Everybody loves a good sitcom. A slice of pure entertainment designed purely for just that, populated with familiar characters, settings (and occasionally catchphrases), they're a warm, comfortable experience we can chuckle ourselves to sleep in front of without having to think too hard about what's happening onscreen. Except, that is, when the lead character in a comedy show is themselves a comedian. Often at least semi-autobiographical, these sitcoms tend to pepper their jokes with dark allusions to the real-life actor's past and delight in laying on the jokes so thick and fast that it's hard to catch them all on a first viewing. Some might consider autobiographical works to be indulgent, especially when it comes to the fragile and unforgiving world of television comedy. But the performers and writers behind these shows usually know what they're doing well enough that they don't forget that they're around more to entertain than to show how clever they are, and they're rarely afraid to put themselves forth as the butt of a joke, which is an admirable trait. Here's a set of sitcoms about comedians which are a cut above not just the rest of their own (admittedly rather small) subgenre, but most other shows in general.
