TV

Seinfeld Voted Funniest Sitcom of All Time

Vanity Fair took a poll to find out the funniest sitcom of all time, and yada yada yada, Seinfeld was the winner

Credit: NBC

Kramer, George, Elain and Jerry are still the funniest people on TV

A new Vanity Fair poll finds Seinfeld, the show about nothing, is the funniest TV sitcom of all time

Although it’s been nearly 15 years since 76 million viewers tuned in to watch the show’s final episode, Seinfeld continues to be a constant presence on television via reruns, reportedly earning US$2.7 billion after it went off the air.

And if a recent poll, commissioned by CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair magazine, is any indication, the enduring popularity of the “show about nothing” remains unabated. 

Seinfeld Remains King of the Sitcom

The poll, undertaken for the magazine’s special comedy-themed issue, asked respondents a variety of comedy-related questions, including which TV sitcom is the all-time funniest.

Receiving 22 per cent of the votes, Seinfeld came in at No. 1, edging out Jackie Gleason’s classic The Honeymooners, which came in a close second with 20 per cent.

Other sitcoms that made the list included Friends, Cheers, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Arrested Development.

More Funny Stuff

Beyond television, the poll also examined common attitudes towards comedy and learned that both men and women consider men to be the funnier sex, by a wide margin (60 per cent, in fact, think men are funnier than women).

In addition, respondents also chose Q as the funniest letter in the alphabet and selected employees at the Department of Motor Vehicles as the least likely group of employees to crack a smile, beating out airport workers, toll collectors and nightclub bouncers. 

Certain subjects should be off-limits for comedy, according to the poll, including such taboo topics as 9/11, sexual assault, religious figures and people with disabilities, and it’s somewhat telling that more than twice as many women as men found these topics to be in poor taste when it came to comedy. 

In addition, the poll also discovered that directing such comedy blockbusters as The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up doesn’t mean anybody will know who you are, and a mere 15 per cent of those polled could correctly identify writer/director Judd Apatow, who was guest editor of the Vanity Fair comedy issue — although 15 per cent thought he was a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton, five per cent pegged him as the creator of South Park (he’s not) and three per cent thought he was a 1970s country-music star.

Originally published in TVW. For daily programming updates and on-screen Entertainment news, subscribe to the free TVW e-newsletters, or purchase a subscription to the weekly magazine.