Top 20 FUNNIEST Moments in TV History
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00:00I'm going straight home, put on a little Millie Bobby Brown. Bobby Brown.
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the TV comedy moments we're
00:10still laughing at years later. To spread the love, we're only counting one scene per show.
00:23Number 20, I Want It That Way, Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
00:26I heard him, he was singing along to the music at the bar.
00:28Do you remember what he was singing?
00:29I think it was that song, I Want It That Way.
00:32Backstreet Boys, I'm familiar.
00:33Sometimes, Detective Jake Peralta abuses his power as a member of the NYPD.
00:38Fortunately, that usually just means he does things like make suspects
00:41in a lineup form an impromptu boy band.
00:43You are my fire.
00:48Number two, keep it going.
00:50The one desire.
00:54Number three.
00:55Believe when I say.
00:58Number four.
00:59I want it that way.
01:03When a witness tells him the man they're looking for was singing I Want It That Way
01:06by the Backstreet Boys, he helps her identify him the only way he knows how.
01:10He makes the suspects in the lineup sing.
01:12Now, number five.
01:14I never want to hear you say.
01:18I want it that way.
01:22But Jake gets a little carried away.
01:25He looks more like a producer making magic in the studio than a cop finding a criminal.
01:29The viral scene is still one of the show's most fondly remembered cold opens.
01:33Chills, literal chills.
01:34It was number five.
01:36Number five killed my brother.
01:37Oh my god, I forgot about that part.
01:38Number 19, The Turkey Drop, WKRP in Cincinnati.
01:43It's a helicopter and it's coming this way.
01:46Since the end of its run, this fun workplace sitcom set in an Ohio radio station has become
01:51more obscure than many of its contemporaries.
01:53But viewers never forgot the all-time great Thanksgiving episode from 1978.
01:58Bumbling station manager Arthur Carlson thinks of a great publicity stunt for the station.
02:02He drops a group of live turkeys on the city from a helicopter.
02:06W-K-R-P.
02:14What a sight, ladies and gentlemen, what a sight.
02:16The helicopter seems to be circling the parking area now.
02:19I guess it's looking for a place to land.
02:21No, something just came out of the back of the helicopter.
02:23Unfortunately, as he tells them at the end, he didn't realize domesticated turkeys can't fly.
02:29There's no parachutes yet.
02:32Those can't be skydivers.
02:35Even more hilarious and disturbing is that it was based on a similar event in Atlanta.
02:40It's like the turkeys mounted a counterattack.
02:45It was almost as if they were organized.
02:54As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.
02:58Number 18.
02:59Edith tells Archie to stifle.
03:01All in the family.
03:02One of them in here, an all-bear band.
03:04A naked band at Disneyland?
03:08No, no, no, Edith, you know, bears, like brown bears, grizzly bears.
03:11I hate bears.
03:13Yeah, but they ain't real bears, Edith.
03:14I hate all bears.
03:16Take it away.
03:17Norman Lear's groundbreaking and controversial sitcom never shied away from the serious stuff.
03:21It just managed to make us laugh about them, too.
03:23When Edith Bunker goes through menopause, it throws the entire Bunker household off balance.
03:28Normally kind-hearted and gentle, Edith becomes enraged at the slightest provocation,
03:33and it gives her the chance to finally give her irascible husband Archie a taste of his own medicine.
03:38I'm just trying to show you something.
03:40Stifle!
03:45The studio audience screams with laughter when she finally turns his favorite phrase back on him.
03:50Watching Archie get his comeuppance was part and parcel of why audiences tuned in.
03:54To see Edith finally be the one to do it was so satisfying.
03:58What did you say to me?
03:59I said stifle!
04:03Teach me, will you?
04:05I told you to stifle!
04:09Are you all right?
04:10Leave me alone!
04:11Nobody's doing nothing to you!
04:13You listen to me!
04:15Mom!
04:15All of you listen to me!
04:17Hey!
04:18Will you stop looking at me?
04:24Why would a woman who thinks of a one-night stand as a long-term commitment
04:28do something this permanent to herself?
04:31It's creative expression.
04:32Sometimes you can only watch while your friend makes a bad decision.
04:36Other times you have to step in.
04:38Regine tries to convince Maxine that she hasn't thought her latest adventure through,
04:42but Max is determined to get herself a dramatic tattoo,
04:46and she doesn't want something too feminine either.
04:48Chill out!
04:50It's a tattoo, not a c-section.
04:52She wants something powerful,
04:53something that lets the whole world know who she is,
04:55full of bluster and hot air.
04:57Max hypes herself up for it,
04:59only to pass out before the needle even touches her skin.
05:02All Regine can do is laugh right along with us.
05:12The Crane brothers may have been known for their sophisticated sense of humor,
05:15but they could do physical comedy too.
05:22Hey, hey, hey!
05:26Actor David Hyde Pierce's flair for slapstick is on full display
05:29in this scene from Frasier's sixth season.
05:31Left alone on Valentine's Day,
05:33Niles is readying himself for a date at home.
05:36He's got dinner on the stove and a pair of pants on the ironing board,
05:39and then things go horribly wrong.
05:46Ow! Ow! Ow!
05:53It's pure mayhem even before his nice pants catch fire,
05:56and he's bested by an out-of-control fire extinguisher.
06:10Pierce won a well-deserved Emmy for the episode.
06:16Number 15.
06:17Barbara's celebrity confusion.
06:18Abbott Elementary.
06:20If they do go with a black actor,
06:22I hope they go with that Mr. Brian Austin Green.
06:26I'm so proud of that young man and all of his success.
06:29It didn't take long for this workplace comedy
06:31set in a Philly elementary school to create some timeless moments.
06:36A fun, instantly memeable running joke started
06:38when Barbara's fellow teachers pointed out to us
06:40her habit of thinking certain white celebrities are actually black.
06:43There are a bunch of white celebrities who Barbara thinks are black,
06:47like Brian Austin Green would be Brian Tyree Henry.
06:50Oh, I see you little Carrie Underwood.
06:53Good morning, Carrie Washington.
06:55But the kicker is when she praises Michelle Williams.
06:58You cannot go wrong with the splendid, the wonderful Michelle Williams.
07:06Now that is one talented diva.
07:10Is she talking about the actress or the singer?
07:11Is arguably the third best child of destiny.
07:14And all the way to the Academy Awards from Dawson's Creek.
07:18No one's really sure.
07:20Oh, never mind.
07:20She's wrong again.
07:22So close.
07:23It's classic Barbara.
07:24The way these co-workers know each other's habits and eccentricities
07:27is one of the endless joys of Abbott Elementary.
07:30Number 14.
07:31The Jonad Files.
07:32Veep.
07:32Do you recall a document shared on the J drive titled The Jonad Files?
07:40No, no ma'am.
07:41That doesn't ring a bell.
07:42Jonah Ryan was the resident DC punching bag,
07:44and he made it really hard to feel sorry for him.
07:47A data breach leaves President Selina Meyer's staff under investigation.
07:51The Judiciary Committee presents a shared document dedicated to insulting Jonah.
07:55Dan and Amy deny all knowledge of such a document.
07:58Of course, that's a lie.
08:00So it's not a word combining Jonah and gonad?
08:04I can confirm that that is exactly what it is, and Mr. Egan knows that.
08:08They are then forced to participate in the hardest try not to laugh challenge ever,
08:12as these respectable politicians rattle off every single obscene thing they ever called Jonah.
08:17We have some extracts.
08:18J-Rock.
08:19Jizzy Gillespie.
08:20Jack and the Giant Jack-Off.
08:21Galen.
08:22Tinkerballs.
08:23Wadzilla.
08:23One Erection.
08:24Do we have to go through all of these?
08:26Frankly, putting that list together is probably the most organized this staff has ever been.
08:31My college friends called me Tall McCartney.
08:35Number 13.
08:36The Dentist.
08:37The Carol Burnett Show.
08:38You won't find another dentist on a Sunday.
08:40Yeah, I guess you're right.
08:42You sure he knows what he's doing?
08:45Dr. Kiefer just graduated from dental school.
08:47As a matter of fact, you're his very first patient, so he may be a little nervous.
08:52He won't be the only one.
08:54Tim Conway had a habit of breaking Harvey Korman up in the middle of sketches,
08:57but not even Conway could keep it together in The Dentist Sketch.
09:00Originally aired in 1969, the scene sees Conway as a rookie dentist
09:04fumbling through a visit with his first patient.
09:07A little shot here.
09:16Unfortunately, he accidentally jabs himself with Novocaine.
09:20Actually, he does it several times,
09:21rendering several of his limbs immobilized while he tries in vain to carry on with the appointment.
09:26The audience collectively loses its mind
09:29until neither Korman nor Conway can actually hold back their own laughter anymore.
09:33Better, uh, better look at it a little closer with the light.
09:43Sorry, I didn't, uh, just...
09:46Oh, well, now that'll be $20.
09:49Number 12.
09:50Chuckle's Funeral.
09:51The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
09:52Recurring character Chuckles the Clown was never funnier than after he passed away.
09:57Therefore, ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
10:03Hey, Louis stole your poem.
10:05When her colleagues at Minneapolis's WJM news station keep cracking jokes about his demise,
10:10Mary Richards chastises them for being so unfeeling.
10:13But once the funeral actually starts, it's Mary who can't keep it together.
10:17Mr. Fee-Five-Four would always pick himself up,
10:26dust himself off, and say,
10:29The details of Chuckle's life are just too funny,
10:32and the discomfort of it all just makes her laugh harder.
10:38It's only after the minister tells her how much her joy would have meant to the dead clown
10:42that she starts bawling.
10:59Ah!
11:01Beloved since it first aired,
11:03the moment is such a perfect distillation of how absurd death can be.
11:21Number 11.
11:22Mama No!
11:23The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
11:25Who is it?
11:27Hey, Mom.
11:28I know it's late, but I really need to talk.
11:30On the eve of his wedding,
11:32Will Smith's fictional counterpart gets the shock of his life.
11:35He walks in on his mother and his soon-to-be father-in-law in bed together.
11:39He lets out a dramatic wail of utter anguish.
11:47But he doesn't just do that.
11:49He cycles through an entire performance piece to show just how shocked,
11:52horrified, and devastated he is to have seen his mother in this compromising position.
11:57Will!
12:01Will!
12:02Will!
12:02Will!
12:03Will!
12:04Will!
12:05Will!
12:06Will!
12:06Will!
12:07Will!
12:08Will!
12:08Will!
12:10You, him, here, oh, I need a moment.
12:15And just when he thinks he's over it,
12:17he's devastated once again.
12:21There is not a frame of this that isn't crying out to be made into a gif.
12:25I'm not ready to talk to you yet, young man.
12:30What happened? I heard screaming.
12:36What's this, a pajama party?
12:51Phoebe Waller-Bridge's British dramedy touched on some incredibly powerful stuff.
12:55This moment in season two, for instance,
12:57highlights what can happen when two sisters come together for a good cause.
13:21It's also about the utter devastation of a horrendous haircut.
13:25Fleabag tries and fails to talk her sister up after she gets an asymmetrical bob.
13:29Her insistence that it's chic and French is a particularly unhinged highlight.
13:34She tries her best to fix the situation,
13:36but as usual with this show, there's something much deeper going on here.
13:46But most importantly, it's just so ridiculously funny.
13:55Don't change your life.
13:58It's not gonna happen in here.
14:00Sorry, Anthony.
14:01Sorry, I didn't mean for it to turn out like that.
14:14Leslie Knope and the ragtag team of nerds and eccentrics that make up her staff
14:18are running a scrappy campaign to put her on the city council.
14:21Her stop at a local ice rink proves that there are still a lot of details to iron out.
14:25For example, they realized too late that they didn't have enough money
14:28to get a red carpet long enough to get to the center of the rink.
14:42There are so many little touches that make this moment amazing.
14:45There's the awkward silence of the crowd.
14:47There's the pathetic little shuffle they have to do once they hit the ice.
14:50The song of choice, Get On Your Feet, is perfect because, well, they can't.
14:54Get on your feet.
14:57I'm bleeding on my arm, Andy.
15:00Yes!
15:02Babe!
15:04I'm holding the dog. He is peeing. He is now peeing.
15:08And I'm putting him down.
15:09No, Ronnie only has three legs.
15:10No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
15:11Get on your feet.
15:16The Great Herring War?
15:18Rose Nyland's stories didn't always thrill her roommates Dorothy and Blanche.
15:21But a flashback episode in the first season reveals that it's actually
15:25one of her infamous stories about her Scandinavian relatives
15:27that made them decide to live together.
15:29Oh, girls, let's face facts.
15:32The three of us just can't agree on anything.
15:34I mean, it is obvious we were not meant to live together.
15:37I hate to agree with you, but I think you're right.
15:40I think so, too.
15:41In fact, I know so.
15:44This is exactly what happened during the Great Herring War.
15:47Rose tells the tale between two feuding families,
15:50one of whom wanted to train herring for the circus.
15:52The Johanssons wanted to pickle the herring,
15:55and the Lindstroms wanted to train them for the circus.
15:58Each new detail is more insane than the last.
16:00Watching Bea Arthur and Ru McClanahan try to keep it together
16:03while Betty White tells the story with a completely straight face
16:06seems to blur the line between acting and reality.
16:12Did they ever shoot a herring out of a cannon?
16:20Only once.
16:29Number 7
16:30The Whale, Seinfeld
16:32Save the whale, George, for me.
16:35George Costanza's ploy to impress an old flame
16:37goes south in this classic episode.
16:39For reasons that could only occur on Seinfeld,
16:42his date is led to believe that he is a marine biologist.
16:45In their booth at Monk's Cafe,
16:47he tells them how he lived up to his fake career
16:49and saved a beached whale.
16:50I tell you, Jerry, at that moment, I was a marine biologist.
16:55Actor Jason Alexander gives an acting tour de force
16:58as he delivers a hammy monologue worthy of Masterpiece Theater.
17:01The sea was angry that day, my friends.
17:06Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.
17:09According to Jerry Seinfeld,
17:11the whale story was a last-minute addition to the script.
17:14Alexander learned his new lines in mere hours,
17:16and performed it all in one take.
17:19From out of nowhere, a huge tidal wave lifted me,
17:22tossed me like a cork, and I found myself right on top of him,
17:25face-to-face with the blowhole.
17:27I could barely see from the waves crashing down upon me,
17:30but I knew something was there.
17:33So I reached my hand in, felt around,
17:36and pulled out the obstruction.
17:39Number six, Ned saves Homer, The Simpsons.
17:42There's a lot you can say about Homer Simpson.
17:44Everyone is stupid except me.
17:47For example, he's clumsy, he's selfish, and he's dim.
17:50And this scene is a great example of all those things.
17:57After a fire starts in the Simpson house,
17:59Ned Flanders is the only one who can rescue an unconscious Homer.
18:06Their exit blocked.
18:07Flanders lugs Homer upstairs and throws him out a window,
18:10using a mattress to cushion his fall.
18:12And then Homer just hits the mattress,
18:14lets out a hilarious little groan,
18:16and bounces back inside the burning home.
18:19Dear Lord, may your loving hand guide Homer to the mattress square and true.
18:29Okay.
18:30It's one of the few times you can see Ned Flanders almost lose a little bit of faith.
18:35Number five, Debbie Downer at Disney World, Saturday Night Live.
18:39Ever since they found mad cow disease in the U.S.,
18:42I'm not taking any chances.
18:45It can live in your body for years before it ravages your brain.
18:52Cast members have broken on SNL before,
18:54but never this many in one sketch and at the same time.
18:57Rachel Dratch's recurring character, Debbie Downer,
19:00is the pessimist to end all pessimists.
19:02In this sketch from 2004,
19:04she completely ruins a family trip to Disney World.
19:07But from the moment she flubs a line,
19:09the entire cast becomes a giggling mess.
19:14No one ever recovers.
19:16Horatio Sanz even starts wiping his eyes with the prop pancakes.
19:20With each new insane piece of information she drops,
19:22Dratch can't even keep a straight face in her close-ups.
19:25By the way, it's official.
19:36I can't have children.
19:44Number four, Charlie's dating disaster, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
19:49Part of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's charm
19:51comes from how unhinged and hilariously unredeemable its cast can be.
19:55We're gonna get you back on the dating scene, bro. What do you think about that?
19:57Yeah, that's actually why we're here. We wanna put your profile on match.com.
20:00For example, Mac and Dennis try to help Charlie's romance game
20:03by setting up a dating profile for him.
20:05Unfortunately, setting up his bio is a nightmare.
20:09Ooh, that felt good. Was that sexy?
20:10That's free.
20:11That felt sexy?
20:13That's free.
20:13That felt sexy.
20:14We'll Photoshop it.
20:15His photo is unflattering and his answers to the questionnaire
20:18make him look like a psycho weirdo.
20:20How about your favorite food? What would that be?
20:21Oh, milk steak.
20:24What?
20:25Milk steak.
20:26I'm not putting milk steak.
20:27Mac and Dennis spruce up his profile and actually get Charlie a blind date.
20:31But between their bad advice and Charlie's own bumbling,
20:34it quickly devolves into an uproarious train wreck.
20:37Is it bleeding again? I'm sorry. These are hornet's stings, you know?
20:41I run into, like, a lot of, like, hornets in my line of work.
20:44Honestly, with friends like Mac and Dennis as his wingman,
20:47Charlie's probably better off alone.
20:49That's a totally different shirt.
20:50Yeah, can I get a haircut?
20:52How the hell are you gonna explain that to me?
20:53I'll say I met a nice guy in the bathroom and we traded shirts.
21:03In this now classic and groundbreaking episode,
21:06new father Rob Petrie becomes convinced the hospital
21:08switched their baby with one from another couple.
21:10He drives himself to distraction over it.
21:12He decides to settle it by inviting the other family, the Peters, over for dinner.
21:17Immediately, it becomes clear that the babies could not have been switched.
21:21The Peters are African-American.
21:26I believe, I believe we have your Aunt Bertha's figs
21:29and you have Dick and Betty's flowers.
21:32Mrs. Peters, won't you help me?
21:36They accepted Petrie's invitation just to see the look on his face when he found out.
21:42Not only does everyone get a good laugh at Rob's expense,
21:44but it's a surprisingly meaningful moment, given that it was the early 1960s.
21:49Why didn't you tell me on the phone?
21:52I missed the expression on your face?
21:56Did I give you a good one, huh?
21:57Oh, beautiful!
22:00Boy, you're gonna have to excuse me.
22:02I just haven't been myself lately.
22:04We just had a baby.
22:06Oh, you had a baby?
22:08That's right, we both had babies.
22:18This working-class sitcom could always find the funny in the tragic.
22:21Even a death in the family suddenly becomes hilarious.
22:24Well, all I want to know is if his flight's coming in on time.
22:28No, not coach.
22:30Try baggage.
22:31When Roseanne and Jackie's father passes away unexpectedly,
22:34they're saddled with making the arrangements and letting the relatives know.
22:37Jackie, who is usually a mess, is doubly distraught.
22:41She calls an elderly aunt to give her the news,
22:43and the woman's hearing issues make it a call to remember.
22:46Pretty soon, she just starts screaming into the phone as her sister watches in shame.
22:50Dad is not with us anymore.
22:54I said dad has passed away!
22:58He's passed away!
23:01Dad is gone!
23:03Dad's dead!
23:06Jackie is all of us when we have to do more than we can handle.
23:09He's fine!
23:10He sends his love!
23:12No, I am not doing that again!
23:15You can't make me!
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23:38Listen carefully.
23:39This is the wrapping department.
23:42Yes, ma'am.
23:42Now the candy will pass by on this conveyor belt
23:45and continue into the next room where the girls will pack it.
23:48Now your job is to take each piece of candy
23:51and wrap it in one of these papers and then put it back on the belt.
23:55Lucille Ball is a legend for a reason.
23:57With I Love Lucy,
23:58she and the show's writers basically invented the playbook
24:01that would inspire nearly every sitcom after it.
24:04Seeing Lucy Ricardo take on jobs she was terrible at was always a huge draw,
24:08but never was it funnier than in this season two episode.
24:11Oh, this is easier.
24:13Yeah, we can handle this, okay?
24:28She and best pal Ethel take jobs in a candy factory.
24:31Their last chance to impress their new boss
24:33sees them trying and failing to keep up at wrapping chocolates
24:36as they pass on a conveyor belt.
24:42Unable to keep up,
24:43they begin to shove the chocolates in their mouths
24:45to the roaring laughter of the audience.
24:58What hilarious moment did we miss?
25:10Tell us in the comments.
25:28Do you agree with our picks?
25:30Check out this other recent clip from MsMojo,
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