“I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.” – George Washington, 1788
“We’re Americans, with a capital A! You know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts!” – Bill Murray as John Winger in “Stripes,” 1981
When I picture the Fourth of July, old white guys in curly powdered wigs and buttoned breeches don’t come to mind. No way. I think of Midwest summer nights where the humidity lies on my skin like a veil. Bomb pops and rainbow sherbet. Fireflies at dusk, flitting around outdoor gatherings as cousins trade jokes with a friendly, rough-and-tumble edge.
There’s a show, in fact, that precisely encapsulates that experience: “South Side,” a departed Comedy Central treat that encapsulates life in Chicago in all its sweaty glory. Whenever anyone tries to argue that America is a homogeneous white Christian nation, I think of that old favorite.
In that, we’re lucky. Today, we have many shows that remind us we’ve always been a nation of immigrants and many cultures cohabiting and often blending harmoniously, where most of us simply want to work hard and figure out how to laugh our way to better times.
So with America’s semiquincentennial celebration bearing down on us, here are 13 comedies that convey the diversity and splendor of what our multicultural democracy actually looks like and occasionally (mis)behaves. Feel free to binge them — or, if you prefer, you can check out my recommended episode to get a feel of each show’s spirit.
“Another Period,” Paramount + Around the same time that “Downton Abbey” was in its stride, Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome gave us Lillian and Beatrice Bellacourt, proudly ignorant, self-serving socialites invested in working against civil rights to maintain exclusive access to halfway decent treatment from men, which they only receive because they’re rich. While the series proved a little too caustic to achieve mass popularity when it first aired in 2015, today it’s an apt reminder that the “Gilded Age” glow-up to the 1% masks a mean, ridiculous side we should not aspire to. On the other hand, they have cocaine wine. Recommended viewing: “The Party of the Century” (Season 1, Episode 1)
“Atlanta,” Hulu For four seasons produced between 2016 and 2022, Donald Glover and his co-stars Zazie Beetz, Brian Tyree Henry and LaKeith Stanfield captured the joy and surreality of the Black American experience through this groundbreaking comedy. But then, Glover defied that genre’s labels by treating each episode as its own cinematic experience. One of its all-time best, Season 2’s “Teddy Perkins,” contained all the tension of a nightmarish horror thriller. My overall favorites, however, function as straightforward comedies that brilliantly critique the myth of an equal and supposedly colorblind America. Recommended viewing: “Juneteenth” (Season 1, Episode 9)
“Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens,” HBO Max Contrary to the star’s prominent title placement, the adventures of her character, Nora Lum, aren’t the reason to watch this show. What kept me invested were the misadventures of her grandmother (Lori Tan Chinn), who demonstrates time and again that she excels at instigating ridiculous conflict. Whether she directs that talent toward good or evil varies from episode to episode, but she embodies the scrappy, anarchic spirit of old-time New York. Recommended viewing: “Never Too Old” (Season 2, Episode 1)
“Deli Boys,” Hulu Ah, Philadelphia: Home of the Liberty Bell, Gritty and “Abbott Elementary.” But while Quinta Brunson’s much-loved ABC comedy and its downwardly mobile FX cousin “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” remain close to our hearts, this hilarious jawn about two Pakistani brothers who inherit their father’s underground coke empire serves a different spin on organized crime. Where the typical heroes who break bad are white guys pushed to the edge, Mir (Asif Ali) and Raj (Saagar Shaikh) are a couple of spoiled, barely competent clowns who make the all-American tradition of failing upward look easy. Then again, their continued success and survival wouldn’t be possible if not for their late father’s partner, Lucky (Poorna Jagannathan, in a killer performance), who watches over them and the business with her emotional support gun always within reach. Recommended viewing: “Lucky Boys” (Season 1, Episode 6)
“Diarra From Detroit,” Paramount + Television tends to depict the Midwest as one long band of white suburbia and farms, but cities like Detroit are the soul, music and flavor of the heartland, and caring, determined women like Diarra Brickland make it great. So I’ll repeat what I said on Bluesky about this incredible, underrated dramedy, returning for a second season on July 29: Along with centering a Black woman sleuth in a white-dominated mystery genre, this show also takes the audience inside a joyful community most TV shows portray as tragic and dangerous. Those of us raised in neighborhoods like Diarra’s know differently. Recommended viewing: “A Course in Miracles” (Season 1, Episode 7)
“Drunk History,” Paramount + There are those who believe in teaching history in all its uncensored honesty, and then there are MAGA Republicans. Regardless of what era we’re living in, however, it’s always been the case that what we learn about our nation’s past depends on who’s doing the instructing. Derek Waters cracked that code, somewhat, by passing down stories, more or less accurately, through wasted-to-slurring narrators and very famous reenactors. The beauty of this show is that Waters and his producers focused on history’s unsung heroes or the lesser-known feats of famous ones with an infectious, besotted revelry that frequently inspired further research. Recommended viewing: “Montgomery” (Season 2, Episode 1)
“It’s Florida, Man,” HBO Max “What you’re about to see may be dangerous, illegal, unethical, petty, misguided, immoral and most definitely stupid,” a prologue warns at the top of each episode. “But it’s also all true. Sort of.” Here’s what can’t be denied: The Sunshine State’s reputation as the nation’s dangle, Heaven’s lobby, and a land of swamp creatures and crocodile wrestlers and Disneyworld and Mar-A-Lago and, somehow, Miami. Melt all of that together and you get a veritable News of the Weird headline factory of criminality and oddity that makes the place so very . . . content rich. Hence, this gem of an anthology series, wherein real-life residents recount the stories that made them regionally famous or nationally infamous, while familiar actors and comedians recreate their stories. Recommended viewing: “Speedy” (Season 2, Episode 1)
“Mo,” Netflix Mo Amer and Ramy Youssef, who co-star in “Ramy,” partnered to create this series about a Houston born and bred, culturally Palestinian man who is as American as anyone, yet lives under the constant threat of deportation due to his undocumented status. In this vein, Season 2 depicts a somewhat best-case view of what it’s like to be an ICE detainee: Mo Najjar finds himself trapped in a cell for a few days before his attorney gets him freed, shortly after the family obtains asylum. That the Najjars are Palestinian lends additional tension to their struggle to obtain legal refugee status since, as Mo points out, that makes him stateless: “I’ve never been to Palestine. I don’t have citizenship there. I don’t have citizenship here,” he says. “I’m like a refugee free agent!” But this turn doesn’t define Mo or his overall arc, which tightly focuses on the constant hustle, creativity and sense of humor required to survive as an immigrant in this country. Recommended viewing: “Field of Dreams” (Season 2, Episode 7)
“Never Have I Ever,” Netflix Before viewers knew Poorna Jagannathan as the crime queen of “Deli Boys,” she was a very strict mother struggling to raise her 15-year-old daughter Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) in a luxe Southern California suburb. “Never Have I Ever” mainly follows Devi’s story as a high schooler mourning her father’s death and trying to attract the attention of the hottest boy in school. Amid that, Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher’s teen comedy thoughtfully explores the tension between the past and present, and one’s birth country and new home, as Jagannathan’s Nalini quietly bears her grief and swallows her urge to move her all-American daughter back to India. Recommended viewing: “Said I’m Sorry” (Season 1, Episode 10)
“Ramy,” Hulu One of the strongest assets that Ramy Youssef’s Peabody Award-winning comedy flexes is its distinct flavors of New Jersey vibe. The title character is a first-generation Egyptian American navigating what it means to balance his Muslim faith with the very American Millennial aspects of his identity, namely his carnal desires. The naked honesty of “Ramy” makes it one of the most realistically human sitcoms on TV, especially when it dives into uncomfortable but real territory like the anti-Blackness that exists within any faith community. Even when it traverses difficult terrain, though, the story emerges on the other side with another layer to add to its ongoing consideration of what it means to live free in America. Recommended viewing: “Frank in the Future” (Season 2, Episode 8)
“Reservation Dogs,” Hulu Sterlin Harjo’s TV debut broke Hollywood open for Indigenous stories portrayed by Indigenous actors by simply cementing the obvious onscreen, which is that Native American life in all its variety and humor is a central part of America’s fabric. By depicting Oklahoma rez life through the eyes of the restless teenagers raised on movies that romanticize escaping home to find themselves, Harjo’s stories bubbled over with joy and ridiculousness. In fact, some of the funniest episodes feature the kids’ parents, aunts and uncles, and acknowledge a deep cultural reverence for tradition and lineage while also entirely deflating the stereotypical assumption that, say, all spirit guides are wise. (A more recent comedy, “North of North,” carries on what this show began, and if it weren’t Canadian, we’d include it on this list.) Recommended viewing: “I Still Believe” (Season 2, Episode 10)
“Portlandia,” Netflix Plenty of comedies are set in or around Seattle, as if the city is the Pacific Northwest’s standard-bearer. But none of them match this show’s sense of place – not even the hallowed “Frasier.” Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein’s sketch-travaganza accurately nails the city’s perpetually retro hipster vibe and persnickety addiction to highly specific details about their food, art, clothing, books, air, gynecological wellness, dinner bill splitting etiquette – it went on and on. For eight whole seasons, in fact. As the years passed, the premiere’s “Dream of the Nineties” faded into the distance. Nevertheless, “Portlandia” maintained its distinct Cascadia vibe, right down to its finale appearance of “Twin Peaks” star Kyle MacLachlan as the city’s mayor. Recommended viewing: The “Put a Bird on It” Sketch (Season 1)
“This Fool,” Hulu America at its best is a land of endless opportunity and second chances, where you can’t get one without the other. This South Central Los Angeles odd couple comedy epitomizes this as Julio (star and co-creator Chris Estrada), who works at a gang rehabilitation nonprofit called Hugs Not Thugs, struggles to gain the respect of his cousin Luis (Frankie Quiñones), who recently got out of prison. While each tries in their way to help the other out of their respective ruts, the series pokes at calcified ideas of machismo and masculinity, especially when Hugs Not Thugs requires Luis to master cupcake baking. That only lasts for one season before the nonprofit shuts down, thrusting both into the big, bad world. Estrada’s show only lasted for two seasons, but its very first episode shares an honest interpretation of American willpower.
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“You are all disgusting wet batter,” barks a pastry baker. “But out of that disgusting wet batter can rise a beautiful cupcake. You just have to figure out what your motivation is . . . Maybe you’re just doing it out of spite. Most good things in this world were done out of spite. America started out of spite for the British. Pepsi started out of spite for Coca-Cola. Sprite, spite! . . . Woo! All this motivation talk is making me thirsty.”
Cheers to that, America, and a colorful 250th celebration.
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from Salon’s Culture newsletter, The Swell
