If you live amid the glitz and grime of New York City, you know the ups and downs of big-city living. Everyday interactions are often laced with menace and oddball strangers are just a subway ride away. Yes, life in New York City can be harrowing, but it makes for great stories. And the madness is rife with hilarity when you’re the audience and not the victim.
Here are three webseries that will help you laugh away the blues.
1) Doorman
Chris Russell’s Doorman follows the days and nights of a New York City doorman as he navigates dour luxury apartment dwellers, mysterious big tippers, and arrogant drivers.
Based on Russell’s blog, the series echoes Louis C.K.’s mix of empathy and existential dread. The doorman is more than a doorman—he’s a human being with hopes, aspirations, and a healthy heap of self-loathing.
“You are a writer,” a date exclaims when he takes out his notebook. “Yeah,” he replies. “And it’s all garbage.”
2) Neighbors
Anyone who’s dashed down the hall or fumbled for a key to avoid an interaction with an aggravating neighbor will appreciate Jackie Jennings’ Neighbors.
Each episode features a new neighbor who comes bearing bizarre demands. A vegan requests cruelty-free cooking (she claims she can smell the chicken Jackie’s been cooking), a grown man proposes Girl Scout cookie sales—minus the pesky Girl Scouts—and a recent transplant from California doesn’t understand why East Coasters don’t kiss each other hello.
Jennings is hilarious as the overly polite smiler who can’t quite close the door on the revolving cast of weirdos.
3) Roommates Making a Web Series About Roommates Living in New York City: The Web Series
Ever thought, “Hey I could make a webseries,” or befriended an aspiring creative? Ian Stroud’s wickedly clever Roommates Making a Web Series About Roommates Living in New York: The Web Series sends up the ridiculous notion that daily apartment living equals automatic comic genius.
Stroud created the series with real-life roommates Matthew Starr and Brady O’Callahan, and the trio expertly mimics novices who cannot see the ho-humness of their ideas. The giddy pitch meetings between Starr and O’Callahan are an absolute riot.
Screengrab via Doorman Show/YouTube