Unfunny shows/movies from the past that were supposed to be funny.

OP has stated her boundaries!

MASH was great until Wayne Rogers left and Alan Alda's ego moved front and center. And I agree about Carol Burnett. Even when I was a kid I thought it was dumb and not funny. Amazing that Tim Conway had any kind of career at all.

I did not like Jim Carrey in his role as "Grinch."

Golden Girls

Yeah, I hated the Carol Burnett show when I was a kid, and even tried to give it a second chance as an adult and still didn't find one second of it funny. Just awful. How did it even get on the air back in the day??

Most of the bro comedies from the 2000s (Step Brothers, Anchorman, etc.)

The Birdcage. Terrible bastardization of a true classic.

Near-past unfunny: Modern Family, Broad City, Big Bang Theory (any Chuck Lorre sitcom), Girls.

I loathe Chuck Lorre sitcoms. Too much toilet humor. I really don't need to be reminded that my body makes waste products in a 24 minute weekly comedy.

I loved the movie Arthur when I was a kid but now that I'm in my 50's and dealt with my fair share of drunks in my family and friend circles that I don't find this amusing. I want to physically shake the fuck out of Dudley Moore.

Friends. How could the director of W&G have also directed this dreck?

Happy Days

FRIENDS.

It would be interesting if those who say that some particular show [italic]isn't[/italic] funny would also hold up as a counterexample a show that they [italic]do[/italic] find funny.

Its amazing how much you can tell about a person from just one comment.

r14 I'll say!

Christmas Story, OP!? I never liked The Carol Burnette show or Mash, but A Christmas Story is a wonderful holiday movie. Smoke some pot and watch it again!

Desk Set (1957, K. Hepburn, S. Tracy)

I had only seen bits of this over the years until happening it on TCM today. It's insufferably bad. Everything about it except the office sets.

I would have agreed with you about The Carol Burnett Show. My experience with it was pretty much the truncated half-hour syndication episodes they would show on Sunday afternoons and then on Nick at Nite. Had a pretty contentious gay man argument with a friend all about it. It just wasn't funny, and I didn't get the appeal. Of course, he then lent me the huge boxed set of full episodes just to prove me wrong. I begrudgingly watched the first few episodes. Nothing amazing. And then I kept going. By the end of the first season, I was hooked. Sure, some skits aren't great, but at least twice an episode, something would make me laugh really hard. Mrs. Wiggins and Mr. Tudball trying to use the intercom? Hilarious. The "Mildred Pierce" parody? A dream. It still amazes me that EVERY week they put on a full show with insane costumes and full singing and dancing numbers.

My respect for Carol Burnett will bever waiver.

What's a shorter way to spell "troll?" In this case, it's "OP."

Mrs Doubtfire was aggressively unfunny. I still can't believe it was such a huge hit.

OP is correct about MASH. The theme song was my starting pistol to find the remote control and switch channels as quickly as possible.

r4=Blasphemer!

Op sounds like it's lacking any sort of funny bone. What do you find funny, oh pretentious one?

Carol Burnett had some turkeys but also some genuinely funny satires. The GWTW and Mildred Pierce episodes were funny as hell.

ILL is the same.

I am 55. I don't recall ever laughing harder than watching the Carol Burnett show. To each his/her/their/zir/clownself own.

I don't know if it was even supposed to be funny, but The Andy Griffith Show.

I agree with OP's list and most of the additions.

The one exception is that I will stick up for Girls. It was terribly uneven, had long slogs of being tedious, but at its best was a series that could make me burst out laughing at the most unexpected things and it had a strange mix of diabolical observation and the occasional joyous moments.

It was only a good show at times, but when it was good it had something quite special.

Op is a tasteless a cunt. I love Lucy is the greatest sitcom of all time. And Mash is top 10. Jim Carey top 10 comedic actors ever. Fuck off in a boring grease fire.

I agree about the Chuck Lorre shows and Modern Family. Also add: Two Broke Girls and Young Sheldon. How I Met Your Mother was heinous.

A lot of these responses have given me palpitations!

Kramer from Seinfeld. And I mean it. And I thought this before the “he’s a nigger” tirade. He could be funny sometimes but mostly annoyingly obnoxious. George little neurotic, insecure self was way funnier. Kramer was messy and a dry snitch. You know how many times he fucked up Jerry plans because he is just barged into the apartment with that big mouth, aloof to the current conversation. What an exhausting cunt he was 24/7.

Two Broke Girls was very unfunny. That brunette has zero comic timing and sounded like she was trying way too hard when delivering what wete supposed to be zingers.

I liked TBBT but the last few seasons were bad.

The thing is, humor usually just doesn't date very well unless it's slapstick and/or surreal. The Carol Burnett Show could be hilarious in its time (especially the old movie parodies), but it seems very dated now the way Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin movies or ""Road" movies seemed dated and unfunny in the 1970s.

The Benny Hill Show

[quote]Op is a tasteless a cunt. I love Lucy is the greatest sitcom of all time. And Mash is top 10.

I would add, though I think it's needless to say, that MASH was by no means a traditional, typical sit-com, and I don't believe it was meant to be hilariously funny in the manner of I LOVE LUCY, etc.

What are you 12, OP?

Lucy was funny, OP.

ILL seems to be timeless as well as the Andy Griffith Show, oddly enough. Shows that are too political or of a certain decade dont age well such as Murphy Brown.

I think Frasier will age well too but I tried rewatching Cheers and didn't find it very funny. I can watch Frasier over and over and still laugh.

[quote]I agree about the Chuck Lorre shows and Modern Family. Also add: Two Broke Girls and Young Sheldon. How I Met Your Mother was heinous.

Young Sheldon IS a Chuck Lorre show.

Re: Kramer, I didn’t get why the audience clapped every first time he entered Jerry’s apartment.

^^^They wanted to signify they all knew he suffered from the clap and wanted to show their support, Rose.

I know I'll get roasted for this but...Absolutely Fabulous. I've tried more than once to watch it and while I can see where it's *supposed* to be funny, it never actually manages to make me laugh.

[quote] Kramer, I didn’t get why the audience clapped every first time he entered Jerry’s apartment.

Sitcoms used to be filmed in front of a live audience. Kramer entering was one of the running gags. Just part of the fun.

The Honeymooners was and always will be funnier than ILL.

Based on the question, the answer should be evident.

Agree with all of those OP.

Would also add Modern Family, Taxi, Cheers, Will & Grace, Schitz Creek, and HIMYM. Total crap, all of it.

[quote]The Birdcage. Terrible bastardization of a true classic.

I'm with you on that that one. Of of VERY few misfires in Mike Nichols' career.

Adding Friends, Seinfeld and Frasier. Horrible shows.

I hate everything!

Seinfeld.

How can anyone not find this funny?

Vinegary old bitch thread.

OP, c'est toi, Tatie Danielle ?

I Love Lucy is THE sitcom of sitcoms, always funny. Same with Modern Family.

MASH was a bore, and Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley were awful. Worst sitcom ever was Three’s Company.

Op is insufferable

I live alone because I like it!

OP is very edgy...

Friends, Three's Company, MASH,

OP can dry her tears on her skidmark laden caftan.

R23 Even though he even made other cast members crack up on The CBS. I always found Tim Conway to be singularly unfunny

SNL in the last 4 decades. How is this show still on?

I stopped watching Green Acres, I didn't find it funny. I loved Night Court.

If someone dislikes Frasier they definitely lack a funny bone.

There are people who find Modern Family funny? Will and Grace? MASH?

VEEP is just hideous. Ivy Legue Frat and Sorority idea of sophisticated humor. It grew reductive after five episodes.

Mad About You is another one that was too precious for its own good. And Helen Hunt had to be the coldest, most depressing comedic actress in TV history. Zero warmth.

R59, then your sense of humor is nil.

Superbad the title is apt; stupid and unfunny

Elf (2003). This is Will Ferrell's Ace Ventura. It has the most annoying aspects of his schtick in a very concentrated form.

The overrated Judd Apatow's The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up

American Pie

With a couple of exceptions, the shitty comedies Eddie Murphy has been making since Beverly Hills Cop

I used to like W&G more when I was a teenager. I find it less palatable as an adult. And I’m not sure the revival did the show any favours.

I never laughed at The Cosby Show. I always loved the characters but I never thought they were funny. I was interested in the storylines and their lives but never laughed.

I’ll compare Unfunny vs Funny. (I think your age *totally* defines your humor FYI). And what was happening in your life can influence how you perceive it a lot too. Here I go!

The Three Stooges vs All in the Family

Ghostbusters vs 9 to 5

See how old am I lmfao? Circa 1972 kids.

I disagree with some of the posts here, but that’s kind of the fun of this game, it’s all purely preference and opinion, and some of it is truly subjective. As a 52 year old, I will tell you I was raised on MASH, it was basically my mother’s religion. Well guess what? My mother is a fucking bitch, and I despise MASH. Is it because I associate it with her and bad memories? No idea.

I think there are many shows/movies we *think* are good, but really, it’s just nostalgia. Here’s my last example using more recent movies to make up for how ancient I am. Yes, I feel nostalgic for my cocaine days, they were insane but also so fun. We got to really be completely free, I think Gen X was the last group to experience total freedom, you could (mostly) do whatever you wanted with less consequences (I’m not suggesting minority groups didn’t have it much harder though).

Charlie’s Angels Remake vs Cocaine Bear

Lost.

[Quote] I was interested in the storylines and their lives but never laughed

Oh, big surprise

I'm so glad I'll never meet you, OP.

[quote]I think there are many shows/movies we *think* are good, but really, it’s just nostalgia.

Excellent point, R73. And especially applicable here at DL.

I question anyone's taste if it becomes obvious that it's driven in any significant measure by nostalgia, if their tastes stop developing at some date certain.

Clearly humor has changed over the decades and what we thought was funny in the 60s, 70s and 80s is now, with modern eyes, not or at least not as funny. However, Carol Burnett is a national treasure. Her send-ups of GWTW and Mildred Pierce, as others have pointed out, are legendary. M*A*S*H was one of the most impactful comedies/dramas that has been broadcast to date. You have to remember (if you were alive ;) or consider that the nation was coping with the aftermath of Vietnam and the pointlessness of that era's endless wars. Were that we learned anything (but that's a rant for another thread).

Television was different then, too, because it was a common experience in that we all watched the same shows at the same time, collectively. There were episodes of M*A*S*H (and others) that blew our minds, broke our hearts, and changed us. I'll never forget people sobbing when McLean Stevenson was written off the show by killing Colonel Blake. And the final episode, still the most-watched non-sports program in TV history, set the standard for all shows' final episode, and only a few have even come close.

With regard to A Christmas Story: if you don't find that movie funny, there's something wrong with you. Get help.

There's plenty of TV sitcoms to hate and for good reason. Lucy, M*A*S*H and Carol Burnett are not among them.

[quote] It grew reductive after five episodes.

That's such a sophisticated vocabulary word! People will think you're so smart for using it.

[quote] Yes, I feel nostalgic for my cocaine days, they were insane but also so fun

Now THIS was a turn in this thread I was not expecting.

Jim Carey sucked in almost everything he did. Grinch was the worst.

I always thought MASH was a drama. A very good one but never occurred to me it was supposed to be funny. Even the intro music was kind of sad.

I will cut anyone who dares to mention "Mama's Family."

R82 but it had that annoying laugh track.

And M*A*S*H wasn't a multicamera sitcom filmed in front of a studio audience.

It was single-camera shot like a regular series.

[quote] Even the intro music was kind of sad.

I can't stand that intro song and have literally never watched an because I'd change the channel as soon as the song started.

ILL is fine if you're 5 years old.

The first 4 seasons of MASH hold up

Carol Burnett was always uneven, hence the repackaging as half hours.

Jim Carrey is unfunny.

Laugh tracks were on practically every show back in the 80's. Like white noise of the time.

The MASH movie was very funny. The bawdy humor didn't make it into the TV show.

A lot of the Carol Burnett show was very unfunny. But a handful of the movie parodies are good and the Mana’s Family sketches are very good. Not only are they genuinely funny, they are a surprisingly savage representation of family life—much more so than Married with Children, for example. The spin-off watered that down, but the original is surprisingly biting for the 1970s.

I didn't watch King of the Hill much but never found it funny when I did. Too much of the humor seemed rooted in Hank's discomfort with Bobby seeming like he was a budding gayling.

I love that fellow fans post the funnier clips of my watched shows. We sat through a lot of drivel to get those moments.

Also, TV was a “peaceful” time in our house. Thedinner fights were over and the bedtime terrors had not yet begun. I’m thinking of my fears of Satan, Vampire, and my oldest brother

[Quote] Even though he even made other cast members crack up on The CBS.

Is “the CBS” the way you dumb okies refer to the CBS Television Network?

[Quote] Lost.

This thread isn’t a competition, young man.

The MASH theme is called Suicide is Painless.

[quote] The MASH movie was very funny. The bawdy humor didn't make it into the TV show.

It was also dark in a way that the tv version could only aspire to. I despised that show.

As someone born in 1995, I was seen as some kind of "weirdo" by my classmates since I totally hated "Project X". I found it totally unfunny with loathsome characters.

Another comedy saga I never liked were the Austin Power films.

Those shows weren’t funny to YOU!

R97, perhaps we all misunderstood. Was the question which shows are unfunny to Jennifer Peterson of Springfield, MA?

r41 My hatred of the lead characters in Absolutely Fabulous knows no bounds. I can understand why other people find it hilarious but to me they're annoying as fuck.

Maybe it's because I was raised by psychiatric nurses who dealt with borderline personality disorders just like Edina and Patsy.

[quote] Carol Burnett was always uneven, hence the repackaging as half hours.

it was repackaged into half-hours because they could not get the rights to re-show the musical numbers they would perform.

R100 thanks.Did not consider that possibility.

[quote]Absolutely Fabulous. I've tried more than once to watch it and while I can see where it's *supposed* to be funny, it never actually manages to make me laugh.

Same here. The only ones I know who raved about it were vapid bar friends and borderline alcoholics I knew at the time.

I always think it's bizarre when people like the OP think humor is somehow objective and timeless.

Frasier is a classic. Hands down. And I loved Mike and Molly. I have every season on DVD.

R92 The CBS is The Carol Burnett Show moron!

Otto Preminger's Skidoo! Jaw droppingly bad!

AbFam worked because of the characters other than the stars, whose dialogue became tiresome and predictable after awhile.

[quote]It was repackaged into half-hours because they could not get the rights to re-show the musical numbers they would perform.

True, but the repackaging also allowed them to ditch the unfunny skits and focus on the absolutely hilarious, brilliant ones.

I haven't read the entire thread, so I don't know if SEX AND THE CITY has come up yet. How do people feel about that?

Skidoo is one of those movies I had to see to believe, it's so.. indescribable - Groucho, the Mob, LSD, Carol Channjng, Nilsson songs, directed by Otto Preminger..it's awful but it was ambitious.

Anything that has Jerry Lewis or the Marx Brothers.

I loved King of the Hill. I live in Houston and for a long time I had neighbors just like those people. One neighbor was exactly like Dale. Baseball cap, spouting off about government conspiracies and always a beer in his hand. Another was like Boomhauer and there were more than a few Peggy like frauen. All basically good people but definitely quirky and stereotypical to Texas.

Ghostbusters 1984

The New York Times Janet Maslin

However good an idea it may have been to unleash Mr. Murray in an 'Exorcist'-like setting, this film hasn't gotten very far past the idea stage. Its jokes, characters and story line are as wispy as the ghosts themselves, and a good deal less substantial.

I know that I'm probably in a minority here but Mel Brooks' The Producers1967

It's number 11 on the American Film Institute’s list of America’s 100 Funniest Movies.

[Quote] The New York Times Janet Maslin

To be fair, that cunt didn’t like anything. Which is why she resonated with you as a DLer.

[quote]I know that I'm probably in a minority here but Mel Brooks' The Producers1967

In this case, I truly think you're part of a minority of one.

Home Improvement - Tim Allen has never been nor will never be funny. He's the guy next door in suburbia who hangs out in his garage.

I've also thought Will Ferrell was over hyped - although he had his moments.

Adam Sandler does the same voice and character in every goddamn comedy movie. His popularity was ridiculous.

113 I have to agree. I’ve never gotten into Ghostbusters. My family is crazy about it but I’ve never found it amusing.

Forrest Gump, not funny. I despise Tom Hanks.

Love Big Bang Theory. It never fails to make me laugh.

Lucy was so contrived and predictable. And her voice.😖

Vicky Lawrence is on another level from Carol Burnett. A comic genius.

R119 - Forrest Gump was not a comedy. Lucy seems contrived and predictable because they really invented a lot of what we now see as common.

Vicky Lawrence had one character - besides Mama, she was forgettable.

Your taste is lacking.

Anything with Adam Sandler.

Bob Hope was never funny.

[quote]Vicky Lawrence had one character - besides Mama, she was forgettable.

I don't agree, I remember her being funny in several other Burnett skits -- for example, WENT WITH THE WIND.

I'm so clever!

Tee-hee.

Was ‘One Day at a Time’ supposed to be funny? It wasn’t.

I'm inclined to say yes because the show had a laugh track R125

Big Bang Theory and practically every American sitcom except Seinfeld. They're just too stupid.

[quote]Big Bang Theory and practically every American sitcom except Seinfeld. They're just too stupid.

The last British guy I dated was always slightly suspicious that I wasn't the American he had known from U.S. television. He couldn't reconcile that I was somehow a fluke, an exception to the idiots depicted in U.S. series.

I figured it wasn't a good idea to argue the point but to let him form his own opinion in his own time without the distraction of any explanation from me. While I was leaving him to this, I started to lose interest, not for his preconception but his revealing his taste. He told me that U.S. television was uniformly terrible with just two exceptions: Frasier and The Big Bang Theory. Frasier was clever enough if not the top of the heap, but Big Bang Theory was a wet blanket of caution. He even met an old friend to nerd out weekly in a discussion of the latest episode. Though he had not been exposed to the best sampling of U.S. TV, to think that Big Bang Theory was not only a good U.S. TV series but his favorite series ever was a sign I should have heeded sooner.