Frasier Funniest Moments Ranked

In "Ham Radio," Frasier decides to put on a live radio drama called "Nightmare Inn," to celebrate his radio station's anniversary. Niles predicts that Frasier will take his role as director too far, as Frasier "doesn't know how to stop directing" — and Niles is right, as Frasier's intense criticism causes one actor to quit ahead of the performance. Niles has to step in, playing multiple characters with multiple accents, without having even read the script.

On top of Niles not being prepared, other hilarious interferences include Bulldog (Dan Butler) having stage fright and Roz's mouth being still numb from Novocaine following a dental emergency, causing her to have a lisp while speaking.

After many of the characters are killed off, Niles begins to get more and more irritated as Frasier keeps giving him directing notes for those he has remaining. Finally having had enough, Niles takes the balloons being used to mimic the sound of gunshots and kills off the remaining characters, before the killer can be revealed. As Daphne remarks to Martin while they listen at home, the story turned out to be a "bloodbath" — and a hysterical one at that.

When Frasier gets set up with Faye (Amy Brenneman) via Faye's mother Helen (Carole Shelley) in "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz," it's only because Helen overheard Frasier talking about his son Freddie being Jewish and assumed he was too. Not wanting to cause a stir with her mother, Faye asks Frasier if he can pretend to be Jewish. Frasier assures her it's no problem and says, "It probably won't even come up!"

But it does, beginning with Frasier fumbling through a conversation about his imaginary bar mitzvah — and as Niles and Martin are pulled into the ploy, Niles declares: "l'chaim! Mazel tov! Next year in Jerusalem!" 

Unfortunately, Faye and Helen's visit happens to coincide with a Christmas performance that Daphne is putting on with her theater group — and when one of the actors pulls out, Niles has to fill in for the role of Jesus. When Niles, dressed as Jesus, returns to Frasier's apartment for his nasal spray, they have to hide him from Helen's sight. All this leads to Helen opening the bathroom door to find Niles, spraying his nose in front of the hidden Christmas tree. The whole set-up is absurd in ways only a sitcom could orchestrate, but Frasier screaming "Jesus!" at the top of his lungs makes it all worthwhile.

The premise of "The Two Mrs. Cranes" begins with Daphne wanting to avoid her ex-fiancé Clive (Scott Atkinson) getting back together with her. This leads to her spontaneously telling Clive that she's married to Niles (which he, of course, is happy to play along with). Soon, the charade is extended into Clive thinking that Frasier is married to Maris, and when Roz unexpectedly shows up, she steps into the role of "Maris."

The real trouble starts when Daphne realizes that Clive has changed — he has developed ambitions, namely — and suddenly is interested in him again. Of course, Roz, always eager for a date, sets her sights on him right away. As Daphne and Roz vie for Clive's affections, Frasier and Niles try to keep their narrative in check. The tension escalates as Daphne makes comments about Roz's drinking, while Roz brings an imaginary pregnancy of Daphne's into the mix. While Clive is in the bathroom, Roz angrily tells Daphne that she can "have him." Daphne responds, "Fat chance I've got now that you've told him I'm pregnant. How am I supposed to get rid of this bloody baby?" Having overheard that, Clive walks out of the bathroom to see Niles, Frasier, Roz and Daphne all looking crazed and angry.

Clive calls them the "most appalling family [he's] ever met" and takes off. They may be appalling because of the amusing comedy of manners they got themselves into — but they're also possibly the funniest family.

In "Mixed Doubles," after Daphne breaks up with an on-again-off-again boyfriend, Niles decides it's time to ask her out. But Frasier persuades him to wait at least a day, since Daphne's break up is so fresh. 

It's good advice, except that Roz encourages Daphne to go out to a singles bar — where she meets someone new. That someone new turns out to be Niles' doppelganger; not only do they look enough alike to be fraternal twins, but they dress similarly, speak in the same intonations and even have matching mannerisms.

Right after Niles tells Frasier and Martin that he finds Rodney to be a "pretentious fop," Rodney comes in and takes the likeness a step further. About his coffee, Rodney requests, "I neglected to mention that I like my milk steamed, but just a dollop of foam, such as might give the effect of a cumulus cloud reflected in a still pond." Niles (who once ordered a "double shot, low fat, no foam latte" at Cafe Nervosa) emphatically remarks after Rodney leaves the room that he wants to kill himself. Martin and Frasier — and the audience — can't help laughing at the precious irony.

Daphne and Rodney break up, but luckily not before we get to witness this funny "Twilight Zone" moment (as Martin says).

The first third of "Three Valentines" focuses solely on Niles as he prepares to have a Valentine's date over at Frasier's apartment, which he borrowed for the evening. 

Of course, Niles is as particular and fussy as they come, so everything has to be just perfect, which is how he ends up taking off his pants to iron them. Distracted from ironing by a loose thread, Niles rests the (hot) iron on top of his pants to cut the string. He then accidentally cuts himself and passes out from the blood, getting a small drip of blood on Frasier's couch. He uses a — flammable — liquid stain remover on the couch and, after passing out again from seeing the blood, spills a ton of it onto the couch without noticing. Soon, the pants have caught fire from the iron and, in attempt to put it out, Niles throws the pants on the couch — where the flammable liquid sets an even bigger fire on the couch.

What follows is the highlight of the scene, as Niles tries to use the fire extinguisher on the couch, but it's too powerful for him. He ends up spraying the extinguisher all over the apartment as he falls over the furniture, trying to get control of it.

This scene is a testament to how "Frasier" — and, especially, Pierce — excels at such comedy. Pierce's talent is at the forefront here, as the scene — which has very little dialogue — is both utterly compelling and stomach-achingly funny.

After unknowingly eating a pot brownie that belongs to Niles (in his attempt to rebel like he never did as a kid), Martin finds himself incredibly high (he ate the whole thing at once). Part of the hilarious fun in "High Holidays" is that Niles, unaware that Martin replaced his pot brownie with a regular one, is completely under the impression that he is "toasted," as he says to Frasier. Soon after Niles tells Frasier how excited he is for "something called the 'munchies' stage," Martin announces his presence when we hear him drop his keys outside of the front door and then start laughing hysterically.

Martin, extremely "toasted," proceeds to go on a rant about how annoying it is to have to make turns when walking somewhere ("Do you ever feel like you'd just like to go straight?") and eating barbecue chips with chocolate pudding. It's not long before he's walking around in his underwear, eating ice cream. When Frasier asks Martin where his pants are, he replies, with the straightest face, "In the fridge."

There's a reason that "Ski Lodge" is consistently considered one of — if not the — best episodes of "Frasier." The show was always exceptionally good at both dramatic irony and misunderstandings being well utilized and "Ski Lodge" is perhaps the prime example of that stellar writing and technique. 

During a weekend ski lodge trip, Niles wants to make a move on Daphne, but Daphne is instantly attracted to their ski instructor, Guy (James Patrick Stuart), who turns out to be gay and is instantly attracted to Niles. Meanwhile, Frasier has his sights set on Daphne's friend, Annie (Cynthia LaMontagne), who also happens to be interested in Niles.

Once it's time for bed, everyone begins trying to sneak into the room of the person they're after, each getting in the way of each other. For example, Niles sneaks into Daphne's room and even confesses how much he wants her — except Daphne and Annie switched rooms last minute, so he accidentally said this to Annie. At another point, Daphne and Niles find Frasier in Daphne's bed, popping a bottle of champagne, because he thinks it's Annie's room — Frasier hilariously still pours the champagne into a glass while he says "I'm sorry, wrong room!" and then gets up with the bedsheet wrapped around his naked body.

Eventually, the entire group converge, revealing all the misunderstandings. Frasier summarizes the evening best, saying, "All the lust coursing through this lodge tonight ... and no one was chasing me?" It's a hilarious ending note to an episode in which almost every beat is laugh-out-loud funny and seamlessly sewn together to make a near-flawless piece of comedic television. Of course, the entirety of "Ski Lodge" is ranked at the top of this list.