Every HBO Comedy Ranked From Worst To Best

It’s perhaps a little unfair to grade Not Necessarily The News from a 2021 perspective. By its nature, the name of the game was to satirise and spoof current events. Accordingly, a lot of its material hasn’t aged well, relying on a recollection of specific news stories from the mid to late ‘80s that can easily leave a modern viewer baffled.

Taken on its own merits, though, the show is something of a mixed bag. It relied on a wackiness and whimsy where many satires go for the jugular. This could yield great results, like Rich Hall’s sniglets (made up words which spawned a book series), but at times could feel a bit weedy, unwilling to take genuine swipes at worthy targets.

Not Necessarily The News was an early gig for many talented comedians, including Conan O’Brien, Greg Daniels, and several other Simpsons writers alongside Hall, but really that’s the programme’s lasting legacy. It wasn’t meant to stand the test of time and so its low position does seem a bit cruel, but those are the breaks when producing topical comedy.