There was plenty to laugh at on television in 2015. Some of it was dark, some of it was incredibly silly, and some of it was funny for unintentional reasons. Attempting to narrow it all down to one list is a fool’s errand, in part because humor is so subjective, and in part because there was just so dang much to choose from. But we are nothing if not fools, so we tried to do it anyway. Below, please find some of the funniest moments of the 2015 television season, as selected by the Uproxx staff.
The “Let Blaine Die SWOT Board,” Silicon Valley
Although Silicon Valley’s excellent sophomore season didn’t have anything quite as inspired as the Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency joke from the first season finale (I mean, it would be pretty much impossible to top), the sixth episode, “Homicide,” contained what was easily the stand-out comedic moment of the season. After Pied Piper partners with an energy drink company (the titular “Homicide,” which is a pretty good joke in its own right) to livestream a publicity stunt, Dinesh and Gilfoyle (Kumail Nanjiani and Martin Starr) notice that the douchey stunt driver Blaine’s calculations are wrong, which would cause him to die horribly in a fiery crash. When they try to warn Blaine, he rebuffs them, which leads the two usual adversaries to create a “Let Blaine Die SWOT Board” to access the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of letting the stunt driver die, influenced by the fact that Dinesh also wants to bang his girlfriend. The whole thing was gloriously deranged. After the episode aired, a list of actual cards from the SWOT board surfaced, which somehow managed to take the joke to a whole new level. — Stacey Ritzen
Peeno Noir, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
How did our Earth spin for millennia without Titus Andromedon’s glitter-infused “ode to black penis?” What did people dance to? What did people bone to? What did people rhyme “mid-size car” with? I can hardly remember life before “Peeno Noir,” but I do know it wasn’t as rich or beautiful or filled with references to Roseanne Barr. To make the experience of watching it over and over again even more transcendent, I highly recommend this French-subtitled version — you haven’t really lived until you’ve seen Tituss Burgess, hand over heart, overlaid with the words “une ode au penis noir.” — Rachel Handler
Forrest’s Vetoes, Review
The entire second season of Review was terrific. This much we know. But the real work of genius was the introduction of two vetoes that Andy Daly’s character, Forrest MacNeil, could use to get out of particularly dicey audience requests. I’m so torn here because I want to explain exactly how they used them and why it was perfect, but I also know that some of you — despite my repeated pleas — still haven’t watched Review, and I really want you to have the pleasure of seeing this unfold with fresh eyes. You know what? I’ll shut up. But watch Review. — Danger Guerrero
Ray’s Kid Saluting Him, True Detective
Chad, the overweight son of of Colin Farrell’s Ray Velcoro, saluting his father for about 10 seconds before Ray jumps in his car to drive out into the woods and get murdered while trying to get a signal on his smartphone was the perfect distillation of this season of True Detective: Obvious, sentimental, excessive, and dumb. It was a waving American flag short of a Michael Bay scene. For that, I loved it, because no matter how many times Ray called his son a “fat pussy” or beat up his friends’ dads, Chad thought his dad was the greatest thing since sliced pizza and Friends, and he wouldn’t trade that badge away for no amount of Pokemon cards. It’s goddamn poetry. — Dustin Rowles
Spooky Sunday Funday, You’re The Worst
This season of You’re the Worst dealt with heavier subject matter than most sitcoms traditionally do. Between Gretchen’s depression and (to a lesser degree) Lindsay’s divorce, our badly-behaving protagonists had their fair share of bumps in the road. However, most of that was put aside for a truly stellar Halloween episode. Between Jimmy’s obscure British costume that no one understood, Edgar’s “timely” Jersey Shore duds, and Dorothy’s Steven Spielberg, the costumes alone are worth watching. However, there is nothing more hilarious that seeing grown adults scream like tiny children in the face of a terrifying haunted house. Lindsay’s personal revelation via a “puts the lotion in the basket” scenario is just icing on the very funny cake. After two stellar Sunday Funday-themed episodes, fans can certainly expect another winner next season. — Alyssa Fikse
Paul Rudd’s Motorcycle Entrance, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp
Now that you look at it, there was really no other possible way for Paul Rudd’s Wet Hot American Summer character Andy to make his triumphant return than by flying in on a motorcycle and immediately jumping off of it. “Smells weird, who beefed?” Typical Andy. — Stacey Ritzen
Roy: A Life Well-Lived, Rick And Morty
Pixar’s Up has the first 10 minutes; Rick and Morty has “Roy: A Life Well Lived.” In under three minutes, we see Roy grow up, become a high school football star, get cancer, take an unsatisfying job at the carpet store, and… die. Roy never existed, though. He’s a character in a virtual reality life simulator controlled by Morty, then Rick. It’s heartbreaking, but in an extremely funny and extremely dark way. Pointing out life’s pointlessness, through a video game played by an old drunk in a space-arcade? That’s the Rick and Morty way. – Josh Kurp
CGI Rrendering Of The Prison Escape, Seven Days In Hell
This unhinged HBO sports mockumentary only focused on tennis until some other subject caught its easily-wavered attention, at which point it’d veer off into lunatic tangents about courtroom sketch artists or William F. Buckley doppelgangers. The best digression of all placed arrogant champ Aaron Williams (Andy Samberg) in a Swedish prison, from which he makes a daring escape after he hears his rival calling him out on a TV broadcast. The fictitious documentary cuts to a computer-rendered animation to visualize his breakout, beginning with a massive gay shower orgy and then cutting to computer-Aaron running fully nude out of the prison with his tail-like penis swaying majestically between his legs. It is easily and without question the strangest thing I saw on TV this year, and it accomplished the rare feat of making me laugh so hard I had to rewind and catch everything I couldn’t hear over my cackling. — Charles Bramesco
Ron Swanson’s Last Stand Against Tammy, Parks And Recreation
The final season of Parks and Recreation was so good that it featured several moments that could have cracked my year-end list of funniest moments, and there has been a lot of hilarious TV in 2015. But Tammy Swanson’s walk-off moment was my favorite character goodbye since Dr. Leo Spaceman shouted, “Suckers!” on 30 Rock. That’s because Ron Swanson, one of the greatest characters in TV history, not only showed us that he’d overcome his own weakness to his twice ex-wife, but he was also able to help Councilman Jeremy Jamm find redemption in his own sniveling, pathetic attraction to Tammy. Jamm was a beautiful loser and watching him be slapped and tortured was as good for us as it was for him. More than anything, though, he and Ron gave us the term “crotch blinders.” For that, we will always be thankful. — Ashley Burns
“Last F*ckable Day,” Inside Amy Schumer
Trying to choose this year’s best Amy Schumer sketch is like trying to choose whether you’d rather sleep with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, or Patricia Arquette. So, fine, let’s give the honor to “Last F*ckable Day,” which is one of the most biting, culturally trenchant pieces of work to ever spring forth from Schumer’s fevered brain. Starring Louis-Dreyfus, Fey, and Arquette as themselves, the skit casually shreds Hollywood to pieces in a matter of five minutes, mocking it for its myopic, misogynistic, and ageist views on women. Oh, and it’s also f*cking hilarious, with lines like, “I heard that Bruce Willis got engaged to a girl who’s 24 years younger than him, and I heard that she’s an actual baby lamb.” Let’s all raise our flaming bow-and-arrows to this one. — Rachel Handler
The Best Line Of Dialogue Of The Year, Zoo
CBS’s Zoo was the most unintentionally hilarious show of the year, what with its Slovenian dog ambushes and wolf-orchestrated prison breaks and murderous kamikaze bats killing Brit-pop loving lesbian scientists in Antarctica. But nothing was funnier that this single line of dialogue. It’s like the world’s worst game of Would You Rather? And what makes it even better is that those are the show’s subtitles, because she said it in French. In French! That means they had to write it down at least twice — once in the script and once for the subtitle. That’s the best part.
Good luck topping this sucker, 2016. — Danger Guerrero
