It’s become my summer 2023 project to review the three classic Graham Linehan sitcoms from the UK. If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to start with my favorite of the trio, The IT Crowd.

I think the best way to introduce this show to anyone ignorant of it is to say, “You know the Big Bang Theory? This is that, but actually good.” By that, I mean that The IT Crowd actually loves its weird little nerds and makes us cheer for them rather than point fingers and call them names.

This 25-episode series ran from 2006 to 2013 and features a trio of IT employees working for Reynholm Industries, an already off-kilter corporation (albeit far more so in the first season than the subsequent ones). Roy (Chris O’Dowd) is a grumpy Irishman who nevertheless is absolute best friends (and sometimes protector) with Moss (Richard Ayoade), an obsessive geek whose signature afro has a part down the side. The duo find themselves managed by Jen (Katherine Parkinson) in the first episode, despite the fact that she knows absolutely nothing about computers. But that’s OK, as Jen becomes the crew’s “relationship manager” instead.

Each one of the episodes features the IT team getting into some sort of escalating situation (usually with comedic results). These include befriending a cannibal for his TV setup, throwing a disastrous dinner party, discovering what’s behind the “Red Door” in the department, unintentionally haunting an egotistical co-worker, and falling in with bank robbers thanks to talking like “proper” men.

Pretty much any time that Moss and Roy — and often Jen — step out of their cluttered basement sanctuary, it’s going to end badly for them and hilariously for us. I’m OK with that.

These 25 episodes contain an almost abnormally high level of quality. This is thanks, I think, to two factors. First is the uniformly excellent cast. O’Dowd’s Irish drawl and frustrated protestations only get funnier as time goes by (his speech about moths, bathtubs, and ladders is my favorite). Parkinson’s Jen is just as weird as the other two, despite her pretending as if she’s above them and ongoing attempt to fake competency in her profession. And everyone loves Ayoade as Moss, because he can get a laugh out of just staring or the way he speaks without a social filter.

This main trio is backed up by several other good performances: Bosses Denholm (Chris Morris) and Douglas (Matt Berry), each insane in their own way, and hidden IT member and goth enthusiast Richmond (Noel Fielding).

The other factor is simply good writing. Each episode is like a little play with its own focus, and there are only a small handful of weak ones in the bunch. Two, sometimes three, plotlines often intersect and bounce off each other, and there are plenty of running gags and callbacks that pepper the series. They’re all really, really funny.

Probably my favorite of the bunch is when Jen is (randomly) selected as employee of the month, which goes to her head until she realizes that she has to give a speech about computers. This leads Roy and Moss to pulling off the greatest prank ever, which is to give Jen “the internet” (a black box with a blinking light) as a show-and-tell prop. Predictably, this results in the internet being destroyed and mass chaos ensuing.

While technology and computers occasionally come into play, The IT Crowd isn’t so much about nerd culture as it is about what it’s like being a nerd who’s swept aside by culture and corporation alike. The show delights in putting our trio through the wringer — Roy becomes homeless in the span of several hours thanks to a coffee prank, a medical emergency, and a man who died while trying to float on balloons — but it’s never mean-spirited.

What else do I need to do to convince you to give this a watch? How about drowning you with quotes? This, I shall do!

• “Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
• “Prepare to put mustard on those words, for you will soon be consuming them along with this slice of humble pie that comes direct from the oven of shame, set at gas mark ‘egg on your face.'”
• “But Roy’s not a desk rabbit; he’s my best friend, and unless you do something, it’s just going to be you, me, and Tim Burton over there!”
• “You’d best put seat belts on your ears, Roy, ’cause I’m about to take them for the ride of their lives!”
• “With all due respect, John, I am the head of IT, and I have it on good authority that if you type ‘Google’ into Google, you can break the internet. So please, no one try it, even for a joke.”
• “First rule of Street Countdown… is that you really must try and tell as many people as possible about it. It’s a rather fun game, and the more people we tell about it, the better.”
• “I like being weird. Weird is all I’ve got. That, and my sweet style.”
• “A fire? At a Sea Parks? It’s the maddest thing I’ve ever heard!”
• “Didn’t know what a stress machine was this morning, and now we have two of them.”
• “No, Jen, I’m sorry. But the Elders of the Internet would never stand for it.”
• “They’ve turned me into one of them. I am one of them. That’s why you need me. I am your conduit. I am your bridge. Ich bin ein nerd!”