Yeah Nah: Why Rules rules

Why is it that some sitcoms hit the spot while others fall flatter than a pancake?

Shows like Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men get a lot of attention, the latter more for behind-the-scenes reasons lately. But there are plenty of other comedies worth setting the PVR for.

The Twitterati seem overly enamoured with the likes of Community, which had its moments (and Chevy Chase) but overdid the quirk factor and wasn't to my mind must-see TV.

Its replacement on Four on Monday nights, Rules of Engagement, was widely derided as being inferior, but it's actually one of the funnier shows on telly.

It has found a niche many such programmes fail to, having reached six seasons (Season 5 began this week in NZ) and this despite the   presence of David Spade, whose character Russell is like an even creepier, sleazier version of Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother.

Part of the appeal of the show is Patrick Warburton, who gets all the best lines.

Jeff: $85 for skin cream?

Audrey Bingham: This stuff is amazing. This is it.

[pulls out the tiniest little jar of skin cream]

Jeff: $85 for that tiny jar? What's in it, $80?

Better known to many of my generation as David Puddy from Seinfeld, Warburton has since scored a nice sideline as a cartoon  voiceover artist, notably Kronk on the Emperor's New Groove, Joe on Family Guy and various Scooby Doo characters.

But he's fallen into his best role with Rules, and gets the comedy past the six-laugh test* with ease.

Let's just hope the fifth season improves on its first episode this week  which wasn't quite up to the usual standard.

Rules has so far managed to get away with breaking the sitcom golden rule - changing the core cast (by adding Timmy, Russell's PA).

Such additions are usually a desperate attempt to mix things up and are often a bad move.

(Take the mess they made of Not Going Out, for example.)

But what do you think? What's your favourite sitcom on at the moment? Or have you read this far despite the fact you don't watch comedies, or even TV?

*If you don't laugh out loud half a dozen times during sitcom it's a lost cause.

 

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  Yeah Nah - putting the cult in pop culture since 2011