The Most Underrated Actors on TV Comedies

As far as the Emmys are concerned, Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory are the only sitcoms out—and that's a shame. Reliable as the former is (and ubiquitous as the latter is), there are a ton of great comedies out that are just getting by with niche audiences, or only beginning to gain Academy recogniton.

The newest crop of sitcoms may be struggle city, but others entering their sophomore or middle seasons are graciously sheltering actors who are flexing acclaimed but otherwise largely unrecognized comedic chops. These are the handful of colorful oddballs and beleaguered straight men and women who are just as meme worthy as some of your favorites. Read on for the Most Underrated Actors on TV Comedies, all currently airing or recently ended.

Written by Frazier Tharpe (@The_SummerMan)

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Current role: Schmidt, New Girl (FOX)

New Girl is one of the most popular sitcoms not named Modern Family out, and while Nick and Jess are fast becoming the latest television It couple, don’t sleep on what Max Greenfield is doing as the womanizing roommate Schmidt.

Greenfield is basically a single-camera version of Neil Patrick Harris’s Barney from How I Met Your Mother. As New Girl’s fanbase rises, we wouldn’t be surprised if Schmidt’s antics come to equal Barney’s in terms of meme-worthy impact.

Current role: Jonah Ryan, Veep (HBO)

All praises due to Tony Hale, who deserved his recent Emmy for Veep, but the show’s biggest laughs usually come courtesy of Timothy Simons’s odious aide Jonah Ryan. The self-proclaimed “go-to guy for all things White House” is also the guy everybody hates—not that he cares. The self-important aide is the butt of everyone’s jokes, and his repeated attempts at stunting despite the haters make him the breakout character on the HBO satire.

Current role: Virginia Chance, Raising Hope (FOX)

It’s hard to choose an actor to spotlight out of the highly underrated FOX sitcom Raising Hope, but we’re going to have to go with Virginia, portrayed by ex-Goonie Martha Plimpton.

As the titular Hope’s young grandmother, Plimpton is the glue that holds this sweet, bizarre comedy together, co-matriarch’ing it up with Cloris Leachman’s equally special “Maw Maw.” Plimpton took the role fresh off of an Emmy-winning performance on The Good Wife; the fact that she scored a nomination for this as well just proves how dynamic her range is. Raising Hope pulled off a Hail Mary renewal, so catch up while it’s still on hiatus.

Current role: Tessa Altman, Suburgatory (ABC)

Suburgatory is one of the best sleeper sitcoms on the tube right now, but it wouldn’t be anything without the perfectly cast Jane Levy as the prototypical city kid relegated to the hellish 'burbs. The role could be as run-of-the-mill as the cookie-cutter neighborhood, but Levy imbues her performance with a sarcasm and desert dryness that all but steals the show out from her dad and co-protagonist, played by the capable Jeremy Sisto.

Current role: Mac, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (FXX)

It’s hard to shine next to the legendary Danny DeVito and the skittish scene-stealing Charlie Day, but Always Sunny is, with all due respect to the cast, Mac’s show. The sheriff of Paddy’s is fully capable of generating laughs on his own (both at and with) and what’s more, McElhenney is so dedicated to the character that he gained fifty pounds in real life, both because he felt a man with Mac’s lifestyle would, realistically, pack on the flubber and to intentionally combat the sitcom trend of schlubby (or nerdy) characters becoming attractive as a show gains popularity. This man is putting in work.

Current role: Laurie Keller, Cougar Town (TBS)

It’s jarring re-watching early episodes of Cougar Town, not just because the series was, well, bad, but more so because Busy Philipps's Laurie Keller is so tame.

As the show’s quality grew so did its trust in Philipps, who stays true to her name by completely owning the increasingly zany bits of physical comedy the writers throw at her. Laurie is loud, over-the-top, and in a constant state of breathlessness from recounting some ridiculous anecdote. It’s every ditzy role Busy Phillips has played during her career, with ten times the execution.

Current Role: Bobby Cobb, Cougar Town (TBS)

Every sitcom needs an endearing idiot, and Van Holt’s Bobby Cobb might be the funniest one out right now. Why? Because he lives on a boat docked in a parking garage, drives a golf cart around his suburban Florida town, and talks like this.

And to think that Brian Van Holt is most familiar to viewers for playing fifth string in Colin Farrell’s SWAT or chasing Chad Michael Murray in House of Wax. Bobby Cobb is so unique it may as well be his breakout role, the one he’ll forever be associated with for better or worse. If only more people watched Cougar Town, that is.

Latest role: Brad Williams, Happy Endings (ABC)

Technically the second generation Wayans brother is out of work (at least as far as TV is concerned). Unless his upcoming comedy flick Let's Be Cops catapaults him into film stardom, we hope he finds a new TV home soon, as he stands out in any ensemble he joins. New Girl fans are still eager for his return, and meanwhile, on Happy Endings, he won many of the weekly tug-of-war contests between the cast to emerge as the scene stealer, with a knack for spitfire delivery and the type of zany quirkiness you'd expect from Homey the Clown's son. In fact, if Wayans Jr. does return to TV, it should be as the lead, instead of the over-achieving, out-acting co-star work he's been doing the past three years.

Current role: Tom Chadwick, Family Tree (HBO)

Family Tree is one of the best sitcoms that you’re not watching, and O’Dowds’s charm is a big part of the show’s allure. You probably know him best as Jenna’s doomed husband from Girls, but Tom Chadwick is more in the vein of O’Dowd’s nice guy, sincere act that he displayed in Bridesmaids. He's usually the straight man to whatever quirky family member he's encountering for the week, but he's never outshined.

Current role: Terry Jeffords, Brooklyn Nine-NIne (FOX)

Simply put, Terry Crews is usually the best thing about whatever comedy, sitcom or movie, that he’s in, achieving that rare level of being an elevating presence. Catch White Girls on basic cable, and ask yourself why you’ve stopped surfing. Hint: it isn’t because of the Wayans brothers. No shots at Andy Samberg, but Crews is currently providing the most laugh-out-loud moments on Brooklyn Nine-Nine doing what he does best: wildly effete and/or childish things made instantly funny by his hulking stature.

Current role: Kevin MacArthur, The League (FXX)

The League's Kevin is surrounded by larger-than-life buffoons like fan favorites Rafi and Taco, and he doesn’t have the immediately winning droll one-liners that Nick Kroll fires off effortlessly as Ruxin. Ostensibly, all Kevin does is react to things, and at that, Stephen Rannazzisi is excellent. As the straight man amidst a sea of cartoon characters and a wife who routinely gets the drop on him, most of the laugh-out-loud moments on The League are actually courtesy of Kevin’s suffering, alternating between reaction faces and hilarious cries of disbelief, a component the show could not survive without.

Current role: Larry Bird, The Neighbors (ABC)

When The Neighbors debuted last year, it was quickly written off as cancel bait, but lo and behold the sitcom scored not only a second season, but an uptick in both ratings and acclaim. What seemed like a tired premise actually contains some solid laughs from the charmingly innocent aliens that inhabit the aptly named Hidden Hills. Neighbors isn't a show you need to watch, but it's not a waste of time if you happen to catch it either. The breakout character is undoubtedly alien leader, Larry Bird (they all have sports celeb names, because why not) played with robotic quirkiness and earnestness by Simon Templeman, suprisingly a relative newb to the sitcom world.

Current role: Andy Dwyer, Parks and Recreation (NBC)

Watching Parks and Recreation is the equivalent of curling up with a cup of hot cocoa by a fire. It's the best thing after a shitty day at work. That's all because of its remarkable cast that play on screen like family. And, with all due respect to Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope, no one knows how to play quite like Chris Pratt's Andy Dwyer.

Pratt has a talent for making the fundamentally dumbest character on screen the most endearing. His fearlessness when it comes to physical comedy, coupled with his perfect delivery make him a performer we simply cannot look away from.

Current role: Morgan Tookers, The Mindy Project (NBC)

You should be watching The Mindy Project because Mindy Kaling is awesome, and Chris Messina (whom you probably know best as the sometimes evil ACN News president from The Newsroom) is great as well, but the breakout award goes to Ike Barinholtz as Morgan the male nurse. By that description alone, of course he must be the oddball of the ensemble, but Barinholtz does the character so well that he made Morgan into a necessity rather than a small-dose goof. Any time a role envisioned as recurring graduates to a supporting cast member, props must be paid.

Latest role: Alex Kerkovich, Happy Endings (ABC)

Who could’ve imagined back during her cougar evading days that Kim Bauer would have one [intentionally] comedic bone in her body? Fast forward a decade though, and Elisha Cuthbert has gone from the bane of every 24 fan’s existence to uncontested MVP of one of television’s sharpest (and woefully underrated) sitcoms.

The Happy Endings cast is filled with actors with backgrounds in comedy and stand-up save her and Zach Knighton, but where Knighton is predictably the ensemble’s weak link, somewhere in the second season the writers decided to turn Cuthbert’s Alex’s dim bulb all the way down and Cuthbert rose to the challenge.

Alex Kerkovich is endearingly bereft of any common sense, a woman of simple pleasures—rom-coms and ribs, and prone to whimsical moves like buying a racist parrot. With Happy Endings officially cancelled as of last spring, hopefully Cuthbert finds another outlet to exercise her comedic chops.