10 Funniest TV Pilot Episodes Ever, Ranked

There’s nothing like a great pilot episode of television. When starting a new series, a pilot can make or break whether a viewer gets into the show. Some fantastic shows take a while to get into, but others have pilots that draw the viewers right in. Great drama pilots like those of The Leftovers and How to Get Away with Murder leave viewers with a number of questions, so that they are desperate to watch every following episode to find out what happens.

A great comedy pilot, on the other hand, draws the viewers into the world of the show while also setting up the characters, the relationships, and the tone of the show’s humor. Most importantly, these episodes have to be very funny, so that viewers want to keep watching for more laughs. They show the viewers what to expect from the show, both from its comedy and from its characters. These are the 10 funniest TV pilots ever, ranked.

10

“Pilot” – ’30 Rock’ (2006)

Created by Tina Fey

There is perhaps no funnier and more fitting character introduction than 30 Rock introducing Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) in a scene where she buys $150 and gives them out to anyone who will take them, just to win an argument against a stranger. The pilot only escalates from there, as Liz is once again challenged, but this time in a way that will be harder for her to win. Her show has a new network executive, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), and the two don’t see eye to eye on anything.

30 Rock‘s pilot episode is packed full of jokes, but it also sets up the characters’ personalities and dynamics in some very clever and funny ways. There’s Liz and Jack’s hostile first meeting that gets oddly specific in its insults, as well as an extremely bizarre lunch that Liz ends up having to attend when Jack wants to bring the very famous yet highly unpredictable Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) in as the new star of the show.

Created by Dan Harmon

The premise of Community‘s pilot alone is funny enough on its own: a successful lawyer gets exposed for a fake degree and has to go to community college, only to end up in a strange study group. The execution is wildly hilarious, as Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) spends a significant part of the episode trying to get a cheat sheet from Duncan (John Oliver), a professor and sort-of friend who owes him.

When Jeff sets his sights on Britta (Gillian Jacobs), a woman from his Spanish class, he creates a fake study group to get a date with her, and a wildly uncomfortable evening ensues as seven people with pretty much nothing in common end up fighting and ultimately bonding as a study group in a meta homage to The Breakfast Club. The episode is also full of hilarious and quotable one-liners, and it gets funnier with each rewatch.

8

“Pilot” – ‘Galavant’ (2015)

Created by Dan Fogelman

From the very first song with which the episode opens, Galavant‘s pilot is sharply funny, wildly over-the-top, and very deliberate in setting its tone. It starts with the silly and catchy recounting of how a successful knight named Galavant (Joshua Sasse) gets his heart broken when the evil King Richard (Timothy Omundson) takes Galvant’s true love, Madalena (Mallory Jansen), away. Galavant shows up to the wedding to save her, only to be turned away in a hilarious subversion of expectations, as Madalena decides that she would rather have power and riches than true love.

A year later, Galavant’s life has fallen apart, and he spends all day doing nothing—which has also given his squire, Sid (Luke Youngblood), nothing to do. When the desperate Princess Isabella (Karen David) asks Galavant to join her on a quest to save her kingdom, he says no, and a funny back-and-forth commences. With hilarious and specific musical numbers, as well as sharp dialogue between its characters, Galavant‘s pilot is very funny from beginning to end.

7

“Pilot” – ‘Mythic Quest’ (2020)

Created by Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, and Rob McElhenney

Mythic Quest‘s pilot episode opens with a wonderfully weird and meta trailer that is supposed to be for the titular video game, but ends up being a way for the game’s creator, Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenney), to promote himself. It’s the perfect introduction to the show, and it only gets funnier and weirder from there, as much of the episode focuses on Ian’s clash with Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao), the game’s lead engineer, over whether to add a shovel to the game.

As Ian and Poppy try to change each other’s minds, their boss and Mythic Quest’s executive producer, David (David Hornsby), welcomes his new assistant, Jo (Jessie Ennis), who decides that she would rather work for Ian. The Mythic Quest episode is full of hilarious interactions between all of the characters, as well as funny and unique dialogue. For example, when David asks Ian to tell Jo to do her actual job, Ian responds that he doesn’t tell women what to do, and that he allows them to make their own choices.

6

“Pilot” – ‘Arrested Development’ (2003)

Created by Mitchell Hurwitz

Arrested Development‘s pilot episode is the perfect introduction to one of TV’s funniest and most self-absorbed families. It starts with the show’s narrator (Ron Howard) introducing the various members of the Bluth family at their patriarch’s retirement party. The narrator then reveals that Michael (Jason Bateman) is unusually happy, because he’s decided to never speak to his family again after tonight.

The episode is absolutely hilarious, as it goes back to set the scene of the events leading up to the retirement party. Michael is irritated with his family’s misuse of the family business’ money, but he believes that he will be promoted soon enough. That doesn’t pan out, and this is when things really ramp up. The SEC raids the party, and it’s revealed that their company has been involved in a number of illegal activities, leaving Michael to have to stay and clean up the mess.

5

“Pilot” – ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ (2019)

Created by Jemaine Clement

From the start of What We Do in the Shadows‘ pilot, viewers are thrown into the world of the vampires and Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), through the show’s mockumentary structure. It’s a hilarious episode that shows a day in the life of these supernatural beings, which includes Guillermo hoping that Nandor (Kayvan Novak) will make him into a vampire on his ten-year anniversary of becoming his familiar, and the vampires preparing for a visit from the Baron after receiving a letter (Doug Jones).

This episode is very funny and particular in its humor, with some hilarious lines of dialogue. Some examples include when Nandor explains that he was called Nandor the Relentless “because I just never relent,” Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) describing her fondness for Laszlo (Matt Berry) before a cut to a scene of her threatening to kill him, and Nandor pronouncing crêpe paper as “creepy paper” while shopping with Guillermo. This pilot hilariously sets up the world of the vampires, with their surprisingly ordinary concerns over bloodsucking hygiene and impressing the Baron.

4

“Everything Is Fine” – ‘The Good Place’ (2016)

Created by Michael Schur

It’s a bold move to start a sitcom with the main character’s death, and this pays off in the funniest and most compelling ways in the pilot episode of The Good Place. The episode starts off relatively calmly, as Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) adjusts surprisingly well to her death. Michael (Ted Danson), the architect who designed the afterlife neighborhood where she now resides, informs Eleanor that she’s been sent to The Good Place for living such a moral life on Earth.

The episode really hits its stride when Eleanor meets her universe-assigned soulmate, former ethics and moral philosophy professor Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper). Eleanor immediately confesses to Chidi that she’s been sent there by mistake, and the rest of the episode of The Good Place is wildly funny and bizarre from there. Eleanor tries to convince Chidi to help her in spite of his strong aversion to lying, and the entire neighborhood gets hit with a chaos sequence full of giant shrimp due to Eleanor’s presence there.

3

“Fundraiser” – ‘Veep’ (2012)

Created by Armando Iannucci

In the wake of a number of political drama and thriller shows, viewers might go into Veep unsure of what to expect from a comedy about politics. Right off the bat, the job is shown to be hilariously mundane, as Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gets wrapped up in the middle of a controversy about the use of cornstarch utensils over plastic ones. From there, the episode expertly continues to take relatively ordinary scenarios and make them hilariously over-the-top.

For example, the signing of a condolence card becomes a very funny and surprisingly high-stakes plotline. When a senator that Selina disliked dies, she has her Chief of Staff, Amy (Anna Chlumsky), forge her signature for her. The only problem is, Amy accidentally signs her own name, and then the whole team has to come together to get the card back before the mistake gets exposed.

2

“Pilot” – ‘Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23’ (2012)

Created by Nahnatchka Khan

The pilot episode of the criminally underrated sitcom Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 opens with June Colburn (Dreama Walker) walking in on her roommate hooking up with her fiancé on her birthday cake, while declaring in a voiceover that this was the best thing that ever happened to her. The episode then goes back to show the chain of events that led up to this moment, as an optimistic June moves to New York City for her dream job.

When the company that hired June goes under due to fraud, June loses her job and housing but seemingly finds the perfect roommate in Chloe (Krysten Ritter). Unfortunately for June, Chloe is actually a con artist who gets roommates to move in, then quickly drives them out so she can take their rent money. June fights back, though, and a hilarious and over-the-top battle ensues, which then turns into a friendship over the course of the episode.

1

“Pilot” – ‘Happy Endings’ (2011)

Created by David Caspe

Happy Endings starts off its first episode right in the middle of the wedding between two childhood friends and longtime romantic partners, Dave (Zachary Knighton) and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert). Dave recites his vows to Alex as gentle music plays, and it’s something right out of a fairytale… that is, until a guy rides in on rollerblades, confesses his love for Alex, and asks her to leave the wedding with him.

When Alex actually does leave Dave at the altar, their four best friends—Jane (Eliza Coupe), Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.), Penny (Casey Wilson), and Max (Adam Pally)—are put in an incredibly awkward and difficult position. The episode is outrageously funny, with moments like the inconsolable Dave eating a large chocolate bride and leaving just her hand to hold, and Penny’s disastrous birthday dinner soon after, which ends in a number of explosive reveals.

NEXT: The Best Sitcoms of All Time, Ranked