Since all year long I have been writing articles about Saturday Night Live, I thought I would also write an article where I discuss which TV shows are my favorite sketch comedy shows of all time. As a fan of the sketch comedy genre, there are plenty of shows out there besides SNL that I love just as much and make me laugh just as hard. Starting the countdown from 10 to 1, here are my top 10 favorite sketch comedy series of all time.

10. The Muppet Show (1976-81)

This would have been entertaining enough if it was just a puppetry-themed variety show, but then Jim Henson and his team of puppeteers created the most loveable and eccentric cast of characters in television history and made the people running the show the most entertaining part of the show. The Muppets have gone on to great success in the decades since this series aired but I still don’t think they have ever been as funny as they were in this.

9. Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-74)

This BBC series was a game changer that went on to influence not only British comedy but American comedy. Sketch comedy had existed on television before this but Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin took the genre in a fresh direction by showing the world that you didn’t have to sacrifice intelligent satire for silly slapstick, and this is the perfect example of a show that is both smart and stupid.

8. A Black Lady Sketch Show (2019-23)

Comedian Robin Thede achieved something I didn’t even know I wanted until she created this: a sketch comedy series with an all Black female cast. The best thing about the show is that it tells jokes that only a Black woman can tell as it tackles subjects like race, skin color, hair, female camaraderie and African American culture, and that narrow focus leads to some details you would never see in most mainstream shows, and thanks to Thede’s eye for talent and comedic perfectionism, the hilarious cast always enhances the jokes at every turn with a portrayal of Black womanhood that is at times exaggerated to humorous degrees but still rooted in something recognizable and rarely depicted in sketch comedy.

7. I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (2019-23)

Tim Robinson is a master of cringe comedy, and while in the wrong hands a show like this can be too excruciating to enjoy, Robinson’s comedic persona is so mesmerizing in his awkwardness and patheticness, and the situations he finds himself in are so ridiculous yet so relatable, that I can’t help but be drawn to this guy the same way I would watch a truck tumble down a cliff to see if it will explode when it lands.

6. Mad TV (1995-2009)

A sketch comedy show based on Mad Magazine is pretty much exactly what you would expect. But I still think this is underrated. It has often been compared to Saturday Night Live because it has aired on FOX on the same exact night as SNL for over a decade, but this often went way further than SNL in terms of how much it was willing to risk offending people and how out-there the humor was, which often led to some of the most outrageous and hilarious things I’ve ever seen on broadcast television, to the point where I’m surprised FOX even let this go on for so long. I don’t even think a show like Mad TV could exist on broadcast television anymore even if it was more politically correct, but it was the hallmark of zany satire while it lasted.

5. Chappelle’s Show (2003-06)

Dave Chappelle is someone I used to like more in the old days, but I can’t discount my love for his Comedy Central sketch comedy series Chappelle’s Show because laughter doesn’t lie. I’ve said it before but Chappelle, whether you like him or not, is a gifted comedian and he has the perfect face, voice and persona for comedy because he knows how to tell a compelling story and utilize timing, an eye movement or an utterance for maximum comedic effect. But credit to co-creator Neal Brennan as well for understanding who Chappelle is and helping translate it so well to the screen via some of the funniest sketches I’ve ever seen.

4. In Living Color (1990-94)

This was a revelation when I first watched it and to this day I think it’s the greatest masterpiece of the Wayans Bros.’ careers. It was basically the sketch comedy series that Black people had been waiting for. It spoke to me in a way that was deeper than SNL ever had, because I was finally seeing things that I recognized from my own life as an urban Black kid being satirized on national television. The genius of this show however was that anyone of any race could enjoy it, because Keenen Ivory Wayans wasn’t only focused on making a diverse show. He wanted to make sure that it was funny as well. He not only succeeded. He ended up making a television classic.

3. Robot Chicken (2005-present)

The only animated show on this list comes courtesy of Adult Swim and the team of stop-motion animators at Stoopid Buddy. Most sketch comedies have a niche appeal, which makes sense because most mainstream viewers would rather watch a Tim Allen sitcom than a sketch comedy series, but Robot Chicken targets nerds, an audience that has never really been catered to as well as they are here, and in ways that don’t feel condescending. The channel surfing format of the show that quickly hops from parody to parody makes it a bit looser and more rapid-paced than the average sketch show while the fact that the performers are all action figures and dolls also lends more freedom to the show’s type of humor and how it is utilized.

2. Key & Peele (2012-15)

Many of the sketches in this show are some of the funniest and most brilliant sketches I’ve ever seen but Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have such good chemistry that their presence often elevates them beyond what could have just been merely funny to somewhere closer to classic status. Some of their funniest sketches are the ones involving race, such as when the duo must figure out how to contend with racist zombies who completely ignore them and only attack White people, or when they use Barack Obama’s anger translator to illustrate how society judges angry Black people more harshly than they judge angry White people. The commentary, and the ability to inject that commentary with laugh-out-loud humor, is why I love this show so much.

1. Saturday Night Live (1975-present)

A lot of people are probably going to roll their eyes at my choice to put Saturday Night Live at the top of this list. I’m not ignorant to the fact that a lot of comedy fans despise this show and say it isn’t funny and it’s too mainstream. I even acknowledge that there’s a 50-50 chance any given sketch I watch on that show won’t be funny at all, and that many of the shows I mentioned previously have much better track records for consistently funny sketches because the live aspect of the show makes SNL sketches much more susceptible to flubs and mistakes. But that’s kind of why I love it so much. SNL is like the Olympics of sketch comedy. Live television comedy is one of the hardest things anyone in show business can do. So much so that when it works, it’s like a miracle. And when SNL works, when the sketch is brilliant, the timing is perfect, the jokes land, the performers are on fire and the audience laughs in all the right places, it’s an amazing feat that is a lot more courageous and a lot more impressive than any other form of comedy. And while it is rare that everything in an SNL sketch comes together in that way, it does happen. And when it does, they are among the most memorable moments of any sketch comedy series. Which is why this show is my favorite.