The 25 Best Comedy TV Shows Streaming On Hulu And Hulu Plus Now

As great as hour-long dramas like Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men, and Homeland are, keeping up with their sprawling drama and multiple characters' story lines can be an arduous task. Missing one episode means you can't just casually wait for the following week's installment—if you don't immediately play catch-up, you'll fall way behind. That's why it's always good to work some sitcoms and lighter fare into one's viewing schedule. With half-hour comedy programs, a week away from the narrative isn't a big deal, since the plots usually change every seven days and the showrunners' chief priorities all revolve around generating laughter. Lofty stakes need not apply.

These days, television junkies are waist-deep in some of the boob-tube's best drama shows, and it's definitely important for fans of, say, The Walking Dead to offset the rampant heaviness with lighthearted levity. And what better place to find the strongest jokes, the most ridiculous situations, and the funniest hot women than on Hulu, the free TV episode streaming service? Well, Hulu Plus, actually, where, for only $7.99 a month, subscribers are given a much deeper library of comedic series old and new. (You can even try it for a week for free!)

Rather than spend hours sifting through the extensive catalogs, though, simply click through the following list of The 25 Best Comedy TV Shows Streaming on Hulu and Hulu Plus Now and let Complex be your guide.

Related: Best TV Shows of 2017

RELATED: The 10 Most Underrated Sitcoms on TV Now

RELATED: The 25 Best Comedy TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now

RELATED: The 10 Worst TV Shows of 2012 (So Far)

Written by Matt Barone (@MBarone)

Follow @ComplexPopCult

Stars: Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, David Cross, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walters, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat

Eventually, before we all buy the proverbial farm, there will be an Arrested Development movie in a theater near you (or at least new episodes on Netflix). To some, that’s glorious news. To everyone else, and this faction is certainly the majority, talk of Arrested Development inspires blank stares and all-around indifference. Those sleepers, of course, are slacking off, big time.

Still one of the funniest sitcoms of the last decade, the Jason Bateman-led ensemble comedy presents a motley crew of bumbling eccentrics routinely engaging in loathsome acts, all for the sake of fully earned laughter. Since it's available on Hulu Plus, there’s no reason why anyone should still give a fuck less whenever the inevitable feature film makes its splashy debut.

Stars: Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, Danny DeVito, Kaitlin Olson

Good taste means nothing to characters on FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia—hell, they don't even care if the beer they serve inside the rundown Paddy's Pub is especially delectable. Thus, it's no surprise that TV viewers seeking a little edginess in their half-hour comedy servings continue to regularly watch the series seven years after its premiere.

Whether they're sleeping with each other's moms, snorting coke, ironically dating handicapped people, or spicing things up with LSD, the Sunny gang's business is moral corruption, not beer sales. And business is always thriving.

Stars: Ed O'Neill, Sofia Vergara, Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Nolan Gould, Rico Rodriguez

It's hard out there for modern-day sitcoms not titled Modern Family. For the past three years, ABC's gargantuan half-hour hit has won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, seeming like an unstoppable force that's left several equally worthy, as well as many inferior, TV programs in its wake. But you know what? It's tough to complain about accolades thrown Modern Family's way.

As progressive as it is hilarious, Modern Family follows the hijinks of the three related families (one traditional, one May-December, and one same-sex) that routinely screw things up for one another (see: Ty Burrell's man-child patriarch Phil Dunphy) but always come together through shared love and affection. Just not in the insufferably cutesy ways Full House used to wrap story lines up, thank heavens.

Stars: Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Lamorne Morris, Hannah Simone

It took a little bit of time for us to warm up to New Girl. Blame it on Zooey Deschanel's often annoying and goofily "adorkable" character, Jess, whose cutesy antics initially hinted at possible, unbearable irritation. But then a strange thing happened: New Girl's main character began to get overshadowed by her three male roommates, and that's when the Fox sitcom really hit its stride.

In its first season, New Girl established itself as having one of TV's best comedic ensembles, not to mention one of the small-screen's hottest actresses, and we're not talking about Deschanel (see: Hannah Simone). Deserving of the strongest praise are Jake Johnson and Max Greenfield, whose characters, the uptight Nick and buffoonish Schmidt, respectively, own New Girl in spite of Jess' increasingly tolerable silliness.

Stars: Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling, B.J. Novak, Brian Baumgartner, Ed Helms, Leslie David Baker, Phillis Smith, Angela Kinsey, Oscar Nunez, Craig Robinson, Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, Paul Lieberstein, Andy Buckley

These days, NBC's The Office is moving along (somewhat) unceremoniously toward its series finale, after nine uneven but ultimately successful seasons of single-camera comedy. The laughs still come at a generous clip, yet ever since Steve Carell (and, subsequently, his lovably buffoonish Michael Scott) exited for Hollywood's cinematic pastures, The Office just hasn't been the same.

To celebrate the ensemble sitcom's better days, dig through Hulu's complete library of all nine seasons. Our prediction: Within three to five episodes, you'll agree that Michael Scott is one of the funniest sitcom characters of all time.

Stars: Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Rob Lowe, Adam Scott, Paul Schneider, Jim O’Heir

When it premiered, in April 2009, NBC’s Parks and Recreation, which was shot in the same cinema verite style as The Office, met lofty expectations with an unevenly funny debut season. The cast, including Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones, promised greatness, and several of the early episodes are indeed hilarious. But it wasn’t until Parks and Rec’s knockout second season that the intelligently subversive sitcom came into its own. Now, it’s arguably the best comedy on television.

Stars: Ed O’Neill, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, David Faustino, David Garrison, Ted McGinley, Amanda Bearse

What’s not to love about Al Bundy (Ed O’Neill), the patriarch of Married... with Children’s incredibly dysfunctional family? He’s quick to berate his equally cold-hearted wife (Katey Sagal), uses his job selling women’s shoes to ogle beautiful ladies who aren’t his old ball-and-chain, and wants nothing more than to drink beers with his fellow unhappily married men. OK, so he’s basically the genuine article for divorce lawyers of all types, but so what? Married... with Children is rude, crude, and damn proud of it.

Stars: Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Lisa Bonet, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight-Pulliam, Raven-Symone, Sabrina Le Beauf

Today's younger generation probably only knows the great Bill Cosby as either the Jell-O dude or the old man who released 2009's bizarre hip-hop album State of Emergency. Older heads, of course, know Cosby for much greater accomplishments, most notably the groundbreaking NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, which aired from 1984 through 1992 and redefined small-screen domestic norms.

Based largely on Cosby's own stand-up comedy routines, The Cosby Show presented heartwarming family values accentuated by intelligent humor that never veered into disrespect or insensitivity. Over a whopping 197 episodes, the Huxtables showed the mainstream that a sitcom anchored by an all-black cast could both pull in huge ratings and change previously close-minded viewers' perceptions.

Stars: Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Mackenzie Crook, Lucy Davis, Oliver Chris, Patrick Baladi, Stacey Roca, Ralph Ineson, Stirling Gallacher

If you’re anything like us, you’re feeling a bit underwhelmed by NBC’s The Office post-Steve Carell. And, furthermore, you’ve watched every Dundler Mifflin rerun about six or seven times apiece. So what is there to do? How about acquainting yourself with the original, British version of The Office, starring a pre-crossover Ricky Gervais as a narcissistic and aloof boss who’s not quite as airheaded as Michael Scott, but who’s just as funny.

Stars: Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson, Nick Frost, Mark Heap, Julia Deakin, Katy Carmichael

Talk about a TV series we'd love to see brought back, but, this time, for American audiences as well as British viewers. Spaced, which sadly only lasted for two seasons on England's Channel 4, is the reason why Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz exist.

Co-created by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (who made a cameo in Shaun of the Dead), Spaced also starred those two as friends pretending to be an item so they could live in an inexpensive apartment. The pop-culture-savvy, rapid-fire series matched Pegg and his buddies Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright together, forging their three-way chemistry utilized in the aforementioned films.

Full of the same kind of quick-witted humor that gave Shaun and Hot Fuzz such unique charms, Spaced is largely a display of Wright's directorial chops, being that he shot all 14 episodes. Look at Spaced as the early training days for the singular auteur responsible for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Stars: Patrick Warburton, David Burke, Nestor Carbonell, Liz Vassey

Of course The Tick was never going to last. For one, it's a superhero comedy based on an obscure comic book, and features grown-ups parading around in silly-looking insect costumes, bantering with clever dialogue, and pushing the envelope every step of the way. With such an ambitious premise, creator Ben Edlund's commendably left-of-center series was bound to go over people's heads, and that it quickly did, lasting only nine episodes before meeting that bastard known as cancellation.

Thankfully, The Tick's small but passionate band of followers rallied behind star Patrick Warburton (currently stealing laughs from Seth MacFarlane on Family Guy, as paraplegic Joe Swanson) and company so hardcore that Fox liberated the program onto DVD in 2003. And now streaming episodes are ready to further expand the cult of The Tick.

Stars: Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green, Mike Henry

Now that Seth MacFarlane's Ted, the writer-director's first victorious stab at Hollywood filmmaking, is one of 2012's biggest triumph stories, a lot of those Family Guy haters—the ones who decry the Fox animated series' lack of fully developed stories and emphasis on scatterbrained structure—are probably acting like they've always been down with the Griffin family.

Well, we have, and if putting together our countdown of the show's 50 best episodes reminded us of anything, it's the fact that Family Guy is just as cuttingly and relentlessly funny as it's admittedly hit-or-miss with its random jokes. As the eight seasons' worth of eps available on Netflix can confirm, though, the dedication of MacFarlane and his writing staff show toward making viewers bust guts as often as possible is both admirable and, more often than not, effective.

Stars: Mike Judge

When MTV's moronic duo Beavis and Butt-head returned to airwaves last year, initial excitement was at first quelled by an early batch of so-so episodes, but as creator (and multiple voice provider) Mike Judge's brainchild settled into its new groove, the heavy-metal-obsessed boys were back to their old-school hilarious ways.

It was more than enough to make longtime fans eager to revisit Beavis and Butt-Head's earlier misadventures, which Hulu Plus has made easy to watch. From "the great Cornholio" to the time when Mr. Buzzcut forced them not to laugh, the knuckleheads' classic fuck-ups are just waiting for second (or third, or fourth) viewings.

Star: Jeff Ross

When comedian and roast regular Jeff Ross' hilarious Comedy Central talk show The Burn with Jeff Ross received a second season renewal recently, we were quite happy, though also a bit surprised. That lack of certainty comes from the show's minimal media coverage during its recent six-episode run (which kicked off in mid-August).

Those who stumbled across The Burn should be in agreement that Ross' reckless skewering of pop culture happenings and free-wheeling discussions with fellow provocative comedians like Jim Norton, Natasha Leggero, and Marc Maron made the show one of 2012's funniest surprises. See for yourselves via Hulu Plus.

Stars: Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Cedric Yarbrough, Niecy Nash, Carlos Alazraqui, Wendy McLendon-Covey, Joe Lo Truglio, Ian Roberts, Mary Birdsong

Quick to yell “Fuck the police!” whenever a cruiser rolls by and the uniformed driver grills you down? Then Reno 911! is the show for you. The brainchild of The State veterans Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, and Kerri Kenney-Silver, the Comedy Central mockumentary series tosses pies at police officers with its dumb-ass characters and their knack for busting comically inept criminals, from cross-dressers to dim-witted drug pushers. If cops were this idiotic in real life, the streets truly wouldn’t be safe.

Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone

By now, if you're unaware of Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's animated series South Park, that rock from which you crawled out under might still be there, so you'd best head back thataway. Always peppered with seething indictments against politics, pop culture, and other real-life societal issues, the Comedy Central mainstay's humor—pushed forward by the young foursome of Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny—has provided the television with some of its smartest comedy for the last 15 years.

Consider South Park's availability on Hulu Plus as your chance to join modern times and see why South Park is widely deemed superior to both The Simpsons and Family Guy. Do we agree with that stance? Not quite, but, nonetheless, the show remains a must-watch.

Stars: Matt Oberg, Natasha Leggero, Kurt Metzger, Randy Pearlstein, Michael-Leon Wooley, Larry Murphy

Props go out to Comedy Central’s brass for sticking with one of its lowest-rated shows, Ugly Americans. Apparently, the network’s big-wigs recognize an underrated comedy gem when they see one, and that’s exactly what they have in this horror fan’s dream come true that, unfortunately, not enough genre die-hards know about.

Ugly Americans is set in a society where famous monsters—i.e., zombies, demons, werewolves, and pretty much every other kind of creature imaginable—go about their normal lives as everyday citizens, and a well-meaning human gets to have hellishly kinky sex with the busty, ever-horny daughter of a Hades native. Yes, our actual reality sucks in comparison.

Stars: Adam Carolla, Jess Harnell, Abbey DiGregorio, Jack Plotnick, Tara Strong, Cree Summer, James Arnold Taylor

What an exceptional idea: Poke fun at the crowded reality TV market by tossing a ragtag group of animated stock characters into a house and cranking the parental rating up to somewhere in between PG-13 and hard-R.

A wacky cult hit that united a chauvinistic Superman knockoff with a murderous Pokémon ripoff, a boozing Betty Boop lookalike, and other familiar oddities, Drawn Together pushed the boundaries of good taste by making once-kid-friendly cartoons indulge in all of reality television’s sordid indulgences. Just watch Princess Clara and Foxxy Love kiss and tell us it’s not pretty hot. If you’re into that sort of thing, of course.

Stars: Tony Barbieri, Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel, Jim Florentine, Tracy Morgan, Kevin Nealon, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, Biz Markie

Does anyone even make prank phone calls anymore? It seems like a practice that went the way of MTV's The Grind, slap bracelets, and every other long-gone hallmark of our childhoods. Perhaps revisiting Comedy Central's unique Crank Yankers (2002-2007) could bring forth the revival of fake names like "Seymour Butts" and "Ben Dover" and jokes about running refrigerators.

Created by Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla, and Daniel Kellison, Crank Yankers provided comedians like Sarah Silverman, Tracy Morgan, Fred Armisen, and Dane Cook the opportunities to piss off unseen targets, or "marks," over the telephone, while the fake scenarios were played out with puppets. And with characters like elder, crazed Vietnam War vet Dick Birchum (voiced by Adam Carolla), football player turned awful rapper Landalious "The Truth" Truefield (David Alan Grier), and Karl Malone (Kimmel's impersonation of the NBA great), the eccentric humor was always good for some uncomfortable laughs.

Stars: Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla

Acknowledging the cleverness at work during episodes of Comedy Central's long-defunct The Man Show is, understandably, difficult—you try recognizing satirical wit while the Juggy Dance Squad's scantily clad beauties bounce up and down all up in your face.

Take a second to ignore the jiggling jugs, however, and you'll see that co-creators Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel were responsible for some slick fun-poking aimed at stereotypes of masculinity. Never losing sight of its playful tone, The Man Show exaggerated the things dudes wholeheartedly love (beer, chicks, bikinis, and more beer) in an attempt to salute those vices while simultaneously spoofing those who take them too far.

Stars: Dave Chappelle, Charlie Murphy, Donnell Rawlings

Like a potty-mouthed magician, stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle came, quickly conquered, and then disappeared from the public’s collective eye. Whether he truly went bonkers or legitimately questioned his fame is anyone’s guess, and, frankly, it really doesn’t matter, because the genius-level variety landmark Chappelle’s Show holds up as a sharply executed crowd-pleaser that’s leaps and bounds beyond any show of its ilk that’s come in the star’s pop culture exodus.

Stars: Michael Ian Black, Ken Marino, Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, Kerry Kenney-Silver, Joe Lo Truglio, Michael Showalter, David Wain, Kevin Allison, Todd Holoubek

Recognize some of those faces above? Chances are you're familiar with at least Thomas Lennon (Reno 911! and dozens of successful films), Ken Marino (Party Down), and Joe Lo Truglio (Superbad), but the rest of the then-20-something NYC comedians collectively known as The State have also gone on to bigger things in Hollywood. Which is why MTV's short-lived but cult favorite sketch comedy series The State is looked back upon as an important breeding ground of talent, one that's been utilized by Judd Apatow, Ben Stiller, and countless others.

Less powerful viewers should still appreciate the group's left-of-center sensibilities. Our personal favorites: "Louie," the happy guy who loves dipping his "balls" in things; "Barry and Levon," the sexually ambiguous playboys obsessed with pudding; and "Doug," the teenage slacker who rebels against his cool, unrestrictive parents for no logical reasons whatsoever.

Stars: Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, David Alan Grier, Kim Coles, Tommy Davidson, Anne-Marie Johnson, Keenen Ivory Wayans, T-Keyah Crystal Keymah, Kelly Coffield, Kim Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Jamie Foxx, Marlon Wayans, Alexandra Wentworth

Way back in 1990, brothers Keenen Ivory Wayans and Damon Wayans had a risky but refreshingly progressive idea: Take the sketch comedy format of Saturday Night Live but tone down the whiteness, populate the cast with more diversity, and keep the humor edgy. Four years, and 127 episodes later, their experiment, which aired on Fox, proved to be a rousing success.

Introducing audiences to names like Jim Carrey and Jamie Foxx, In Living Color conceived a plethora of memorable characters, from Carrey's Fire Marshall Bill to Damon Wayans' Homie D. Clown (seen above). And whenever the jokes ran out, there was always those sexy-as-hell Fly Girls (we see you, Jennifer Lopez) to gyrate energetically to jams by '90s hip-hop acts like Heavy D and Naughty by Nature.

Give Lorne Michaels a big round of applause—somehow, the television mogul has kept NBC's Saturday Night Live relevant and, most importantly, funny for 37 years. (In part with his great cameos.) Considering how many sketch comedy shows have come and gone during that time, that's nothing to sneeze at, especially when you take into account just how many careers Michaels has launched (from Dan Aykroyd all the way to sexy Kristen Wiig) with unforgettable skits and how many pop culture zeitgeist moments (i.e., Tina Fey as Sarah Palin) SNL has yielded.

Thanks to Hulu, you can watch every single episode ever, dating back to the show's October 11, 1975 premiere.