‘What We Do In The Shadows’ Might Be The Funniest Show On TV – UPROXX

Sometimes you know youre watching something special as its happening.

It happened with the Dinner Party episode of The Office, and the Remedial Chaos Theory episode of Community, and, mostly recently, the On the Run episode of FXs vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows, henceforth known as the Jackie Daytona episode. Written by Stefani Robinson (whos also credited with the Atlanta episodes Juneteenth and Woods someone give her a ton of money to make whatever she wants NOW), the Jackie Daytona episode was an instantly great episode of television, with an Emmy-worthy performance from Matt Berry, and it also solidified something I was feeling around the time the Nadja doll was introduced: What We Do in the Shadows might be the funniest show on television. Im tempted to say it is the funniest show, full stop, but theres strong competition out there. Lets go through some of the competitors.

Shows That Arent Technically On TV; Theyre On A Streaming Service

This leaves out I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, Russian Doll, Solar Opposites, Never Have I Ever, Ramy, Big Mouth, and Pen15. I love them all, but for the purposes of this important thought exercise, only non-streaming shows are eligible.

Barry

Extremely funny! But also extremely dark and depressing.

Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Its Always Sunny is still wildly funny after 14 seasons and has shown an admirable willingness to adapt to a different era, but Im not sure you could make the case that its at its peak. The Gang Texts was great, but was it better than season fours The Nightman Cometh? Shadows is either at its peak, or its going to continue to get better.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Not sure nows the time to make the case for B99 being the best anything.

Bobs Burgers

The most consistent show on TV, and I watch it the way Netflix subscribers do The Office, but it doesnt provide the same level of belly-laughs as Shadows.

Rick and Morty

The funniest animated show, Id argue, but not the funniest show overall.

The Other Two and Los Espookys

Too good to be one-season wonders, but Id like to see more before declaring them the best. Although, I will say, both shows had better debut seasons than Shadows

Insecure

A little too real for anyone in their 30s (me).

Documentary Now!

Inconsistent. Some episodes are among the funniest things Ive ever seen on TV (Original Cast Album: Co-Op), others are tough to get through (Batsh*t Valley).

Joe Pera Talks With You

I love Joe Pera Talks With You, but until Adult Swim announces whether its coming back for a third season, its not qualified. Im never not thinking of the bean arch, though.

The Righteous Gemstones and Succession

I originally considered excluding these shows, as theyre both an hour long and, rightly or wrongly, I rarely consider anything over 30 minutes to be a comedy. But both are uproariously funny, and the stiffest competition to What We Do in the Shadows. That said, Im crossing The Righteous Gemstones off the list for the same reason as The Other Two and Los Espookys above: its only been on for one season. Therell be plenty of misbehavin to come, though. Maybe after season two! So its down to What We Do in the Shadows vs. Succession (at least until someone yells at me for forgetting Last Man Standing or a 4 a.m. Adult Swim special with 47 views on YouTube, or something).

Now, I love Succession and miss it dearly and often think about my boy Squiggle and slime puppy and the various ways Brian Cox says f*ck off, all of them perfect but Im not always in the mood to watch a show about a bunch of toxic billionaires. It can be A Lot and, especially lately, Im not in the mood to watch A Lot. Thats one of the reasons why I look forward to What We Do in the Shadows every week. Its a silly show about a group of vampires living together in Staten Island; its the epitome of hilarity ensues.

As my colleague Brian Grubb accurately put it, It is so good and so, so funny. Legitimate belly laughs at least once an episode, and more than that, by a lot, in the last handful. Im still laughing thinking about Colin Robinson trying to get people to fall for an updog joke, and Colin Robinson quoting Dilly Dilly two years after everyone else stopped using it, and Colin Robinson saying, Door on the floor, we aint here no more. Id call Colin Robinson the MVP of season two, but, really, its five-way tie between Robinson (Mark Proksch), Guillermo (Harvey Guilln), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Nandor (Kayvan Novak), and Laszlo (Matt BAT Berry). Six-way, if you include the Nadja doll.

But, youre probably not wondering, why would you ding Barry for being too dark when Shadows has a casualty count in the hundreds? Its the same reason Looney Tunes is hilarious: its cartoonish violence, and cartoonish violence is very funny. No one is running into a painted hole in the wall, but there are teen girl vampires murdering Sweet Birthday Baby from Russian Doll and sperm-extracting witches and a literal troll and Guillermo (last name Buillermo?) channeling his inner Van Helsing. Gizmo, as Nadja calls him, might not be the funniest character on Shadows, but hes the emotional core, the one who keeps the plot from drifting too far into empty slapstick. Hes increasingly turned to the dark side (shout out to Mark Hamill), while the vampires have gotten wackier. The mailer-daemon stuff, for instance, only works because its Guillermo who usually takes care of the chores, and without him, the vampires, Nandor especially, are clueless. Its a beautiful balance that keeps Shadows from being empty calories.

Also, and I cannot stress this enough, Jackie Daytona.

Lets raise our glass of human alcohol beer served by a regular human bartender and toast to What We Do in the Shadows, the funniest show on TV.

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'What We Do In The Shadows' Might Be The Funniest Show On TV - UPROXX

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero