelming, particularly when the Gemstone children get into one of their spats, but it’s also, for the most part, a well-written show, with storylines that make you care about these zany characters.  

Like many other shows created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, Étoile relies a great deal on rapid-fire dialogue and quirky characters. In this case, the series focuses on two ballet companies, one in New York and one in Paris, and their efforts to cater to temperamental artists and get audiences back into the theater. The writing is always on-point, and the show manages to be both quite funny and quite tender and poignant, showcasing the extent to which Sherman-Palladino’s TV wizardry remains unmatched and undimmed.

Comedies don’t come much blacker or more bitter than Succession. Though it is definitely a weighty drama about serious issues, it also has more than its fair share of acidic humor, which tends to erupt at unexpected moments. The dialogue in this series is pointed, and all of the characters — both the members of the Roy family and their associates — know how to use words to damage and wound others, even (especially) members of their own family. Like so much of the rest of the series, the humor is hilarious and deeply devastating.

Parks and Recreation is, in some ways, the epitome of a feel-good show. After all, its central character, Leslie Knope, is someone who truly believes in the power of government to make people’s lives better, even when they don’t deserve it (or seem to want it). Thanks to Michael Schur’s creative spirit, it combines this heartfelt ethos with some very clever writing, and it’s easy to see why phrases like “Treat yo self” and holidays like “Galentine’s Day” have become a key part of the cultural lexicon.

At first, it seemed as if Schitt’s Creek would just be another fish-out-of-water sitcom. As the series developed and grew, however, it quickly showed that it was truly something special. It managed to be both heartfelt and extremely funny at the same time. It featured some top-notch–and bizarre–performances from the likes of Catherine O’Hara, but it also showcased some brilliant writing from David Levy and his team. The jokes come hard and fast, but they’re expertly paired with the show’s big heart and love for its characters.

Now in its fourth season, the HBO Max series Hacks showed from the get-go that it was a well-crafted comedy that knew how to be hilarious and touching at the same time. It certainly helps that its two leads, Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, are so expertly matched. The insults are perfectly crafted to be devastating, and the series cleverly uses the fraught relationship between Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels to explore the role that women have played in comedy and the sacrifices they have to make to succeed. 

Few political satires have been as scathing or as effective as Veep.  During the course of its seven seasons, it roasted America’s political dysfunction, and it took no prisoners in its use of humor to point out the mendacity of far too many politicians. It was the type of show that was remarkably well-written, with jokes that managed to be both thought-provoking and funny at the same time. It was all anchored by an Emmy-winning performance from Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer. 

House was very much a TV show of its moment, with its curmudgeonly anti-hero, the titular doctor House, and his unorthodox and sometimes immoral approach to medicine. While its plots can sometimes be a bit circuitous, House remains reliably entertaining. Hugh Laurie is in his element in the role, and House revels in displaying his cleverness and in lording his intelligence over everyone else on his staff. However, some hubris can be forgiven when you’re as clever as he is.

Are You Being Served? is one of those series that could only have emerged from the UK during the 1970s. Set at the fictional department store of Grace Brothers, it focuses on the various members of the staff and their antics. The series has enjoyed a long afterlife thanks to being broadcast on PBS, but its longevity is also due to its clever writing and witty repartee. It also has a well-earned reputation for its liberal use of sexual innuendo. It manages to be as hilarious as it was when it came out in the 1970s.

Few shows are as cleverly written and performed as Frasier.  Both Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce are at the top of their game as brothers Frasier and Niles Crane, and their eternal fussiness and pretentiousness are as funny now as they were when the series was on the air. The show somehow managed to strike the right balance between sophisticated humor and mass appeal, largely by using Martin Crane to puncture his sons’ overwhelming sense of self-regard and superiority. 

When a show boasts talent like Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, it’s almost guaranteed to be clever and funny, and such was certainly the case with 30 Rock. Though some of the show’s jokes can be a bit dated — and sometimes downright cringeworthy — there’s still a whip-smart cleverness to the writing that makes it feel very relevant. Liz Lemon is also one of Fey’s most charming and endearing characters, and the fact that she still appears in memes speaks to her ever-present relevance.

Futurama has repeatedly come back from the dead, having jumped to several different networks over the course of its existence. One thing that has always stayed the same, however, is its strong writing. It’s the type of show that manages to be both of its time and timeless. It manages to be very topical in terms of its jokes, but the writing is strong enough, and the voice acting on-point enough, that it continues to feel relevant. It takes a pretty extraordinary show to survive so many resurrections, but Futurama shows it can go the distance.

Michael Schur is one of those people whose name is essentially synonymous with the sitcom. Schur, however, often uses the genre to explore bigger problems, and nowhere does he do this more skillfully than in The Good Place.  In addition to being very funny — thanks in large part to its excellent cast, which includes the effervescent Kristen Bell — it also grapples with bigger philosophical questions, including the nature of morality and what happens to people after they die. It makes one laugh, but it also makes one think.

There are many reasons to love Brooklyn Nine-Nine, not the least of which is that it’s an embarrassment of riches when it comes to its cast. There’s some astonishingly strong chemistry among its various members, both romantic and otherwise. It’s really the writing that allows this show to sing, however, and there is something enduringly fun about watching the various members of the precinct act goofy and trade zingers and jabs, all of which help us to fall in love with these goofy, adorably ridiculous people.

If one supernatural figure seems to have a stranglehold on pop culture, it would be the vampire. Even so, there’s something very refreshing about What We Do in the Shadows, which manages to be quirky, funny, clever, and poignant. During its six seasons, the audience got to know and love the group of Staten Island vampires and their devoted (if often frustrated) servant, Guillermo. It’s the kind of show that delights in its own oddness, and it breathes fresh life into the moribund figure of the vampire. 

Community was truly an embarrassment of riches. In addition to a very good writing team and a good showrunner (in Dan Harmon, who helmed the show for most of its run), it also had some terrific performances. Who could ever forget Joel McHale’s Jeff Winger, for example? Though its cleverness might have been a bit of a handicap — it was never a true ratings success — it’s also true that its particularly smart writing endeared it to its very devoted fan base, and it remains a cult show to this day.