14 irreverent comedies to stream

Need a break from serious scenes like the life-saving ER of Grey’s Anatomy and the invading horde of the undead walkers from north of The Wall in Game of Thrones?

Sometimes cutting loose and watching un-PC shows is the cure for the real world – and the stress of other shows that you’re probably a little too emotionally invested in. (Not that we blame you – we’re going to need to counter all the terror we’re sure to experience in Game of Thrones S8 when it hits Showmax on 15 April with at least one of these light, ridiculous shows.)

Here are our Plum Picks of the over-the-top, off-the-wall comedy series on internet TV.

1 Black Dynamite S1-2 (Showmax)

Blaxploitation films from the 70s get an animated make-over in this show following a gang of friends as they fight back against The Man. No one’s safe from this adult parody series, including celebrities like Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby, Mr T and Elvis. Most of them are dead anyway, so it’s not like they can object to the show ripping them off.

There’s a whole collection of Adult Swim shows on Showmax with more titles like this one!

2 Dear White People (Netflix)

Nothing gets people jabbering like good ol’ race relations. Keep an eye out for famous faces like Nia Long (Exec Assistant Director Mosley in NCIS: Los Angeles), Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring in Breaking Bad) and Tyler James Williams (Noah in The Walking Dead) as the characters each tell their own story in an episode that centres around stereotypes and other racial situations in modern-day USA.

3 LA To Vegas S1 (Showmax)

Got 15 minutes to spare for a quick flight to Vegas with a rag-tag flight crew, an out-of-control egomaniac pilot and passengers ranging from dim strippers to a gambling Eastern European who’ll bet on literally anything and other un-PC characters? Board now and take your seat, you’re taking a ride to crazy town.

4 Schitts Creek S1-4 (Netflix)

What happens when you take a big-city snob family (including a drama-queen actress-diva mom, a ditsy daughter who does nothing, and an over-the-top gay son who has a problem with everything), declare them bankrupt and drop them in the middle of a redneck hick town in the middle of nowhere? This dark comedy that takes every social stereotype you can think of and chucks it into hyperdrive.

5 Sally4Ever S1 (Showmax)

Affairs are commonplace on TV shows. He cheats, she cheats. No big deal. But what happens when plain-Jane Sally introduces a hot lesbian hook-up with seductive and sexy actress Emma? Fireworks and the most awkward threesome-post-sex pillow talk.

6 Sex Education S1 (Netflix)

Sex, sex, sex. Admit it: it’s all you think about all the time. Nothing is taboo for socially awkward teen Otis who uses his sex therapist mom’s sessions to help the dirty little sex demons at school. Prepare to snigger at least once every five minutes at something crude and lewd.

7 SMILF S1-2 (Showmax)

“Struggling through life with everything going wrong” gets chewed up, spat out and flushed down the drain in SMILF. Never before has something so wrong been so right, especially when you’ve got someone talented like Frankie Shaw as lead character Bridgette, who’ll stoop so low as to invite a booty call over for 3am romps on the same bed as her one-year-old son who she’s disguised behind a pile of dirty clothes.

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8 Superstore S1-3 (Showmax)

Menial workers at the Cloud 9 mass mart… nothing much can go wrong. Except for company policies, and often laws are broken in just about every episode. Store manager Glenn is loveable but his dim-wittedness and gullability sees his trust abused day in, day out. And don’t get us started on inter-branch wars involving warm deer pee sprayed in the manager’s office.

9 The End Of The F***ing World S1 (Netflix)

You surely can’t make fun of being a serial killer? Oh yes, you can, when the serial killer in question is a 17-year-old boy named James who ditches his peaceful life of killing animals for going on the run with his equally disturbed new love interest Alyssa. Killing in the name of love – awwwww.

10 Vice Principals S1-2 (Showmax)

Teachers are meant to instruct youngsters on what the world holds for them. Except these two vice principals Neal and Lee (Danny McBride and Walton Goggins). They’re childish, arrogant, ego-maniacal sadistic socio-paths who will stoop as low as they need to to get what they want: the principal’s job.

11 Turn Up Charlie S1 (Netflix)

Butch, buff, authoritative guy’s-guy Idris Elba tackles the “unmanly” duty of being a nanny… or a manny (just like Kevin’s character in the show-within-a-show on This Is Us). Watching Idris’s character Charlie deal with an unruly spoilt brat is all the funnier when you realise that Idris is in contention for the next James Bond role… if he can just get the brats to school with their homework done and lunch-boxes packed.

12 Black Jesus S1 (Showmax)

Religion is the most fought-over topic in history and the man in the middle is Jesus. And what better way to anger half the world’s population (Christians and Catholics combined) than to put their leader in the ghetto, make him black and smoke weed? Watch it for laughs and to be taught valuable lessons from the Bible. For real, yo.

13 After Life S1 (Netflix)

Nothing is safe from Ricky Gervais. C’mon – the guy tears A-list celebs new ones at every awards show he hosts. In this dark six-episode comedy, he tackles everything from his dead wife and the breast cancer that killed her, to suicide and being ready to die. Dark but so worth the laughs because of the brutal, no-punches-pulled honesty in the delivery.

14 Married With Children S1-11 (Amazon Prime)

Want a happy marriage? First you need to know what an unhappy-but-functioning one is. This is arguably the best un-family-friendly family sitcom ever, featuring shoe salesman Al Bundy (Ed O’Neill from Modern Family), his jobless leech wife, a dumb daughter who is the village bicycle and a pervy son who’ll hop in the sack with anything with a pulse. It’s a television legend when it comes to upsetting everyone who watches it even though they’re laughing.