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.

10. “Friends” — The Ross and Monica Routine

9. Community — The Britta Dance

8. How I Met Your Mother — The Robin Sparkles

7. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — The Mac Elbow Dance

6. The Elaine Dance

5. Perfect Strangers — The Dance of Joy

4. Parks and Recreation — The Ron Swanson

3. Arrested Development — The Chicken Dance

2. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air — The Carlton Dance

1. Scrubs — The Turk Dance

Non-Sitcom Honorable Mentions

Psych — The Sean and Gus Peanuts Dance

Ally McBeal — The Barry White Dance

Bonus — My Two Favorite YouTube Videos of All Time

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.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Game of Thrones

(Via)

Sons of Anarchy

(via)
Saved by the Bell

Arrested Development

Parks and Recreation

The Simpsons

Daria

Twin Peaks

Lost

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air

The Muppets

True Blood

Pee Wee’s Playhouse

Doctor Who

Dexter

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.

Justin Long and David Hornsby voice the two main characters, Gary and Joel, two coming-of-age teenage virgins attempting to transform themselves into “cool” kids. The wrinkle here is that they’ve been all but abandoned by their parents, so they’re given free reign (but little income opportunity) to do anything they want. The problem, at least from a comedy perspective, is that the characters seem to lack self-awareness: They are Beavis and Butthead without any of the cynicism. Instead of bucking the high-school system in an effort to get laid, they try to play into it. But the show fails to provide much in the way of friction or conflict (no parents, no real Ted McGinley character), and the premise gets bogged down in its own over-eager earnestness.

It doesn’t help either that — with the freedom of basic cable — Horsnby takes Seth MacFarlane’s brand of comedy to its logical extreme and just does away with jokes all together. There are only profanities and references to boners and the number 69 (Really? 69?) without any effort to provide context, and unless you’re George Carlin and it’s 1972, stringing together a series of swear words isn’t funny. In fact, nothing in “Unsupervised” is. It’s a crater of fail, and the voice work from Kristen Bell, Romany Malco, and Fred Armisen does nothing to improve it.

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.

15. Daniel Shaw, “Chuck”

14. Sam Weiss, “Fringe”

13. Ted Danson, “Curb Your Enthusiasm’

12. Dewey Crowe, “Justified”

11. Pamela, “Louie”

10. Dr. Leo Spaceman, “30 Rock”

9. Chucky Marstein, “Sons of Anarchy”

8. James Stinson, “How I Met Your Mother”

7. Tom, “Cougar Town”

6. Trudy Campbell, “Mad Men”

5. Rickety Cricket, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”

4. Fat Neil, “Community”

3. Louis Canning, “The Good Wife”

2. Jean Ralpho, “Parks and Recreation”

1. Rafi, “The League”

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.

10. 30 Rock, “TGS Hates Women” — People that complain that “30 Rock” is not the show it once was clearly weren’t paying attention to the show’s fifth season, in which “30 Rock” managed to hang with the fresher NBC comedies, “Community” and “Parks and Recreation.” “TGS Hates Women” was of particular note for the way it managed to skewer Jezebel.com’s skewering of “The Daily Show,” while also hilariously wallowing in its own feminist hypocrisy: “I’m Amelia Earhart. I’m almost across the Pacific. Oh no, my period!”

9. Cougar Town, ” “You’re Gonna Get It” — Were it not for the shaft that NBC has been giving “Community” all season, its sister show on ABC, “Cougar Town” — the show that names all of its episodes after Tom Petty songs — might have gotten more attention. The spirit of “Scrubs” lives on in “Cougar Town,” and this episode in particular was one of the big highlights of 2011 for introducing us to Wrongball Bobby, @TheLarmy, and Jule’s brilliant screw-up of the “Pledge of Allegiance,” including her incorrect belief that it was written by Richard Stands.

8. Happy Endings, “Dave of the Dead” — “Happy Endings” debuted in the spring of this year, mostly to mixed reviews from critics. In the beginning, it was a fairly average show with better than average characters, but it was “Dave of the Dead” — the episode where hipsters are conflated with zombies — that elevated this series into one of the funniest on television.

7. Louie C.K., “Come on, God” — “Louie” is a funny show, but it’s rarely funny in the “ha ha” sense; its humor is deeper, more incisive and knowing, and is often mixed with a heavy dose of melancholia. It’s a comedy, and there is a lot of humor, but it’s not often the kind that will make you laugh so hard you p*ss your pants. But I wanted to include “Louie” because the show belongs on a list like this. “Oh, Louie/Tickets” (the Dane Cook ep) was probably my favorite episode of the year, while the hour-long “Duckling” was the most ambitious. But if I had to choose the funniest episode, I’d say it’s “Come on, God,” the episode in which Louis defends masturbation on Fox News and then attempts to sleep with the spokeswoman for Christians Against Masturbation, only to wind up at home at the end of the night masturbating while thinking about her.

6. South Park, “You’re Getting Older” — “South Park’s” mid-season finale will most likely be remembered for its unusually poignant and downbeat ending, and for the way Matt Parker and Trey Stone used the episode to question the show’s stasis. But in the midst of all that self-reflection, the episode also managed to be very funny, thanks in part to the fake trailers that sent up Adam Sandler’s recent motion picture output: ““This November, Adam Sandler sh*ts in your eyes, ears, and mouth! Whatever. You’ll pay to go see it. F*%k you!”

5. Archer, “El Secuestro” — “Archer” doesn’t mix the pathos with the comedy as well as some of the other shows on this list (or at all), but when it comes to pure comedy, it’s on the same level as “It’s Always Sunny” and “The League.” It’s tough to choose the funniest episode of 2011 because so many were so good, but “El Secuestro” gets the nod simply for the fact that it introduced the Lord Byron poem tattooed on Pam’s back, because Brett managed to answer the phone even after he’d been shot, and for the geeky revelation that Archer knows Asimov’s laws of robotics.

4. The League, “Thanksgiving” — The “Thanksgiving” episode narrowly edged out several other fantastic season three episodes — including “Bobbum Man” and “Ol Smokecrotch” — for the simple reason that casting Jeff Goldblum as Ruxin’s dad was a (vinegar) stroke of genius. And also because in the end, he ended up railing Sarah Silverman during Thanksgiving dinner. As Taco noted after walking in on Mr. Ruxin nailing Silverman’s character from behind: “I can see into his soul. Not good.”

3. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games” — The seventh season was a huge bounce back year for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and the bottle episode “Chardee MacDennis” — a made-up board game — is the season’s one true classic episode and one of the most memorable since the near perfect second season. The entire episode was weird and manic and insane, and the end result was something akin to comedy bliss. Question: “Dennis is a**hole. Why Charlie hate?” Answer: “Because Dennis is a bastard man.”

2. Community, “Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism” — “Remedial Chaos Theory” was the best episode perhaps of any show in 2011, but it wasn’t the funniest. And where “Community” is concerned, “Foosball” takes the yearly crown for the show’s laugh out loudiest episode, thanks to Nick Kroll’s hilarious douchebag, Abed’s second turn at playing Batman, and the brilliant way in which foosball, of all games, brought out the worst in Shirley and Jeff. Oh, and Troy humming “Daybreak” took the effing cake.

1. Parks and Recreation, “Lil Sebastian” was probably the best episode of the season, “Flu Season” had the best line (Chris Traeger’s “Stop Pooping”), but the title of funniest “P&R” episode (and funniest episode of the year) goes to “The Fight,” the episode that introduced Tom Haverford’s Snake Juice, featured Nick Kroll (who is all over this list) as the douchebag DJ, and gave us the indelible and gleeful image of Ron Swanson dancing in the year’s most hysterically funny sequence.

Butt.

The Year with Katie Couric (ABC) – According to Katie Couric, 2011 – which she celebrates/mourns in tonight’s interview-heavy special – was a year of “revolutions, disillusionment, disappointment, frustration, despair, courage, and hope.” Years 0-2010 had all that, too, but no “Whitney.” This year was awful.

Community (NBC) – Fall in love with/cry to “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” all over again. Fun fact: it’s the only episode of “Community” co-written by Dino “Starburns” Stamatopoulos, the creator of “Moral Orel.”

Beavis and Butt-Head (MTV) – Has any resurrected comedy ever come back stronger than “Beavis and Butt-head” has? “Futurama”? Not quite. “Family Guy”? Aw HELL nah. Other series starting with the letter “F”? Probably not. (Screencap via)

Thursday Night Football: Jacksonville at Atlanta (NFL) – I’ll say it again because it seemed to work last time: Josh is in the semi-finals in three of his fantasy leagues, in two of which he has MJD. I don’t think praying for 375 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns is asking too much, right?

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia/The League (FX) – Season finale time for both. Favorite episode for each this year: “Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games” and “The Lockout.” I love me some single-setting shenanigans and Dirty Randy.

Late-Night Guests: Tom Hanks convinces My Morning Jacket to play “That Thing You Do!” on Letterman; Al Michaels, Elle Fanning, and Robin Thicke clarify why they hate Cris Collinsworth on Leno; Robert Downey, Jr. explains to Lenny Kravitz that he was the original Precious on Kimmel; Sean Hayes and John Hodgman act smugly on Ferguson; Dax Shephard tells Kunal Nayyar that the popularity of “The Big Bang Theory” is leading us towards Idiocracy on Conan; Jon questions Matt Damon on whether Scotty still doesn’t know on The Daily Show; and Daniel Craig blah blah Colbert…let’s look at a picture of Rooney Mara, instead.

Most shows were new last week, so we’ve got plenty of GIF fodder for this week’s post, including: crying judges, incest, Louis C.K. miming sex with an animal, Zooey dancing in her underwear, and Fat Mac’s real name. Plus, for the last time for a few months, “Community.” (The only GIF I wanted to locate but couldn’t was of Beavis getting his ass stuck in copy machine – if you know where to find it, include a link in the comments section.) Please remember to email me any favorites you see throughout the week at Joshua.Kurp@gmail.com.

This isn’t going to end well. (Via)

Thank you to Chris for sending this in, which shows two hapless law-chasers who inexplicably can never hit their targets. I should have included Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy into my Worst Tropes list.

I bet he hates corgis, too. (Via)

Zooey > Everything. (Via)

If this happened on “Modern Family,” Sofia would have been instructed to say it as, “EES SO FLUFFFFEEE.” (Via)

Old TV Show GIF of the Week (Via)

Max is awesome. (Via)

Taken from the new special, “Louis C.K.: Live at the Beacon Theater.” (It’s not technically from TV, but we’ll make an exception for C.K.) Can you guess which animal he’s humping? (Via)

It’s funny because she’s crying. (Via) (Via)

Better than Homer Jay Simpson. (Via)

MISS YOU. (Via) (Via)

Bonus “Simpsons” GIF of the Week. (Via)

Community (NBC) – Well, duh. If you’re looking to satisfy your “Community” fix, jam this into your veins: I wrote an article for Splitsider called “58 Reasons Why I Love Community.” And by “wrote,” I mean I took screen caps and pointed out one thing I enjoyed from every single episode. I wonder how they’re going to handle my Annie and Britta (and Troy…)-related objectifying over there?

Wipeout (ABC) – Which is worse? “Winter Wipeout: Deck the Balls.” Or…

Whitney (NBC) – “Christmas Is Cumming,” about Whitney and Alex (who looks like a less interesting mix of Martin Starr and Kevin Corrigan) not wanting to spend time with their families during the holidays?

Dawn of the Nazis (National Geographic Channel) – What better way to celebrate “Infamy Day” than with a new series about the rise of the Nazis. Episode #1: “Becoming Hitler.” Spoiler alert, he didn’t like the Jews much.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX) – The Gang attends their high school reunion. I really liked “Underage Drinking: A National Concern” (and had Alphaville’s “Forever Young” stuck in my head for a week after it aired), so I have high hopes for this one, too.

Late-Night Guests: Kevin Nealon stares at Charlize Theron for an uncomfortably long time during Blitzen Trapper’s set on Letterman; the world shrugs at Katie Couric, Chris D’Elia, and Matisyahu on Leno; Ralph Fiennes and Gym Class Heroes remember feeling guilty about thinking Shailene Woodley was hot in The Descendants; Ed Gillespie discusses the horror of counseling former-President Bush on The Daily Show; Jack Abramoff, not Kevin Spacey, appears on The Colbert Report; and Blink-182 dedicates “All the Small Things” to Jeremy Piven on Conan.

Community (NBC) – For weeks, IMDb had the title of tonight’s episode as “Indoor Sports with Christian Bale.” But it was recently changed to “Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism.” Not nearly as titillating, so in the interest of increasing ratings, let’s pretend it’s called, “Outdoor Nudity with Brie and Bale.”

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (ABC) – Oh, how I hate that Mayor Burgermeister Meisterburger.

Parks and Recreation (NBC) – As much as I love Adam Scott and Amy Poehler, I’m growing a little weary of their will they/won’t they story. Here’s hoping tonight’s episode, about “things [coming] to a head for Leslie, Ben, and Chris,” finally resolves things, and that Andy and Ron do something wacky together. (Also, please enjoy this mash-up of the “Community” cast with the “Parks & Rec” credits.)

The Office (NBC) – Maura Tierney, who guest stars on “The Office” as Robert California’s (James Spader) wife, was one of my first TV crushes. Then again, considering my TV watching habits as a 12-year-old in 1999, it was either her, Caroline Rhea, or the mom from “Malcolm in the Middle.” I made the right choice.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX) – The Gang tries to see the greatest action movie of the summer, Thunder Gun Express, before it leaves theaters. I would trade every single movie that came out between June and August this year for a movie called Thunder Gun Express.

LATE-NIGHT GUESTS: Melissa McCarthy, Rick Perry, and T-Pain reminisce about “Gilmore Girls” on Leno; Ken Tucker fawns over “Pushing Daisies” with Kristin Chenoweth on Ferguson; Terry Bradshaw tries to talk about segregation with the Civil Wars while Maggie Q awkwardly laughs along on Kimmel; and Darrell Hammond tells the Dum Dum Girls and soon-to-be “SNL” host Steve Buscemi about that time he did rock at 30 Rock on Fallon.

Note: There have been a lot of hello’s and goodbye’s (now I get that Beatles song – John’s the walrus!) over the last few days, so I’ll make this brief: I look forward to writing more for Warming Glow, and I hope you guys and gals remain hyper invested in the content and quality of the website. (In other words, call us out on our sh*t.) It’s our shared interests in talking about good shows, making fun of bad ones, and looking at pictures and videos of cute puppies and people that drive WG, and we’ll do our best to continue Matt’s Internet-owning legacy. And I’ll make sure not a day goes by without at least one gratuitous “Simpsons” quote: “Ah, Oliver North, he was just poured into that uniform.”

See you tomorrow.

In a fortuitous twist of romantic fate, Warming Glow’s listmaker-in-chief Josh Kurp and I both got engaged within the same month this fall. No, NOT TO EACH OTHER, har har har. The coincidence got us to talking about TV’s finest marriage proposals, and we knew right away that it needed to be added to the official pantheon of Warming Glow lists.

However, instead of letting Josh do his usual thing and just make a list for you, I demanded to get in the way and talk about TV episodes I’d never seen. It’s one of my better gifts. What follows is Josh’s list and our accompanying Gchat (edited for clarity). Spoilers follow, if you’re five years or a decade behind on watching TV.

Matt: So let’s start with us. In a single sentence with no more than three clauses, describe your proposal.
Josh: I sent Nadia on a scavenger hunt around the city, where she had to find clues at seven different locations, with a code on the bottom of each, which she deciphered at Rockefeller Center.
M: Oh wow. That’s seriously impressive. I wanted to surprise Jenny, so I asked her at my birthday party in front of our friends.
J: That’s cuter. (Don’t tell anyone I used the word “cuter.” Thanks.)
M: Yeah, but yours is all romantic and sh*t.
J: It was inspired by the Zodiac Killer.

1. Homer and Marge, ‘The Simpsons’

Marge worries that she’s pregnant again, so to pass the time, Homer tells the kids the story of how they got together. It involves The Empire Strikes Back and mini-golf.

J: My first selection is naturally The Simpsons, where Homer proposes to Marge, using an onion ring as a token of his cheap, inexpensive love.

M: “Would you mind if I take it off now? The grease is burning my finger.”
J: As someone who spent less than the cost of a single blog post to buy the ring (two months salary, my ass!), I’m proud to consider Homer my equal.
M: Homer did it right, man. The f**king diamond industry is a goddam racket.
J: I blame the Jews.
M: I do appreciate your self-loathing. Although I admit that my fiancée’s continued happiness with the sparkly bauble offsets my abject poverty.
J: Women do like shiny things, or in my fiancée’s case, rings with bunny rabbits on it.
M: Please tell me it’s plastic. Or at least has fur on it.
J: Sadly, neither, but it IS rusty after only a month and a half.
M: Iron oxide is forever.

2. Lisa and Hugh, ‘The Simpsons’

After chasing the mystical esquilax into the woods at the Springfield Renaissance Fair, Lisa wanders into a fortune telling both and is told the story of her (future) first love, Hugh.

J: For The Simpsons, it was between Homer proposing to Marge, or Hugh pledging to be Lisa’s one and only. But he wouldn’t wear those amazing pig cufflinks, so screw that uptight British arsehole.
M: That is a TERRIFIC episode.
J: Sidenote, can those cufflinks be the main photo? I really want them for my wedding.
M: Find the pic and I’ll use it.
J: BOOM.
M: they’re… they’re beautiful.
J: I take back what I said about the Jews. They know what they’re doing by not eating those curly-tailed farm animals.
M: False. Bacon.