Since the days of classic sitcoms like Cheers, I Love Lucy, and All in the Family, comedy shows have been some of the most successful and popular endeavors on television. Following everything from dysfunctional family dramas and bad neighbors to crime and work, these series take a relatable look at life and blow it into a silly, cartoonish string of mishaps. From the minds of some of Hollywood's best writers, these shows can be anything from laugh-out-loud goofy humor to thoughtful satire.

Comedy Shows can do anything from reorient networks towards new ideas to unite entire generations, with the best sitcoms serving as true water-cooler shows. Some of the best shows leave the audience with cultural touchstones that everyone knows and can relate to. While some of these series focus on detestable characters the audience can't help but love, others lean more on the side of wholesome -- and the 2000s gave fans one of the best decades of comedy TV ever.

Two and a Half Men begins when hardworking family man Alan Harper is forced to stay with his wealthy, carefree brother, Charlie, when his wife files for divorce. Heading out to Charlie's lavish Malibu beach house, he brings with him his son, Jake, who forms a bond with his uncle as he himself copes with the divorce. What ensues is eight years of the brothers being at each other's throats, only making things work through their shared love of Jake (and Alan's desperation).

After movies like American Pie paved the way for Hollywood's raunchy side to make a comeback, Two and a Half Men brought that appeal to TV, albeit in a more subdued manner. The series ultimately played on the Playboy persona Charlie Sheen had built up since the '80s, and it was this lifestyle that gave the show some of its best moments.

Psych focuses on Shawn Spencer, a man with keen observational skills that allow him to pose as a psychic. Along with his best friend, Burton "Gus" Guster, he uses his abilities to work as a police consultant, aiding homicide detectives Lassiter and O'Hara in solving Santa Barbara murder cases. Ranging from Scooby-Doo-inspired crime capers to confrontations with serial killers, the bumbling amateur detectives prove essential in solving crimes.

Psych built on the work of shows like Monk in bringing humor to police procedurals, but delivered far more laughter than Shaloub's still funny, quirky detective. In Gus and Shawn, the show had one of the best on-screen friendships of the decade, and mastered the comedy-crime formula in a way no other series has.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia focuses on a group of five friends, "the Gang," as they run their Irish bar, Paddy's Pub. Roping one another into various schemes of self-interest, the friends engage in and commit everything from racism and drug use to kidnapping and fraud. Proving to be some of the most morally-bankrupt characters on TV, their terrorizing of their community and non-stop lies somehow earned them the affection of the audience.

If any series represents the decade's willingness to offend anyone and everyone in its audience, it's hard to go wrong with the antics of the Gang in their never-ending greed and deception.

After the cancellation of Seinfeld, Larry David wrote and starred in a new series, Curb Your Enthusiasm, which casts him as a dramatized version of himself. Navigating everything from adult friendships and marriage to working in the TV business, the series presented its audience with the life of Larry, translating it into a down-to-earth story of a regular guy. Mastering the sardonic side of comedy, seeing Larry have to deal with everything from allegations of racism to romantic miscommunication, took everything great about Seinfeld into the 21st century.

Curb Your Enthusiasm did two important things for the 2000s; not only did it give Seinfeld fans more from the mind of Larry David, it also served as the decade's most relatable, realistic sitcom.

Arrested Development begins when the patriarch of the wealthy Bluth family is arrested for fraud, leaving both his business and family in shambles. The series focuses on the unappreciated son, Michael, as he finds himself in the unenviable position of holding both together in his father's absence. As the family is forced to adjust to a more modest lifestyle without their father's fortune at their disposal, each of them undergoes personal growth as they slowly become closer to one another.

Arrested Development was a unique piece of TV when it debuted, serving up its own brand of quirky humor through the eccentric, dysfunctional family. Through its oddball characters juxtaposed with the straight-laced Michael, the show delivered some of the most iconic moments of 2000s TV, being markedly more intelligent than its predecessors.

30 Rock follows the day-to-day life of Liz Lemon, a TV writer and show runner for a popular comedy sketch show based out of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. While there, she clashes with everyone from the series' regular stars to the intrusive network boss, Jack Donaghy, whose conservative views often put him and Liz at loggerheads. Leading the audience through the personal and professional lives of its characters, the series kept everyone engaged from start to finish.

30 Rock is a great satire of Hollywood culture and the TV industry, drawing on creator Tina Fey's time at SNL to poke fun at studio bosses and the shallow nature of network TV. From absurd premises to skits of popular series like Frasier, the show managed to be as self-aware as it was entertaining.

Peep Show focuses on a pair of roommates, Mark and Jeremy, who take on the challenges of life, finding themselves in a series of awkward situations brought on by their terrible social skills. Presented through the direct point-of-view of its characters, the series wasn't afraid to shed the traditional sitcom formula for a more honest look at life as a flawed, mediocre or even unimpressive person just making ends meet.

Peep Show works as a weirdly relatable sitcom that plays on dysfunctional friendships and the darker side of life, from betrayal to social embarrassment. Taking some cues from Ricky Gervais' The Office, the series emerged as one of Britain's best sitcoms since the end of Bottom, and it brilliantly encapsulated a new direction for comedy in the UK.

The Office takes place in the offices of the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, and focuses on its oddball cast of office workers. From the easygoing Jim Halper to the well-meaning but absurd management of Michael Scott, the show took common, relatable office dynamics to a laughable extreme. Whether it was the boss struggling through survival training or Jim and Pam's slow-burning relationship, the series helped push TV in a new direction for comedy.

American studios adapting British shows to the US have always struggled to find an appeal, but The Office shattered that losing streak and then some. Even today, the best moments from the show give fans a fun sense of nostalgia for the environment of mid-2000s office work. It's key to credit both versions of the series, where the UK show helped series like The Thick of It become household names, and The Office spurred on a similar trend in the USA.

Just a few years after the end of Friends, Chuck Lorre filled the cultural void with the release of what would become the defining sitcom of the 2000s in The Big Bang Theory. Focusing on a group of intelligent, nerdy friends as they struggle to relate to and befriend their attractive neighbor, Penny, the series was perfect for a decade increasingly defined by comic book movies and interest in science.

While the series wasn't everyone's cup of tea, it was almost impossible to avoid talk of The Big Bang Theory from the late 2000s on. Here, the tone and style of the decade's comedy was wrapped up in a quirky comfort show, one that saw its characters and writing change with the times as it led into the 2010s.

After The Simpsons set the standard for animated sitcoms, Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy followed up on its success. Beginning in 1999, the series introduced the world to the Griffin family and their eccentric Quahog neighbors. In effect, the show took everything that made The Simpsons memorable and ramped it up, exploring a more zany, adult side of animated humor. From the perverted Quagmire to the show's signature cutaways, MacFarlane's characters and their love of pop culture references started to set the tone moving forward -- and became the favored show of younger viewers.

While The Simpsons might have gotten there first, by the time the 2000s had rolled around, Family Guy had replaced it as the go-to animated sitcom, in part thanks to its edgier humor. As efforts to cancel the show failed, MacFarlane himself earned a reputation for exploring topics other shows were more subtle about, from religion and politics to sex and marriage.