Where would TV comedy be without fools? If there were no giant dunderheads doing and saying monumentally dopey things, sitcoms would mostly just be normal people going about their day! The fool is a grand tradition in literature and drama, reaching back centuries, and it’s one that continues today in the superb comedy box sets you’ll find in our April Fool’s Day collection in On Demand.

From revered classics of the 1970s and 80s to modern shows that have already achieved must-see status, there’s a huge range of guffaw-inciting entertainment for you to enjoy in this comical collection. Read on to find your favourite fools this April.

The Inbetweeners

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The outrageous misadventures of four teenage boys kept us laughing for three series and two hugely successful spin-off films, as well as spawning numerous catchphrases (100% of which are too filthy to repeat here). Bodily excretions, rogue genitalia, fish punching – all of adolescent humanity is here.
 

Fool At First Sight: Neil (Blake Harrison). On work experience: “How long’s my lunch hour?”

The Real Fool: Teacher Mr Gilbert (Greg Davies), stuck in a job he clearly loathes.

Wellington Paranormal

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After two police officers apprehend a young woman who claims to be Bazu’aal of the Unholy Realm, their sergeant recruits them to a special task force dedicated to investigating supernatural activity in the Wellington area. This might be easier if they were slightly less incompetent.
 

Fool At First Sight: Officer Minogue (Mike Minogue), who likes people to get his first name right. “My name is not Kylie. It’s Kyle. And the E is silent!”
 

The Real Fool: Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu), who perseveres with the dopey pair despite their lack of results. And policing ability. And simple common sense.

Stath Lets Flats

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Letting agent Stath Charalambos (Jamie Demetriou) will stop at nothing to get ahead in the business, but fails because he is – and we can’t stress this enough – useless. If only he had a way to persuade the management… Unfortunately that’s Stath’s dad, who knows exactly how dim he is. This hysterically funny sitcom cleaned up at the 2020 TV BAFTAs with three awards.
 

Fool At First Sight: Stath, as indicated by his inability to drive, or park, or do his job, or talk with anything resembling coherence.
 

The Real Fool: Stath’s uber-ditzy sister Sophie (Jamie’s real-life sister Natasia Demetriou). She mistakes an office building for a hospital, because it’s big.

South Park

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This phenomenally successful animated sitcom now has more than 300 episodes, each one packed with crudeness, unspeakable violence and sly satire. Elementary schoolers Kyle, Stan, Kenny and Cartman have been gleefully getting into trouble since 1997 and after all this time the show remains clever, provocative and uproariously funny.
 

Fool At First Sight: Eric Cartman, voiced by co-creator Trey Parker, is narcissistic, manipulative, lazy, prejudiced, self-righteous and insecure… yet lovable?
 

The Real Fool: Most of the adults but particularly Stan’s hopeless dad Randy (also Parker), with his cringeworthy attempts to be cool and pathetic susceptibility to peer pressure.

Flight Of The Conchords

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New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk-parody duo try to make it in New York with minimal success, not least because they get precisely zero help from their highly ineffective manager Murray (Rhys Darby). They do manage to win one fan, but that’s a double-edged sword… This offbeat show combines deadpan comic moments with hilarious songs to great effect.
 

Fool At First Sight: Jemaine (Jemaine Clement) appears slightly more savvy than ultra-naïve Bret (Bret McKenzie), but there’s very little in it.
 

The Real Fool: Super-fan Mel (Kristen Schaal), whose apparent devotion to the band is perhaps covering up something more worrying.

Parks And Recreation

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A mockumentary set in a municipal office in the fictional Indiana town of Pawnee may not sound promising but in the hands of creator Michael Schur, who oversaw the US version of The Office and philosophicomedy The Good Place, this is an all-time classic populated with memorable characters: enthusiast Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), libertarian extraordinaire Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), sarcastic slacker April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), wannabe entrepreneur Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) and so, so many more.
 

Fool At First Sight: Perennial office scapegoat Jerry (Jim O’Heir) is the obvious candidate…
 

The Real Fool: …but Jerry’s happily married with three beautiful daughters and entirely content with his lot in life. As the frequent town hall meetings prove, the real fool is literally every other resident of Pawnee.

Absolutely Fabulous

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It’s Lacroix, sweetie! Join fashion-obsessed PR agent Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and her Bollinger-swigging sidekick Patsy (Joanna Lumley) as they drink, smoke, screech and swagger through life – much to the chagrin of Edina’s sensible teenage daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha) – in this gleefully anarchic sitcom written by Saunders, which won multiple BAFTAs and an Emmy.
 

Fool At First Sight: Dimwitted PA Bubble (Jane Horrocks) – Edina admits she only keeps her around because Bubble makes her look competent by comparison.
 

The Real Fool: Edina, who constantly wants more, more, more of everything but is never truly satisfied.

Porridge

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This all-time great British sitcom casts such a long shadow over all subsequent TV comedy that it’s hard to believe it had only 21 episodes. Ronnie Barker is Norman Fletcher, an old lag who knows exactly how to work the prison system to his advantage – despite being beset on all sides by lunkheads, ne’er-do-wells and naïfs like new cellmate Lennie Godber (Richard Beckinsale), not to mention the prison officers. 
 

Fool At First Sight: There are plenty of candidates among the inmates: vicious Grouty (Peter Vaughan), slow-witted Heslop (Brian Glover), uneducated Bunny (Sam Kelly)…

The Real Fool: … but in truth it’s warder Mr Mackay (Fulton Mackay), who allows Fletcher to wind him up constantly even though Mackay has 100% of the power in their relationship.