The 6 Best Comedy Shows of 2026 So Far, Ranked
Jessica is a young writer from Brisbane, Australia. An avid consumer and lover of all things Film and TV, you will never tear her away from a screen. A tendency rooted from childhood, she once had dreams of becoming a member of the famed kids-band 'Hi-5'. Perhaps that's what pushed her to secure an education with a theater background. But now, as dreams evolved, her passions have turned to admiring performances from afar. Frankly, she's just grateful that she can put her binging skills to good use. Outside of work, Jessica recently completed her undergraduate double degree in Arts/Communications. Other than that, she spends most of her free time with family and friends, probably never forgetting to talk about the new movie or show she watched the day prior.
Sign in to your Collider account
As we near the end of the year, it's time to acknowledge how 2026 has been a pretty good year for comedy. From shows about middle-aged crises and unconventional careers to dysfunctional families and messy friendships, television has produced plenty of reasons to laugh. Some of these have had us cracking up from beginning to end, while others masterfully balance their comedy with stories about grief, relationships, and the general disaster of being a person.
Better still, the best comedies of the year haven't necessarily been the loudest ones, either. They've found humor in awkward situations, deeply flawed characters, bizarre circumstances, and the uncomfortabilities of everyday life. So yes, while more comedies could very well bring us joy as the next few months go by, these are some of our favorites—as of right now.
6 'DTF St. Louis' (2026)
As Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman) and Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour) befriend one another after bonding over their stagnant marriages, the two decide to experiment with a local app intended for extramarital hookups. But tensions soon escalate into a toxic web of lies as Clark begins a secret affair with his new friend's wife, Carol (Linda Cardellini). Of course, things only get worse when Floyd suddenly turns up dead.
Don't let the show's color-grading confuse you. While it does place a murder mystery at its center, DTF St. Louis is much more interested in the absurdity of the people involved rather than crafting a conventional crime thriller. Indeed, the humor mostly stems from watching deeply flawed adults make spectacularly bad decisions, with Bateman, Cardellini, and Harbour playing their characters' loneliness and terrible judgment completely straight. It's dark, uncomfortable, and often very funny in the way only a comedy about sex, death, and middle-aged desperation can be.
5 'Hacks' (2021–2026)
Season 5
As Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) return to Las Vegas, the two quickly discover a smear campaign has been mounted against the legendary comedian. And yet, despite that (as well as a non-compete gag order), Deborah is determined to defy the odds and chase a career-defining goal: selling out a stand-up show at Madison Square Garden.
While it may be its fifth and final season, Hacks never seems to run out of ridiculous problems for Deborah to turn into her personal crusade. Whether she's plotting around contracts, chasing the occasional milestone, or refusing to accept that the industry might not give her exactly what she wants, Deborah approaches every setback as though it were a declaration of war. Of course, Smart remains the show's shining weapon, able to make a vicious put-down or completely unreasonable demand land with impeccable comic timing, while the supporting cast gets plenty of room for its own chaos. And even after all these years, Hacks still knows how to make the entertainment industry feel like the funniest and most dysfunctional workplace imaginable. A truly great send-off to a masterful show.
4 'Margo's Got Money Troubles' (2026–Present)
Margo Millet (Elle Fanning) is a college dropout and aspiring writer whose life takes an unexpected turn when she gets pregnant by her English professor. Now, abandoned by her baby's father, she's left facing mounting bills with very few ways to pay them. As a result, Margo returns to the orbit of her unconventional parents, while also exploring increasingly unconventional ways of making money—including starting an OnlyFans account.
On paper, the premise could've easily become a grim story about single-parenthood, but Margo's Got Money Troubles somehow became so much more. For instance, rather than treating Margo's decision as a punchline or a cautionary tale, the show takes her sex work seriously and instead finds plenty of comedy in the situations surrounding it. And let's not forget how Michelle Pfeiffer and Nick Offerman make her parents' eccentricity an attraction in its own right (along with some other surprising appearances). Yet another win for AppleTV's growing catalog.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Netflix Character Would Be Your Best Friend? Dustin · Emily · Wednesday · Gi-hun
Some friends drag you out of the house. Some sit with you on the worst night of your life. Netflix has written both, plus the one who tells you the truth you have been avoiding all week. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually do friendship, and find out which of them was always going to end up in your corner.
🧢Dustin(Stranger Things)
🗼Emily(Emily in Paris)
🕷️Wednesday(Wednesday)
🟢Gi-hun(Squid Game)
01
How do you usually end up making a new friend? The origin story says a lot about the friendship that follows it.
02
What is a perfect Saturday with your best friend? Friendship is mostly built out of very ordinary hours.
03
You call them at two in the morning. What happens? This is the real test of a friendship, and everybody knows it.
04
What do you want from them when you are clearly wrong? The best friendships are the ones that survive being corrected.
05
What do your friends actually value about you? The friend you attract says something about the friend you are.
06
You have a falling out. How does it go? How a friendship repairs itself matters more than how it breaks.
07
What do you actually need a best friend for? Everybody is missing something. The right friend fills that gap.
08
Ten years from now, what keeps the two of you close? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who you get.
The Group Chat Has Spoken Your Best Friend Is…
Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your life would be like.
Dustin Henderson
You do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he. What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the plan.
- Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense, enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind.
- You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous, and they last for decades because of it.
- He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously, which is far rarer than it sounds.
- You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet.
Emily Cooper
You are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she. Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with yourselves.
- Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion, which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy levels.
- You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when something was happening somewhere else.
- She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly, publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts.
- She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very good photo.
Wednesday Addams
You have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this list.
- Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for an enormous amount.
- You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally incapable of offering you anything else.
- Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a performance out of caring.
- Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you.
Seong Gi-hun
You look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend.
- Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself.
- You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long after anybody would blame you for leaving.
- He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes back and tries again, which is more than most manage.
- He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it.
3 'Shrinking' (2023–Present)
Season 3
Struggling to grapple with the death of his wife, Jimmy (Jason Segel) decides to abandon his professional boundaries as a therapist and start telling his patients exactly what he thinks—even if this creates chaos for his clients, loved ones, and himself. By the third season, Shrinking follows an overarching theme of moving forward as Jimmy and his tightly-knit circle are forced to brave other massive life transitions, whether that be about parenthood, illnesses, or careers.
Despite all the emotional upheaval, Shrinking remains one of television's funniest shows as its characters are spectacularly incapable of dealing with serious situations normally. Jimmy is still impulsive, intrusive, and very good at making other people's problems his own, while the show's found-family dynamic continues to generate plenty of wonderfully awkward and chaotic comedy. At the same time, the season gives its characters room to change, making the jokes feel more meaningful because there's actually something at stake beneath them. Funny, warm, and occasionally heartbreaking, season 3 has only left us begging for the next.
2 'Adults' (2025–Present)
Season 2
A tight-knit, co-dependent group of twenty-somethings—Samir (Malik Elassal), Billie (Lucy Freyer), Issa (Amita Rao), Anton (Owen Thiele), and Paul Baker (Jack Innanen)—live together in Samir's childhood home in New York while attempting to figure out how to become functioning adults. Stumbling their way through life, their problems range from relationships to family, money, and the increasingly embarrassing realities of being responsible for themselves.
Adults truly stuck its landing this season as the show that perfectly encapsulates the Gen Z experience. For one, it completely commits to turning the mundane humiliations of your 20s into full-blown comic disasters. A fake ID, a dinner party, a workplace mistake, or even switching bedrooms can become the basis for an entire episode of increasingly stupid consequences. Season 2 also makes sure to give the ensemble more room to develop beyond the chaos, since the characters feel more like true friends rather than five people assembled solely to deliver punchlines. So let's renew the show for season 3, okay?
1 'Widow's Bay' (2026–Present)
Set in a fictional New England town, Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) is determined to transform the struggling community into a tourist destination. But his plans bring renewed attention to the town's strange traditions and long-buried secrets, forcing Tom and the locals to confront the unsettling forces that surround them.
After winning an egregiously record-breaking number of Emmys this year, it's not surprising that Widow's Bay has once again found itself on top. Rather than turning the horror into an excuse for constant jokes, the show lets the supernatural elements play out with genuine menace while also finding the comedy in the reactions of those caught within them. Rhys anchors the show with a stunningly straight-faced performance that makes the stranger moments even funnier. And of course, that humor is only amplified by the eccentric ensemble who all seem to have their own relationship with the town's bizarre history. The result is a rare horror-comedy that truly leans into the creepy and the absurd—and somehow makes both sides work.
Widow's Bay
7 10
- Release Date
- April 28, 2026
- Network
- Apple TV
- Showrunner
- Katie Dippold
- Directors
- Sam Donovan, Andrew DeYoung, Hiro Murai, Ti West
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.