Based on the hilarious comedy movie of the same name, What We Do in The Shadows, has become a critically-acclaimed series, which is almost as good, if not, dare we say better, than the film it was based upon. What We Do in the Shadows was released in 2014, and immediately became a cult classic, with its refreshing format, unique tone, and undeniable laugh-out-loud comedy. Written and directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, who returned to the franchise as showrunners on the series, the film launched Taika Waititi's career as the famed actor, director, and writer, for whom we know him today.
The show follows four vampire roommates, Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja, and Colin Robinson, alongside Nandor's familiar, Guillermo. Since its release in 2019, the show has spawned three critically acclaimed seasons, with a fourth season currently airing on FX. What We Do in the Shadows has been nominated for numerous awards, such as Outstanding Comedy Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as Best Comedy Series at the Critics' Choice Television Awards. The show managed to take home the Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Awards for Best Cable Network Series (New or Recurring). This hilarious mockumentary series is bound to make you laugh until it hurts, so with that, here are the funniest episodes of What We Do in the Shadows.
Updated on September 10th, 2023, by Gargi Chatterjee: This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.
14 "Citizenship"
Season 1, Episode 8
After hearing that his home country of Al Qolnidar has been dissolved, Nandor searches for a place he can call home, which leads Guillermo to suggest that Nandor take the American Citizenship test. Nandor believes he could pass by just hypnotizing the government worker, which ultimately fails, leading to a brilliant joke about why he cannot seem to hypnotize the worker. Following a grueling test with some hilarious answers from Nandor, he is then finally forced to recite the pledge of allegiance. But this proves too much for him as his mouth catches fire every time he says the word "God".
Meanwhile, Nadja struggles to tutor a young vampire (Jenna) to find her special ability and what it takes to be a bloodthirsty vampire; this leads to many hilarious failed attempts, with Jenna transforming into a hideous bat, as well as failing to feed off people due to her moral compass. This leads to one of the funniest jokes in the episode, with Nadja taking Jenna to a frat party full of "hot idiots", which causes Jenna to finally feed and find her special ability, making Nadja an extremely proud teacher.
13 "Exit Interview"
Season 5, Episode 10
The last episode of the most recent season of the show was hilarious and interesting. A lot of things happened in the episode, but the most important part was the fact that Guillermo finally turns into a vampire and the one to change him is not Nandor, whom he served as a familiar for a long time. Nandor is angry and wants to kill Guillermo and the latter goes into hiding along with Derek, the vampire who turned him. Even though every other member of the house and Nandor also finally finds him, he is not killed.
Instead, Nandor celebrates his newfound vampirism with him but when they realize that Guillermo is not cut out to be a real vampire since he does not want to kill humans, they help him revert to a human. The whole episode is wholesome, heartfelt, and in the end, hilarious. The cameo scene with Patton Oswalt was one of the highlights of the episode.
12 "Cloak of Duplication"
Season 3, Episode 2
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Kicking off the episode with a hilarious anecdote about Nandor talking about making a "firm number two", the episode only gets funnier and funnier, with Colin and Laszlo using the cloak of duplication (which allows the wearer to look like someone else) to help woo Nandor's dream girl, who works at Massive Fitness, the gym that Nandor sometimes goes to.
This leads to many hilarious attempts by Colin and Laszlo, with the pair both getting thrown out due to their inappropriate behavior. Eventually, Nandor himself tries to woo the receptionist on his own but ultimately learns that the receptionist is a lesbian, which results in a priceless reaction from Nandor.
10 "The Escape"
Season 3, Episode 9
The third episode of the third season is a chaotic mess that will leave you in stitches. The original vampire, also known as the Sire somehow escapes and causes mayhem around the city. Since vampires believe that if their creator dies, they will die as well, it causes mass panic because the Sire's death will result in all of their deaths.
They also find that the Baron has not died, and rescue him from his coffin. With the Baron's help, the rest of them can tame the Sire and in a very wholesome ending, we see the Baron, the Sire and the hellhound all settle down in a house in New Jersey, bringing peace back in vampirekind.
9 "The Casino"
Season 3, Episode 4
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This episode is effortlessly funny as the group travels to the bright and colorful Atlantic City for their neighbors, Sean and Charmaine's anniversary. It's great seeing the vampires in new and uncharted environments like the colorful Atlantic City, as opposed to the dark, bleak house that they all share. The episode brings fresh and unique life into the show, which makes the episode stand out from the rest, not just for its location, but its genius wit too.
It is hilarious watching Nandor become obsessed with a Big Bang Theory-themed slot machine, which later causes Nandor to question the machine's branding, leading Colin to blow Nandor's vampire mind about the universe in one of the funniest anecdotes in the episode. Meanwhile, Nadja and Laszlo believe that a tribute act to the "Rat Pack" is a genuine act from the '60s, which they still cannot understand.
8 "Manhattan Night Club"
Season 1, Episode 4
One of the earliest episodes of the show is also one of the funniest and one of the main reasons is the very entertaining cameo from Nick Kroll, who plays a vampire named Simon the Devious. The gang consisting of Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja, Colin, and Guillermo all visit a club in Manhattan that Simon owns to ally with him to slowly take over the city as per the wishes of the Baron.
But things do not end as planned as a lot has changed and Simon ends up being mean and humiliates them. There is also a plot involving a cursed had made of a witch's skin that Laszlo wears which gets him into freak accidents. In the end, Simon takes the hat from him and makes the gang leave, promptly after his nightclub explodes, supposedly as a result of the cursed hat.
7 "Baron's Night Out"
Season 1, Episode 6
The episode starts with Nandor, Nadja, and Laszlo plotting to kill the Old World vampire Baron Afanas, played by Doug Jones. But after awakening from his slumber, The Baron pitches an odd request. The vampire wishes to spend a night out on the town, which seems to stun the other three vampires. However, the vampires use this opportunity to secretly plan his murder. What unfolds is a hilarious escapade in the town, where the group dresses the centuries-old vampire in human clothes, which on any ordinary vampire would not look as amusing, but on a wrinkly, pale, monster-looking vampire, just makes every scene that much more entertaining.
We follow the group as they go to a convenience store, try pizza, go to bars, and sing Karaoke while they all get progressively more sloshed on drug blood, the blood from people who are on lots of drugs. This causes the vampires to forget about murdering the Baron because they are so drunk. But, the episode ends with Guillermo accidentally murdering the Baron, with the group being too drunk to remember how he died.
6 "Colin's Promotion"
Season 2, Episode 5
Everyone's favorite energy vampire, Colin Robinson is front and center in this spin-off episode. Colin Robinson rarely gets to shine in the show, as one of the funniest characters on the show. Mark Proksch is brilliant as the vampire delivering his trademark effortless dry humor as the scene-stealing energy vampire.
The episode sees Colin get promoted to the management level, which gives Colin a tremendous amount of energy to feed off, forcing his underlings to listen to his exhausting droning, while he feeds off them. This creates an "Uber" Colin, giving him super strength and a beautiful head of hair. Eventually, his power becomes too much to handle, with his head growing in size much like the Dreamworks character Megamind, and this forces Colin to create multiple Colins to withstand his immense power.
5 "Local News"
Season 5, Episode 5
The hilarious fifth episode of the fifth season starts with a water main break that floods parts of the city, and Nandor, who was on the street is interviewed by a reporter and accidentally spills the beans about his vampirism on camera. After that, everything falls into chaos as Nandor and the others try to figure out a way to stop people from knowing the truth.
On the other hand, Guillermo, who is coming into his vampiric nature, goes to say goodbye to his family only to see that it's his grandmother's birthday. The episode is filled with a lot of choices as the characters try to correct Nandor's mistake amidst a water main break and a thunderstorm.
4 "Nouveau Theatres Des Vampires"
Season 2, Episode 2
The final episode of season two gives us a hilarious look at how our four favorite vampires live without Nandor's familiar, Guillermo, and it's safe to say the vampires cannot cope without him. Guillermo left the vampire house after finding out about his vampire-slaying lineage. This leads the four vampires to not be able to wake themselves up, tidy up the dead bodies, or take their clothes to the dry cleaners.
After the vampires are lured into a trap, by inviting them to the most exclusive vampire theater production in the Shadows world, Nouveau Theatres Des Vampires, Guillermo puts his vampire hunter lineage to full force, as he is forced to save his vampire friends. This earns the ex-familiar new-found respect from the vampires, even if Laszlo still calls him Gizmo.
3 "Go Flip Yourself"
Season 4, Episode 8
Go Flip Yourself is one of the funniest episodes of the whole show. In it, Laszlo signs the vampire house for a renovation on a popular home renovation show called 'Go Flip Yourself' hosted by two brothers named Toby and Bran. Even though Nadja accidentally kills Toby when they all enter the house, they hypnotize everyone to believe that he is just sick and go on with the show.
The rest of the episode is filled with regular shenanigans. But in a twist, Bran reveals that he is Simon the Devious who was using Toby as a cover and created the show along with his followers to steal the cursed witch hat back from Laszlo. In the end, the living arrangements do improve a little when Simon takes the cursed hat away from the premises.
2 "On The Run"
Season 2, Episode 6
We are introduced to Laszlo's hilarious and beloved alter ego, Jackie Daytona. After fleeing his debtor (played by Mark Hamill), Laszlo flees to Pennsylvania, because, as Laszlo states "it sounded like Transylvania, and we all know that sounds cool". In a Clark Kent-esque fashion, Laszlo dons a "fool-proof" human disguise, consisting of simply a toothpick, making Laszlo unrecognizable to the characters in that world. Alongside his disguise, he changes his name to Jackie Daytona, a bartender and also a local girls' volleyball coach.
This episode allows Berry to show off his wit and comedy chops. This garnered a lot of praise from critics, with Rolling Stones hailing the episode as the show's "comic high point to date". Whether Jackie will return is currently unknown, but it is safe to say that we are all excited for the day when Laszlo dons his human disguise once again.
1 "The Trial"
Season 1, Episode 7
What We Do in the Shadows is no stranger to many brilliant cameos, from Mark Hamill, Benedict Wong, and the hilarious Nick Kroll popping up throughout the show. But, this episode is jam-packed full of exciting and hilarious cameos, making for the funniest episode of the show. The cameos in this episode will put a smile on your face, whether that's because you are laughing or just giddy with excitement seeing your favorite movie and TV vampires appear in this brilliant episode.
The most notable cameos in the episode include Tilda Swinton, Danny Trejo, Dave Bautista, Evan Rachel Wood, and Wesley Snipes. But, perhaps the best cameos, were from Taika Waititi, Jermaine Clement, and Jonathon Brugh, returning as their characters from the movie that inspired this hit series. This episode is pure genius, and such a delight to watch; our favorite fictional vampires interact with each other. Never did we think Viago from What We Do in the Shadows would have a conversation with Blade, the day-walker.