A bad television show will built itself around catch phrases. A good television show will deliver so many great lines week after week that few will stick long enough before the another round of one liners come along and supplant them. But the best television sitcoms have a knack for infectious dance sequences so memorable that the characters can be identified by their signature moves.

I’ll be honest with you: I love a good dance sequence. Nothing brings me more pleasure than a sitcom character unafraid to act a fool for the entertainment bliss of others. Here are television’s signature dance moves, the ones that — good or bad — get inside your bones and make you wanna go Sam Rockwell up in this joint.

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I don’t really understand fingernail art. To be honest, it kind of skeeves me out. It’s unnatural; there’s something strangely Wicca about it. Maybe it’s just me, but the idea of spending $100 on something that might break off in your boyfriend’s clavicle next week gives me the heebs. But when the fingernail art is inspired by TV shows, it makes me slightly less squeamish, especially when those television shows are as awesome as these are (I’m particularly fond of the “Doctor Who” art).

Most of the images in the following gallery came from Flavorwire’s collection (and you can see there entire post, which includes a lot of not-awesome shows like “Glee”), but where indicated, the fingernail art comes from elsewhere. Also, yes: I searched all morning for Greendale fingernail art, but the Internet let me down on this one.

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The best network on television is FX, hands down. Its track record isn’t spotless — the last few seasons of both “Rescue Me” and “Nip/Tuck” were slogs, and “Wilfred” is only middling-to-good depending on the episode and your intoxication level — but on a percentage basis, FX succeeds far more frequently than it fails (even if is too quick to pull the cancellation trigger on some of its better series like “The Riches,” “Terriers,” and the amazing but short-lived “Thief”). That is to say: A network that airs “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Justified,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “The League,” and “Louie” has no business even putting a show like “Unsupervised” on the air. It is atrocious, and FX would be wise to take it out behind the woodshed and put two in its head before the show causes further damage to the network’s otherwise sterling reputation.

The best way to describe “Unsupervised” is as “Beavis and Butthead” without the music videos (or “Jersey Shore” segments) or any of the humor. If Seth MacFarlane and Mike Judge had a baby, beat it until it was brain-damaged, and gave it an animated series, it might look like “Unsupervised.” Its failure is inexplicable, as it comes from David Hornsby, (“It’s Always Sunny’s” Rickety Cricket), who also wrote, created, and starred in the abysmal “How to be a Gentleman,” which was canceled earlier this year on CBS. Still, without the restrictions of network television, and with exec-producers Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton, “Unsupervised” seemed a much better bet for Hornsby’s comedic style. However, after the first episode, you can’t help but think that the “Sunny” guys did it as a favor to Horsnby, and FX greenlit it as a favor to the “Sunny” fellas. Somebody along the way should’ve had the testicles to say no.

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Recurring characters are like inside jokes: They exist in part to reward viewers of television series, not just the episodes. They’re like drunk uncles or ex-girlfriends who drop by every few months, drink all your beer, dance naked in your living room, puke on the floor and vanish, only to return again six months later looking to crash on your couch. And we let them, goddamnit, because we have an unyielding affection for them, no matter how much they wreck the place.

The best shows use these recurring characters sparingly. They’re typically one note, but it’s a glorious note, and as long as it’s not overplayed, the character can continue to return without ever wearing out his or her welcome (see, e.g., Senor Chang, who was elevated to series regular on “Community” and almost immediately became unbearable).

I’ve taken the liberty of ranking, without comment, television’s best recurring characters. A note about the criteria: To be included on the list, the character must be in an on-going television show; he or she must have been in fewer than 30 percent of the show’s episodes; and he or she must have recurred in two or more seasons of the show. Limit one recurring character per series.

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It was an outstanding year for television comedies, as long as you didn’t watch television’s more popular sitcoms, like “Two and a Half Men” or “Mike and Molly.” To achieve the level of success afforded the likes of the CBS comedies, the humor needs to be obvious, conservative, and typically in the area of lowest common denominator. The year’s best comedies, on the other hand, were edgy, risky, weird, manic, and often offensive, which is probably why no more than 4.5 million people saw any of the year’s ten funniest episodes (according to the sham that is the Nielsen Ratings).

I didn’t want to duplicate any TV series on the list because I wanted to provide some depth and variety, which means that the ten funniest episodes of 2011 also fairly reflect the 10 funniest shows of 2011, though perhaps not in the same order. Picking a favorite among the episodes on many of these sitcoms is something of a fool’s errand, but I think the selected episodes are at least representative of their respective shows.

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