7. The Cut-To-Title It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia ('Dennis And Dee Go On Welfare')
Keeping with the comedy theme, everybody knows that the most important aspect to a joke is how you tell it, and especially, the timing. Comedic timing is so important for comedy actors; it's what separates the Steve Martin's from the Dane Cook's of the world. Equally as important to the actors timing, is the editors timing. Great comedy on TV is often defined by the quality of the editing; knowing exactly when to cut from a gag and how long to leave a scene hanging. This example is neither a cut to a commercial break nor the ending of an episode, but the cut-to-title after the cold open of each episode. In the FX network's long=running comedy series, 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia', the show always begins with a scene that sets up the plotline for the episode. The scene will then cut to the title card, and the name of the episode is usually the punch line for the gag in the opening scene, or a pun on the gag. OK, so it's not technically a cut-to-black since there's text on the screen, but it is the same technique using a cut to end a joke. And the title card is mostly black, so there. Sunny uses this cut consistently throughout the series, so I'm not citing a single specific example (or am I?), but giving a general example of how great comedy cut-to-blacks can be.