40% Of Fans Think This Show Is The Funniest Sitcom Of All Time
There will always be a healthy debate regarding the greatest sitcom of all time, considering there are dozens upon dozens of hilarious shows worthy of the title. The sitcom genre started in the 1950s with shows like I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver. But many would argue that the golden age of sitcoms came four decades later, in the 1990s. The early 2000s also had its fair share of hits, and the genre shows no sign of slowing down as major networks introduce new sitcoms every season.
To figure out which show fans think is the greatest sitcom of all time, we put it to a vote. More than 223,000 sitcom lovers worldwide took our poll, where we offered four fan-favorite comedies from which to choose. We also included an "other" option so poll takers could let us know which shows they love that didn't make the cut. The results might surprise you!
The Office is the best sitcom of all time
According to our poll, NBC's The Office is the favorite sitcom ever made. The show earned more than 40 percent of the vote, making it the overwhelming winner. An adaptation of the popular British show of the same name, The Office launched Steve Carrell to superstardom and helped propel the careers of other actors, too, like John Krasinski and Ed Helms. Ranker also has The Office listed as the greatest sitcom ever, which was determined by hundreds of thousands of user votes. The comedy seems to be a clear winner, but our poll takers had plenty to say about our other choices.
Landing in the second spot was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, with 19 percent of the vote. Will Smith led an incredible ensemble cast on the show, which ran for six seasons in the '90s. The series is constantly gaining new fans now that it's available on streaming services. Young adults who weren't even born when the show came out are now enjoying it for the first time.
Seinfeld landed as the third most-liked sitcom in our poll, with 12 percent of the vote. The series was long considered the greatest sitcom of all time but has slowly dropped in polls as newer shows like The Office have arrived and changed many viewers' minds.
Coming in fourth was How I Met Your Mother, with 11 percent of the vote. The show had a massive following for nine seasons in the mid-2000s, but fans were severely disappointed with its finale. Screen Rant and several other sites list the show as having one of the worst series finales ever. For nine long seasons, fans were expecting to meet the mysterious "mother" that the lead character Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) is telling his kids about for the duration of the series. In the finale, it was revealed that their mother had died some time ago, and the woman never made it to screen.
Sitcom fans felt strongly about some other options as well
The "other" option of our poll received 17 percent of the vote, putting it ahead of Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother. In the comments section, thousands of television viewers debated what they felt was the true winner. Some of the honorable mentions included Friends, Fraiser, Living Single, Home Improvement, Saved by the Bell, That '70s Show, and Martin. A few commenters noted that some of the classics like I Love Lucy and Bewitched deserved more love because they put the genre on the map. Others made sure to mention some iconic British comedies like Absolutely Fabulous, Ricky' Gervais' The Office, and Mr. Bean.
However, perhaps the most mentioned sitcom in the comments (there were more than 7,500) was Married... with Children. The groundbreaking show pushed the limits and made stars out of Ed O'Neill, Christina Applegate, Katey Sagal, and David Faustino. The Fox sitcom ran for 11 seasons and concluded in 1997, but its raunchy humor and one-liners remain with fans to this day.