The highlights and lowlights from the world of comedy in the 2010s

Kristen Wiig became a movie star with “Bridesmaids,” a movie she co-wrote with Anne Mumolo about weddings, female friendship and loneliness. Oh, and about gastrointestinal distress from eating Brazilian food. The movie also started the partnership of director Paul Feig and comedy supernova Melissa McCarthy, who got an Oscar nomination for this movie and went on to make “The Heat” and “Spy” alongside Feig.

In September on 2009, Marc Maron started interviewing people in his garage and changed the world of podcasting forever. We got to know comedians’ origin stories and answered the eternal question “Who are your guys?” Tons of WTF imitators sprung up, but there’s still no substitute for the acerbic and relentless questioning of Maron, coupled with an earnest desire to make amends and stop yelling at people so much! There’s also a fictionalized version of Maron and his podcast in the four-season IFC series “Maron.”

After years of whispers about it, Louis C.K. finally got exposed for his years of sexual misconduct in 2017, though Defamer was reporting about it two years earlier. It wasn’t just his bad sexual behavior, but that his manager, Dave Becky, actively worked to silence accusers and destroy their comedy careers. Louis lost his deals with HBO and FX, but he was back on stage 10 months later, while his accusers got death threats.

"Veep" put together two of the greatest comedic talents of our generation, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Armando Ianucci, to create a hilarious and profane political satire that a former Obama staffer called the most authentic TV show about Washington. The all-star cast, including Tony Hale, Matt Walsh, Anna Chlumsky, Gary Cole, and breakout star Sam Richardson, among others, kept the show afloat even after Iannucci’s departure, and the show ended with a gut-punch of a finale. 

Detroiters never found the audience it deserved, but it remains an unappreciated, bizarre and heartwarming gem of a show. The premise is simple: Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson run an ad agency in Detroit, and they make terrible local commercials. The commercials establish the skewed vibe that defines the rest of the show, from bars that serve hot beers to Sam accidentally becoming a male escort. Some of that sensibility extended to Robinson’s Netflix sketch series, “I Think You Should Leave” and his “Characters” special.

Forget Alec Baldwin. The best, most devastating impression of our current president comes from Anthony Atamanuik, who's nailed Trump's speech patterns, mannerisms, and even his particular way of standing. Atamanuik played Trump in a series of mock debates during the presidential campaign (opposite James Adomian's equally uncanny  Bernie Sanders) never dreaming Trump would actually win. Once he did, Atamanuik created and starred in "The President Show," a mock late talk show hosted by Trump and his sidekick, Mike Pence.  

The ubiquity of social media this decade meant that angry people had a platform to weaponize each and every one of their grievances. We saw this with the all-female reboot of “Ghostbusters,” which led to unprecedented harassment of star Leslie Jones in particular, all because apparently the masculinity of the original Ghostbusters was all that kept thousands of childhoods from being ruined. 

Lena Dunham announced herself as a talent with “Tiny Furniture,” a film she wrote, directed and starred in at the age of 23. She followed that up with the groundbreaking HBO series “Girls,” which she created, wrote, starred in and occasionally directed, becoming the first woman to win a Director’s Guild Award for a comedy series.

When she wasn’t behind or in front of the camera for girls, it was a decade of missteps, awkward statements and apologies from Dunham. When a “Girls” writer was accused of rape, Dunham accused the victim of filing a false police report. Dunham complained that Odell Beckham Junior didn’t hit on her at the Met Gala, called herself a “sexual predator” in her memoir, and her pets keep dying!

Will Forte’s show about the aftermath of an apocalyptic plague quickly abandons the premise of its title but is still unlike anything else on television. It’s dumb enough to spend weeks with Forte sporting hair shaved completely on just one side of his body, ambitious enough to stage a simultaneous outer space rescue with amateur appendix surgery, and no sitcom has ever had more harmonica accompaniment. With climate change already starting to decimate the planet, “Last Man On Earth” was the perfect nihilistic-yet-hopeful sitcom of our time.

Who would have guessed that one of the most educational shows on television comes from comedians and celebrities getting drunk and fumbling their way through a historical story, re-enacted by actors who preserve all the pauses, malaprops, and burps of their intoxicated narrators. “Drunk History” premiered on Comedy Central in 2013 after its initial premiere on Funny Or Die, and it’s already done six seasons and spawned spinoffs in Brazil, Hungary and Latin America — “Drunk History: El lado borroso de la historia.”

This decade was full of movies recycling old intellectual properties — comic books, old TV shows, even iPhone games — but nothing was as cynical as the Emoji Movie, a feature film based on...text messages. It wasn’t good.

After over 30 years of intentional fake news and after ceasing publication of the print edition, the well hasn’t run dry over at the Onion. In fact, in 2014, it launched a quiz-heavy Buzzfeed parody site, “Clickhole,” which deconstructed site like Upworthy the same way the Onion treated newspaper and brought us classics like “Which Of My Garbage Sons Are You?” which introduced the world to the dreaded Laramie.

Out of New Zealand came “What We Do In The Shadows,” a mockumentary about the secret lives of modern vampires, their struggles with familiars, undead dating and their up-and-down rivalry with werewolves (not Swear Wolves). Director Taika Waititi went on to make the funniest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Thor: Ragnorak,” and a version of “Shadows” is now a sitcom on FX.

At just 41 years old, Patrice O’Neal died of a stroke, after complications from type 2 diabetes. O’Neal was a confrontational, abrasive and hilarious comedian who made a habit of leaving jobs that seemed like great opportunities — supporting roles on “The Office” and “Arrested Development,” writing for the WWE — he considered himself a “professional bridge-burner.” He left behind one of the best comedy specials of the decade with “The Elephant In The Room.”

Constance Wu came to prominence with her killer role on "Fresh Off The Boat" (though she seems ready to leave), but she became a movie star with her leading role in the mega-hit "Crazy Rich Asians," and then followed that up by starring in another huge hit, "Hustlers." She got a Golden Globe nomination, made Time 100 list of the world's most influential people, and she's got two "Crazy Rich" sequels coming up.

Danny McBride premiered “Eastbound and Down” in 2009, wrapping up just before Thanksgiving in 2013. It told the story of disgraced former Braves closer Kenny Powers, humbly returning to his hometown to work as a physical education teacher and rebuild his career. Kenny’s arrogant, racist, bullying, and thoroughly self-deluded, but still somehow likable, like when he can’t stop yelling during an apology. McBride also brings a lot of Kenny Powers energy to his roles in "Vice Principals" and "The Righteous Gemstones."

For all the sins of "Sex and the City 2": creative bankruptcy, racist depiction of the Middle East and the materialistic focus on luxury and expensive shoes, two years after the financial crisis threw America into recession, the worst part is it’s running time: 146 minutes. That would be long for an Oscar bait drama, but it’s a comedy, and the only awards it was winning were Golden Raspberries, where it won Worst Actress, Worst Screen Ensemble and Worst Actress. Cynthia Nixon could be the governor of New York right now if not for the bad feelings engendered by this film.

Though it’s about a wealthy Murdoch-like family jostling and backstabbing for power, every episode of “Succession” is also laden with comedy. There’s the unprintable insults (see the title of the show’s second episode), Connor’s ill-advised presidential campaign based on tax repeal and ending onanism, and Cousin Greg weakly protesting, "I feel like I might not like it in the death pit." Yes, the show is highly dramatic, but it also has a son performing a wildly embarrassing rap called "L to the OG" for his tyrannical father.

Bill Hader created and starred in the story a hit man who decides to become an actor, but he can't leave behind his past — and his ties to the Chechen mob. Hader is great, and Henry Winkler won an Emmy playing Barry's acting coach, but the breakout star is Anthony Carrigan as NoHo Hank, the mobster who wants to be a ruthless killer but also wants to be a bro.

"Billy On The Street" is fundamentally about Billy Eichner accosting people on the streets of New York and yelling at them about pop culture. Yes, there are games — “For A Dollar,” when he asks people to name something simple for a dollar, or quizzes like, “Weekend At Bernie’s Or Django Unchained?” and segments that aren’t really games at all like, “It’s Not Pitbull, It’s Amy Poehler.” But the meat of the show is Bill running down the street in frustration, yelling about how someone doesn't know trivial facts about Anne Hathaway. 

Seth MacFarlane is a busy guy, so maybe the sitcom "Dads," starring Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi, isn't getting his full attention. Critics hated the show, as it got a staggering zero percent from Rotten Tomatoes. Fox aired 19 episodes of lazy racist comedy before they finally pulled the plug.

"Bob’s Burgers" is an animated show with a deceptively simple premise: Bob runs a burger stand with his family. But the world of the show expands to a Simpsons-like degree, incorporating a whole town full of bizarre characters. There’s fantastic voice talent and fantastic music, with a wealth of musical numbers and songs over the credits that can be remarkably and frustratingly catchy.

“Schitt’s Creek” begins as a fish-out-of-water story about ruined rich people moving to a poor, backwater town but gradually gains sweetness and well-earned emotional depth. The show was created by Eugene Levy and his son, Dan, but the breakout character is Moira Rose, as played by North American treasure Catherine O’Hara, whose every line reading and wig are must-see television. Well, should-see television: It’s a Canadian show, and they’d never be that pushy.

At the start of the decade, there was a plethora of sites making great original comedy videos, like College Humor and Funny Or Die, but thanks to Facebook, there’s no longer any money in it. It’s not just that videos on Facebook generate ad revenue only for Facebook, but Facebook shakes down content creators for bribes to make sure their posts even show up in fans’ news feeds. Its algorithms change constantly, it falsified its video metrics for years, and cyborg CEO Mark Zuckerberg has one of history’s worst haircuts. Facebook is not only ruining presidential elections, but it's also ruining comedy creators’ ability to make a living online.

There’s dark comedy, and then there’s Maria Bamford talking about suicidal depression, a stay in a mental hospital and the stigma of mental illness and turning it into comedic gold in "The Special Special Special!" Oh, she’s also performing it in a living room to an audience of two – her mother and father. The Bammer also had a great, gone-too-soon Netflix show this decade, "Lady Dynamite."

"Magic Mike" isn’t just a thrilling collection of beefcake dance routines to Ginuwine anthems but also a very funny movie that inspired a sequel and a stage show. It also flips the script on the usual objectification of women in broad comedies by giving audiences scantily clad men. The movie, loosely based on Channing Tatum’s experiences as a young stripper, proved Tatum’s comedic bona fides, along with his performance in “21 Jump Street” that same year. And it sparked Matthew McConaughey's renaissance as a legitimate actor, ironically by taking his clothes off.

The comedy world lost one of its brightest lights when Robin Williams took his own life in 2014. Williams, one of the funniest and most creative comedians of his era, was suffering from diffuse Lewy body dementia, which led to anxiety, memory loss, paranoia and delusions. The world lost a great comedian but also a truly kindhearted and generous man.

At the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011, Barack Obama took aim at Donald Trump, who’d been publicly mulling a presidential run while claiming Obama’s birth certificate was false. Obama turned his attention to Trump, talking about how Trump’s experience would prepare him for the presidency: “For example, in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice, at the steak house, the men’s cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. There was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately you didn’t blame Little John or Meatloaf. You fired Gary Busey. And these are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night.” And after that public embarrassment, we never heard from Trump politically again. Oh wait.

Hannah Gadsby’s hit standup special deconstructs standup comedy and jokes themselves — in fact, she claims she’s giving up standup as a result. It’s about how the experience of being a marginalized member of society — in her case, due to her sexuality and non-conforming gender — makes the inherent self-deprecating nature of doing standup a painful experience. Of course, there’s also lots of jokes and the huge reaction to the piece made Gadsby reconsider her retirement. Gadsby’s also the best part of the Australian sitcom “Please Like Me,” in which she plays...Hannah.

The reboots of “Roseanne” and “Will and Grace” both had huge premieres but quick ratings declines afterward, especially when the Roseanne-free Roseanne continued as “The Conners.” “Fuller House” and “Murphy Brown” weren’t so successful and signified that Hollywood was either out of ideas or totally disinterested in new ones. and it wasn't limited to television. The cinematic version of "CHiPS" was a bizarre mix of lowbrow comedy and gratuitous bike stunts that failed to appeal to fans of the old show, or really anyone.

"Laugh At My Pain" is the filmed document of the tour that launched Kevin Hart into the superstar echelon of standups, but it's also a personal and revealing offering from Hart, as he talks about things like his mom's funeral and his uncle threatening the cancer that killed her. Since then Hart has been a definite movie star, in part because this was a rare comedy special that made it into movie theaters.

The Lonely Island’s “Pop Star” is a fake musical documentary, in the proud tradition of “This Is SPinal Tap” and “Walk Hard,” but it feels almost like a Zucker Brothers movie because of the sheer number of jokes and gags happening in the movie: Chris Redd plays a rapper/prankster named Hunter the Hungry, wild wolves attack Seal and Connor4Real sings a song about equal rights where he can’t help himself from constantly insisting he’s not gay.

Bill Cosby went to prison for his decades of sexual assault in 2018, thanks in part to a viral standup clip from Hannibal Burress talking about Cosby’s rape charges on stage. Yes, justice for her countless victims depended on a video going sufficiently viral. Cosby received a sentence of three to 10 years in state prison, "The Cosby Show" disappeared from streaming and syndication, and now it's impossible to look back on his decades of work without seeing a monster.

You might not believe this, but Oscar-nominated writer and director Jordan Peele used to do a sketch comedy show! It's true, for five seasons Peele teamed with Keegan-Michael Key for 53 episodes of sketches, wigs, anger translation, Gremlins, football stars, aerobics and twisted takes on beloved sitcom characters. They also got together for a movie, "Keanu," directed by the show's primary director, Peter Atencio.

Chris Morris' "Four Lions" (written with Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong) is a dark comedy about four incompetent aspiring terrorists in England. It's basically the Three Stooges meets the War on Terror, but the film still gives the bumbling would-be terrorists a great deal of humanity. Morris would go on to direct a few episodes of "Veep" and his second film "The Day shall Come" just premiered in the U.S. and the U.K.

Comedy often attracts people with demons, and the best comedians are the ones who can channel them onto stage. Giraldo graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, not the typical comedian’s path, but it helps explain why he was such a smart, effective writer. He may have shown brightest on Comedy Central’s series of roasts — he did eight of them –—particularly when he leveled Chevy Chase: "You've made 40 movies, and Al Franken is the biggest movie star who showed up. An O.J. roast would have had more star power!" 

Who would have guessed that Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe would be the best buddy cop duo of the decade? Of course, they aren't really cops — just an alcoholic private investigator and a bone-breaking enforcer solving a twisty mystery in the '70s. Writer-director Shane Black creates a worthy follow-up to "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" in this very dark, very funny film that's also about fatherhood and friendship.

"The Wolf of Wall Street" is the most ridiculous, over-the-top comedy of Martin Scorsese's career, featuring bonkers comedic turns from Jonah Hill and Matthew McConaughey, with a madcap Leonardo DiCaprio at the center of it all. It's set in a debaucherous world of stock scams, drugs, fraud, giant boats, sex, and a Quaalude trip featuring the best physical comedy of DiCaprio's career. It's three hours of coked-up head-shaving and chest-beating, and it's not a surprise that Scorsese had to make a movie called "Silence" afterward to cleanse the palate.

Kate McKinnon joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in 2012, and very quickly took over the show with characters like Olya, the Russian woman who compares everything to the harsh life in her village, Colleen Rafferty, a woman who has awful paranormal experiences and a trashy mermaid named Shud. But she really shines with impressions, from Hillary Clinton, to Jeff Sessions to Rudy Giuliani. McKinnon has taken home two Emmys already and there's no telling how many she'll end up with — she's still only 35 years old!

Roseanne Barr had wildly successful return to television with the reboot of “Roseanne,” after 20 years, but she figured out something she liked much more than being a TV star: being offensive on Twitter. On the morning that the writers were returning for the first day of work on Season 2, Barr tweeted about conspiracy theories about Chelsea Clinton and George Soros and compared Valerie Jarrett to an ape. It wasn't the first time ABC had a problem with her online activity, but this went too far. Although her followers probably think it's a plot by Soros or Pizzagate, or part of the QAnon mystery...