I believe that there are few things more comforting than rewatching a show that you adore for the millionth time. Some might say it’s boring to watch an episode that you’ve seen ten times before, but for me, familiarity and anticipation just amp up the enjoyment when I’m watching TV. My go-to rewatch? “The Office.” The hilarious jokes, iconic characters and awkward silences truly put the show in a class of its own. While it’s timelessly funny, the show is also a familiar and safe rewatch — I know what to expect when I press play on “Dinner Party” or “The Merger.”
Many of my generation’s most beloved sitcoms, such as “The Office,” “Saved by the Bell,” “New Girl” or “Friends,” aren’t currently running; in fact, they aired years and years ago. Many of America’s favorite sitcoms can be tied to a specific decade or closely associated with an entire generation. Millenials have “The Office,” Gen X has “Friends,” boomers have “Cheers.” So what is the sitcom that defines Gen Z? It seems as if networks have lost interest in making big-budget sitcoms, and simultaneously, it seems as if Gen Z has lost interest in new sitcoms.
I think part of the answer is obvious: the way we watch TV has changed. Gen Z has grown up in a world full of streaming platforms with countless shows and viewing options. Instead of gathering around the TV on Thursdays to watch a new episode of “The Office” at 8, we now scroll, stream, skip and fast-forward. There’s no shared schedule, and there’s no laugh track. Streaming platforms have fragmented audiences into micro-communities. After an episode of “The Office” or “Friends” aired, you could assume that almost everybody had seen it — but Gen Z now lives in a different kind of reality, one full of algorithms and tailored content. While I might be obsessed with “Stranger Things,” my friend might be obsessed with “Love Island,” and my sister might be obsessed with “Severance” or a true crime docuseries.
Today’s sitcom is struggling, especially in the lens of networks and streaming platforms. As they aired, traditional sitcoms reset with every episode to a status quo; viewers could miss some episodes and still understand what was going on for the most part. Streaming is a different story — in the streaming economy, retention and hooks are essential to the heart of the shows, and their shows are filled with drama, character arcs and cliffhangers. Writers and producers want their viewers to binge watch shows quickly. In this landscape, the comfort of the sitcom does not align with what audiences desire and the ways they consume media.
The binge model that streaming platforms rely on rewards momentum, not repetition, chasing emotional stakes and plot-lines to keep viewers clicking “next episode.” Sadly, the sitcom’s classic rhythm, with constant conflict, resolution and reset, feels out of step with a culture that never pauses. It seems like it wouldn’t work for a network to try to release a classic-feeling sitcom now.
You might say that TikTok has become the modern sitcom. The heart of sitcom is those short, repetitive, predictable moments of humor and relatability, and that is TikTok. We are now watching creators play roles in storytimes, sketches, “Get Ready With Me” videos and vlogs. Short-form content has filled the sitcom vacuum, for better or for worse, and it does not help that TikTok addicts viewers to its algorithm and is slowly ruining their attention spans.
This does not mean Gen Z does not like or want sitcoms. As I mentioned, Gen Z still loves rewatching “The Office,” “Parks and Rec,” “Friends” and other sitcoms. In my personal experience, these rewatches feel safe, and they give me a sense of nostalgia for a time I wasn’t even fully a part of. They also feel like an escape from the world and the modern black hole of social media. I can watch older sitcoms and know I won’t be confronted with a current social agenda or drama — just humor and relatability.
There’s also the issue of remake culture and overly derivative writing. When networks attempt to emulate an iconic sitcom like “The Office,” it never lives up to the hype. Our culture’s stances around humor, identity and representation have changed. What was once “edgy” or funny back in the early 2000s is now viewed as insensitive or even offensive. “The Office” relied on cringey, awkward humor, often joking about race, gender and workplace politics in order to make viewers uncomfortable. And this type of humor worked … back in the early 2000s.
Today, if a network came out with a sitcom using the same humor of “The Office,” the backlash and controversy would be loud, to the point that it would probably be cancelled. Whenever I think of this, I immediately think of Oscar and Michael, and more specifically, when Michael “outs” Oscar’s sexuality to the entire office — and let me be honest, it was uncomfortable. Michael makes truly mortifying comments to and about Oscar, exemplifying the cringey humor of “The Office,” but we are not laughing at Oscar: we are laughing at Michael. Oscar’s embarrassment and mortification exemplify how unprofessional and out of touch his boss is. “The Office” does not condone Michael’s behavior but rather shows how flawed Michael is.
That’s what “The Office” does well: making viewers laugh at things they know are wrong. I believe that Gen Z sees the show as satire, not endorsement of this behavior. However, Gen Z still loves “The Office,” because they understand the humor, and they are not necessarily laughing at the jokes, but more at how uncomfortable the characters are.
I think the real answer to the overarching question — does the sitcom of Gen Z exist? — is that it’s not gone; it’s just harder to find. Rather than airing on one channel every Thursday, it is scattered across various social media platforms. Gen Z still loves what sitcoms gave us in the first place: connection, comfort and laughter. We just find it in different places and at a different pace. The sitcom is not dead — it has just adapted to fit a world that finds humor in the midst of the chaos.
