Sketches are a comics best format for television and Nick Swardson has a show that's loaded with them. Each episode displays some sort of rank and raunchy humorous ingredients that will make 7th graders giggle and adults cover their heads. But along the way some of it is actually funny even if rather dark. Skits about cats in wheelchairs, snipers who masturbate, and incestual dreams involving the Nightmare on Elm Street movies are unusual fare for family television nights and when the show's main character sits and tells us about what we are about to see we begin to wonder what world this is. Nick's dead cat, Fitzgerald, is fair game for another episode as are a fatherly bucket list for a dying son, urine powered cars, and even a Gay Robot. Never one to be short on "off the wall" ideas, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time will give viewers a peek into a rather weird place, the mind of Swardson. Imagine, if you will, recovering a time capsule full of sex objects, or following Gay Robot as he buys airplane tickets to visit the alien probe site (area 51 come to mind?), or maybe learn how a forest ranger steps in to break up intimate moments between homosexuals. All this and more can be found on the Nick Swardson's Pretend Time show.

Television snobs maintain the American version of "The Office" TV series pales by comparison with its British forerunner. Their sneers, however, have done nothing to diminish "The Office's" standing as America's premier sitcom. Audiences and critics wholeheartedly agree the Dunder Mufflin office follies restored NBC as network television's pre-eminent purveyor of great half-hour comedies. Filmed as a "mockumentary," the American "Office" TV show remains faithful to the British example of perfectly deadpan delivery, and the producers wisely add neither laugh-tracks nor musical cues. Of course, brilliant one-liners punctuate the show, but they are subtle and ironic rather than snappy. For example, in characteristically clueless style, Scranton office manager Michael Scott tells his staff, "As Abe Lincoln once said: If you are a racist, we will attack you from the North." Steve Carrell leads a well-chosen ensemble cast who portray a sales force the New York Times aptly characterized as "uniformly unattractive, wan and dull" characteristics which, of course, make them deliciously funny.

The League is about six participants in Fantasy Football who are actually players in a Fantasy Football league along side the creators of this TV show. So evidently they know what they are talking about when it comes to football, right? Well maybe even their wives know more and sometimes run the show. All the six characters have their own motivation to participate in such fanciful games. Set in the windy city, Chicago, we find Pete Eckhart who has won the league championship three times. Pete is now separated and learning how to meet women all over again. His job involves working in a cubicle but he spends more time plotting his fantasy football moves. Kevin MacArthur is deep into fantasy football and also a district attorney. His position allows him to make some great draft trades and his wife just may run his teams more than he. Attorney Rodney Ruxin plays the game but is extremely paranoid about what others think of him. Another player, Andre Nowzik is a plastic surgeon who tries to be "cool" but doesn't have a clue. He does love the fantasy football games! Taco MacArthur and wife Jenny also play the virtual games. Jenny is Kevin's wife and just may be the best at trading and betting. Watch for some special guest stars on each season. Terry Bradshaw and Chad Ochocinco have shown up in past seasons.

Of course, nerds, geeks, dorks, techies, and intellectuals of all advanced-degree descriptions deserve love and affection"”if only their lips could form the monosyllables, "Will you go out with me?" CBS's hit "The Big Bang Theory" explores this and other mysteries of the universe, putting a lab-coated coterie of Cal-Tech scientists directly across the hall from Penny, premier Pasadena waitress and aspiring actress. "The Big Bang Thoery" proves once again that excruciating self-consciousness and social ineptitude, unfortunately, are always funny; and GED holders may derive extra satisfaction from Penny's frequent mastery of difficult situations on the strength of common sense and hard experience. In its first seasons, "The Big Bang Theory" looked frighteningly like "My Boys" minus Wrigley Field, but the characters and show have evolved, and individual actors and actresses have put their distinctive stamps on their roles. Especially Kaylee Cuoco has found the right balance between ingenuousness and homegrown girl power in her portrayal of Penny. Audiences have noticed, giving "The Big Bang Theory" their nod for a People's Choice Award in 2010. At the 2011 Golden Globe Awards, relatively unheralded, deliciously diffident Jim Parsons took home a handsome statuette for his performance as physicist Dr. Sheldon Cooper, an immensely lovable uber-nerd supreme. And in January, 2011, giving "The Big Bang Theory" the ultimate vote of confidence, CBS extended the show's contract for another three seasons.

Just as we all began to wonder whether or not William H. Macy ever would land a role as juicy and delicious as playing Felicity Huffman's real-life husband, he scored arguably the greatest part of his entire career, starring as Frank Gallagher on Showtime's gritty new "Shameless." Frank drinks. Frank drinks shamelessly, intrepidly, relentlessly, recklessly and irretrievably while his six motherless children learn to fend for themselves on Chicago's unforgiving south side, "back of the stockyards," as they say, although the cattle have long-since gone. In the first episode, a properly burly Chicago police officer deposits Frank on his entryway floor, noting his incontinence and suggesting, "I wouldn't put him anywhere near a carpet until his pants dry." This ain't no Wisteria Lane. Adapted from its British companion, the American version of "Shameless" fulfils producer John Wells's long-standing desire "to make a television show where familial love, juicy cursing, casual sex and drug use, bluntly put humor, mega-alcohol bingeing and total chaos reign." The subject matter and setting naturally lend themselves to that treatment, and the entire casts rises to the occasion. "Shameless" depicts abject poverty, incurable alcoholism, and hopeless co-dependence as grimly and accurately as they deserve, yet it still persuades slightly spellbound viewers the Gallaghers genuinely love one another.

"Starstruck" is a comedy series that first premiered on the BBC in 2021. It was created by Rose Matafeo, who also stars in the show, and co-written with Alice Snedden. The series follows the story of Jessie, a New Zealander living in London who has a one-night stand with a stranger on New Year's Eve. She later finds out that he is a famous movie star named Tom Kapoor, and the two begin to develop feelings for each other.