What makes a comedy? Is it how much you laugh? Is it meant to delight you? And is it still funny if it makes you sad? On this week’s episode of “The Vulture TV Podcast,†Margaret, Matt, and Gazelle discuss the nebulous space hour-long comedies live in, and the increasingly difficult task of trying to categorize shows. We examine two of the most interesting hour-long comedies on television right now, Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, plus we take sides in the ultimate TV wars — Fitz versus Jake, Noel versus Ben, Rafael versus Michael — and suggest the fanfiction pairings of our dreams.
This episode contains spoilers in the following discussions:
11:20–25:46 The pilot of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
25:47–35:59 The second-season premiere of Jane the Virgin
Further reading: Margaret Lyons reviews Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; Gazelle Emami’s interview with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator and star Rachel Bloom.
Tune in to “The Vulture TV Podcast,†produced by the Slate Group’s Panoply, every Tuesday, on iTunes or SoundCloud. And please send us your burning TV questions! Tweet us @Vulture or email [email protected]. Vulture Insiders can exclusively submit audio questions to “The Vulture TV Podcast.†Click here to apply.