Who are the funniest sketch comedy groups of all time? The best groups, like Human Giant, The State, Mitchell and Webb, The Whitest Kids U Know, and The Kids in the Hall, create hilarious shows and skits for stage and screen. Royal Canadian Air Farce and Lonely Island also gained fame for their comedy albums. Many troupes, including Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade, serve as feeders for Saturday Night Live. Vote for your favorite and add any missing groups. These collectives specialize in short-form comedy, often focusing on improv. Some upload sketches to YouTube or tour the country performing live. The success of Saturday Night Live in the 1970s introduced sketch comedy to many Americans, paving the way for contemporary troupes. This list features the most famous and celebrated sketch comedy groups worldwide.
About this list
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United Kingdom
568 - 4
Canada
190 - 7
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele show life through filmed sketches and live stage segments.
144 - 10
United States
73 - 11
Comics perform in a surreal sketch comedy series.
47 - 13
United States
40 - 14
United Kingdom
39 - 17
Broken Lizard is an American comedy troupe. It includes Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. They write, act, and produce their films together. Chandrasekhar and Heffernan direct the work. The team shares leadership; they choose material and write projects together.
14 - 19
United Kingdom
10 - 23
-8 - 24
United Kingdom
-8 - 26
Not Necessarily the News became a satirical sketch comedy series. HBO aired it in September 1982 as a comedy special. The show ran as a series from 1983 to 1990. It featured sketches, parody news items, commercial parodies, and funny bits made from overdubbing or editing real news footage. The series copied the British show, Not the Nine O'Clock News. Rich Hall started his sniglets on Not Necessarily the News. Anne Bloom played Frosty Kimelman Rich Hall, who featured on "sniglets". Tommy Koenig, Sam McMurray, and Audrie J. Neenan played Jacqueline Pennell.
-9 - 27
Will Smith invites a group of comics to explore comedy and how it unites people.
-10 - 30
Fridays is ABC's weekly late-night live comedy show. It aired on Friday nights from April 11, 1980, to April 23, 1982.
-16 - 31
United States
-16 - 33
United Kingdom
-18 - 41
Brass Eye is a surreal UK TV series. It parodies the news style of the mid-1990s. Six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, plus one more episode in 2001. Chris Morris created and wrote the series with David Quantick, Peter Baynham, Jane Bussmann, Arthur Mathews, Graham Linehan, and Charlie Brooker. Michael Cumming directed the series. Brass Eye followed Morris's earlier spoof shows, On the Hour and The Day Today. The series mocked media portrayals of social problems, especially sensationalism and unfounded establishment claims.
-21 - 44
United Kingdom
-25 - 45
United Kingdom
-25 - 48
United Kingdom
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