The most frightening funny horror-comedy TV shows

R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” books varied from straightforward (but kid-friendly) horror to comedically-tinged stories. The two “Goosebumps” movies, with Jack Black as Stine himself, are quite comedic, and surprisingly good. On the TV front, there have been a couple iterations of “Goosebumps.” The ‘90s TV show was a straightforward anthology show, but in the 2020s Disney+ gave us a solid horror-comedy take on longform “Goosebumps” stories.

“The Evil Dead” is a gonzo, low-budget horror movie with a tinge of comedy in it. “Evil Dead 2” is a comedic gorefest. “Army of Darkness” is delightful but mostly a comedy with some stop-motion skeletons in it. “Ash vs. the Evil Dead” lands closest to “Evil Dead 2.” Bruce Campbell returned to his iconic role of Ash for gory, silly adventures on the cult TV show.

“What We Do in the Shadows” benefited from being ported over to TV by the guys who wrote, directed, and starred in the movie. However, they were also introducing entirely different characters, and it had to be a full TV show, not merely a mockumentary-style movie about vampires. Taking the dry comedy of “Flight of the Conchords” and pairing it with gore and lore, “What We Do in the Shadows” ran for six seasons and 61 episodes, an impressive stretching of the concept.

While “iZombie” is a crime procedural show, it is on the comedy end of things. Also, to a degree, the horror end of things. In essence, “iZombie” is a lot of things, perhaps too many things for it to really pop with people. Or maybe it’s because it was on The CW. That’s not to say “iZombie” isn’t fun. Liv Moore is a medical examiner who also happens to be, secretly, a zombie. By eating the brains of murder victims in the morgue she is also to absorb some of the memories, and personality traits, of the deceased. Yeah, you can see how it’s a horror-comedy, but also how it might not be for everybody.

Ryan Murphy has a fair amount of camp or outré fare in his works, so by turning it up a notch he created an out-and-out horror-comedy. “Scream Queens” is a self-aware riff on slasher movies. When the show begins, a sorority is being targeted by a serial killer. Not unusual for the slasher genre, but “Scream Queens” is also filled with plenty of comedy.

When gore meets absurdity, you often end up with a horror-comedy. “Santa Clarita Diet” was created by Victor Fresco, who also created the absurdist sitcoms “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” and “Better Off Ted.” That should give you a sense of the style at the heart of the show. It’s essentially a skewering of the family sitcom, with a married couple with kids dealing with an unexpected change to their lives. It’s just that in this case it’s that the matriarch of the family (played by Drew Barrymore) is turning into a zombie.

The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” movie (which we always like to take the time to note is better than Joss Whedon’s TV show) is an outright horror-comedy. It’s a delight. The TV show is a bit more serious, but still sufficiently comedic. There was no quibbling about the “horror” part of the horror-comedy genre. However, any show that does an episode wherein everybody becomes puppets is not exactly taking things seriously, and Whedon’s dialog was always full of quips.

As an anthology series, the tone of “Tales from the Crypt” episodes vacillated. The Cryptkeeper was always good for a pun or two, though, and the show never took its macabre stories too seriously. Many of the episodes were darkly comedic, and almost always involved elements of horror.

By the standards of cartoons aimed at children, “Beetlejuice” was a horror-comedy. The horror was tamped down from the movie — and no boogens attempt to take a child bride — but the show was still full of gross-out sight gags and all things spooky. No, it’s no gorefest, and no adult is liable to find it sufficient to scratch that horror itch. For the target audience, though, it was a fun bit of early-morning horror-comedy.

These days, Archie Comics are filled with horror spinoffs (we’re partial to “The Cult of That Wilkin Boy” solely for how esoteric it is). Stories of zombies and a scarier version of Sabrina didn’t invent that version of Archie stories, though. In 1999 we got “Archie’s Weird Mysteries,” which in classic cheap animation fashion churned out one season of 40 episodes that aired in the span of less than six months. Basically, it’s your classic stories of the Riverdale gang, but owing to an experiment gone awry, monsters and other strange, supernatural things start popping up in town.

Now, “Svengoolie” is admittedly a show wherein a host takes us through the showing of a movie. However, Svengoolie is also keeping the concept of the horror host alive, and doing it on a national level. On Sven’s show, some old horror movie will be screened, with plenty of stops for silly jokes, songs, and side characters.

“Los Espookys” is so weird and so specific you can forget that it’s also in the horror genre. Largely in Spanish, the HBO show focuses on three oddball friends who have a business using their love for, and knowledge of, horror to scare people. And then a bunch of weird, actually supernatural stuff happens. It’s a specific show, but a ton of fun.

Most versions of “Scooby-Doo!” don’t really get into horror stuff. Sure, Shaggy and Scooby might be scared, but the various shows aren’t designed to have any horror elements for the audience. “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated” is different, though. While it’s family-friendly, and it has some humor, it goes more into horror elements, largely to good effect.

“Shining Vale” wasn’t quite as successful as Courteney Cox’s show “Friends.” It wasn’t even as successful as “Cougar Town,” which was a solid hangout sitcom all things considered. Still, it was a new show starring Courteney Cox, who is also in the “Scream” movies! “Shining Vale” was fairly successful in terms of quality, if not viewership, and it did give Cox a chance to do something different in the horror-comedy space.

“The Addams Family” is too much of a traditional sitcom to be a horror-comedy. “Wednesday” is a different story. Produced in the tone of classic Tim Burton, the Netflix show is a true phenomenon. It’s literally the most-popular show in Netflix history. Jenna Ortega is a star thanks to her turn as Wednesday Addams. The thirst for horror-comedy will never die!

“Courage the Cowardly Dog” is kind of like what would have happened if “Scooby-Doo!” had been able to get out of the Hanna-Barbera space and really get weird. It’s an absurdist, supernatural, and darkly comedic cartoon, almost like a canine “Twin Peaks” in a way. Perhaps unsurprisingly, with both properties under the Warner Bros. umbrella, there was eventually a direct-to-video film where the Scooby Gang meets Courage and company.

The “Child’s Play” series started off as more straightforward horror, but as it went on it got more comedic, and even outright silly at times. The series “Chucky” pulled back on the goofier elements, but it remained a horror-comedy. It ran for three seasons, and it did start strong, but it did feel like “Chucky” ran out of steam eventually. A wisecracking killer doll can only take you so far.

Netflix is in the horror-comedy game again with “Haunted Hotel.” The animated show brings “Rick & Morty” style sensibilities to the horror-comedy genre. A single woman and her two kids take over a hotel, which happens to be haunted by a lot of violent, gory ghosts. Also, her deceased brother is a ghost there, which helps on the hotel care front.