Smiling Friends (A Silly Halloween Special)

Web-based humor, and assorted media created by people who made their name on the Web, tends to get labeled as succeeding through the formula “random equals funny”, but while “Smiling Friends” may bear superficially similarities to a dancing banana, paying attention to the craft of the jokes in this out-of-season Halloween episode reveals there’s a lot going on. Concise characterization gives way to delirious scenes of ambiguous reality give way to punchy and effective shock give way to a truly madcap and inspired climax that couldn’t be accomplished with a dartboard approach. Comedic television may have already peaked this year.

10