Holy mother-forking shirt balls, this could be a long one. The Good Place had four seasons of all killer no filler with each one being integral to the plot and delivering laughs. Not many sitcoms can brag about that, let alone brag about the number of layered jokes and gags that stick the landing. It was lightning in a bottle from the start.
With each episode having some of the most rapid-fire jokes on television, it’s really difficult to narrow it down to just a few that hold up as the funniest. There are so many moments that could be here, but these are the ones that stood out and made themselves memorable.
The Cactus
One of the most memorable scenes of the show. Janet goes haywire after being rebooted, and while Michael is trying to research Eleanor, Janet brings countless potted cacti to his office. Despite Michael’s frustrations and insistence on double-checking for Eleanor’s file, she presents cactus after cactus, leading to a later scene of the office cluttered with various-sized plants.
Sophisticated Derek
There’s nobody that could have pulled off the character of Derek like Jason Mantzoukas. The maniacal yet naive energy was thrown through the roof at the end of season three though, as he returned as a rebooted, sophisticated Derek that was still kind of an idiot. This started the running gag of Derek’s martini glass, which was just filled with something different every time he shows up, with everything from an onion to scrabble tiles throughout the remaining episodes.
Manifest Destiny Package
This was one of the many jokes packed into the Cowboy Skyscraper Buffet scene of season three, but this one probably got one of the best laughs. When the waitress tells Trevor the Florida table is already taken, she offers the “Manifest Destiny” package which allows them to forcibly remove the people already there and take the table. The only thing more American in the episode was the sheer amount of fried food. Also, the handgun the hostess gave out.
Janet’s Kids
Janet pleading to not be rebooted just gets better the more times it’s watched. The automatic reaction when anyone nears the reboot button sends Janet into a spiral of begging to live, even going so far as to show a picture of three kids and describe their personalities to Eleanor and Chidi for sympathy. Except, the decorated picture frame Janet is showing is holding a stock photo of three random kids. The one minor detail of the stock photo combined with D’Arcy Carden shrieking for mercy just makes the entire thing comical.
Shotgun Wedding
Jason and Janet’s first marriage, with a wedding to make any Jacksonville native jealous. From the sleeveless tux, Janet just being glad to be there, and Eleanor/Tahani bonding throughout the entire mess makes for one of not just the funniest moments, but one of the funniest episodes of season one.
The Burrito
Sometimes the simplest jokes make for the funniest. The gang makes their way through The Bad Place and finally make it to the Judge’s chambers, only to find not the Judge but a very large burrito sitting on a desk. Naturally, the two most likely members of the group theorize that the burrito is the Judge, leading Eleanor to approach it with a bargain as Maya Rudolph watches from behind as the real Judge.
IHOP
Not that IHOP. Nope, this is the Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes, somewhere nobody wants to stay for too long. Just an endless void of multi-dimensional portals and the time knife, with no actual pancakes in sight. Jason’s disappointment at the lack of pancakes is hilarious, along with his final compromise that he’ll just have eggs instead.
Disco Janet
Another credit to D’Arcy Carden’s acting as the Judge is deactivating and marbleizing all the Janets, one lone Disco Janet pops up in the crowd of Good, Bad, and Neutral Janets. Disco Janet was explained to come from the seventies and had all the same lines as an old disco action figure. The deadpan delivery of it while skating around and dancing sells the comedy of it.
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is truly a mysterious place, and no show has captured the zaniness that happens like The Good Place. While nothing in the show was necessarily true, the Macho Man Randy Savage International Airport would be a vast improvement over the airport there now. Every time Jason goes off into some Jacksonville-related monologue though, it’s guaranteed to be funny. BORTLES!
Jason’s Death
Poor Jason was just doomed from the start. The exact equivalent of a golden retriever, he’s the sweetest and most caring person in the show and that’s all his single brain cell is devoted to. This makes his death somehow even funnier, as he tries to rob a place by hiding in a locked safe while doing whip-its. He’s the definition of “here for a good time, not a long time.”
The Trolley Problem
The Trolley Problem is probably the best use of The Good Place’s “anything can happen” boundaries. While trying to teach Michael and Eleanor about ethics, Chidi gets pulled along with them into an actual simulation of The Trolley Problem. What follows is blood, a very stressed Chidi, and Michael being overly giddy as the carnage resets and racks up.
Chili
Chidi had a bad run there for a while before Eleanor brought him back down to earth. After his brain basically breaks at the thought of all his philosophical heroes being wrong and believing that things are meaningless, Chidi sets out to make the worst chili ever while teaching his college class. With Peeps mixed in, it probably won’t be winning any cook-offs any time soon.
Magic Pictionary
Season four embraced its status as the final part and got weird with it. The magic pictionary game the main group puts on to try and build relationships between the new test group goes terribly as Chidi draws Simone’s childhood pet- a horse. Chidi is a philosopher and not an artist though, and the horse becomes a terrifying abomination before Brent offers to put it down.
Jeremy Bearimy
“This. This broke me.” This is what Chidi says when looking at the dot above the I in Jeremy Bearimy. Which makes a lot of sense, considering it takes whatever they think the timeline is and makes it a massive twisting and overlapping mess. The explanation of the Jeremy Bearimy makes infinite sense in the context of the show yet no sense at all otherwise, resulting in one of the funniest and most memorable jokes of the show.
An Elephant Made of Light
The premiere of season four showed it was going all in with the weird and imaginative afterlife from the first episode when the demon in disguise Linda gets told she can have anything she wants there. Eleanor decides to demonstrate, asking for “a baby elephant made of pure light that tells you true secrets about the universe.” The elephant gets to divulge two secrets before disappearing, letting everyone know that “Shirley Temple killed JFK” and, as we all thought, “Stonehenge was a sex thing.”
Seriously there are enough hilarious moments from this show to fill multiple books. The writers took so much care and attention to fill every moment with some sort of emotion, whether it leads to laughter or tears. Every season has something that will bring a chuckle to even the most neutral of Janets, no matter what.
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