‘Reno 911!’ at 20: 10 Most-Viewed Clips From the Mockumentary (VIDEO)
As Reno 911! reaches its 20th anniversary, the cops of the (fortunately fictional) Reno Sheriff’s Department are as inept and ineffectual as ever.
Reno 911! premiered on Comedy Central on July 23, 2003, with co-creators Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kenney-Silver, and Robert Ben Garant playing cops alongside Niecy Nash, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and other comedic talents.
The mockumentary series aired six seasons on Comedy Central, wrapping up its linear run in 2009. But then it got a revival on Quibi in 2020 and squeezed in a seventh season before that short-form streaming platform shut down. After Quibi’s demise, the eighth season landed on The Roku Channel. Along the way, there’s also been a Reno 911! theatrical release, a Paramount+ movie, and a Comedy Central movie.
Kenney-Silver isn’t ruling out future installments, either. “It’s like coming home, I think, for all of us,” she told ScreenRant in December. “It’s like coming home, and no matter what other projects we’re doing, no matter what the level of them is, it’s always, always fun to come back and play with your best friends, with your family.”
To celebrate 20 years of Reno 911! ridiculousness, here are the 10 most-viewed YouTube clips from the show, barring duplicates. Fair warning, though: Some of the humor gets NSFW!
10. “Trunk”: 2.8 million views
Keegan-Michael Key’s character, self-described as “a little bit of a vagabond,” has plenty of questions about his theoretical crimes. “Hypothetically, if I had severed the head, if I had done it, what would the repercussions be?” he asks Deputies Johnson (McLendon-Covey) and Wiegel (Kenney-Silver).
9. “The Best of Nick Swardson’s Terry Pt. 2”: 2.9 million views
Nick Swardson’s roller-skating repeat offender is a thorn in the Reno Sheriff’s Department’s side, whether he’s calling in his own murder, offering $2 “tug jobs,” or committing a “melody.”
8. “Terry’s Fiancee”: 3 million views
Deputies Dangle (Lennon) and Wiegel assume Terry is just pretending to have a fiancée, especially because he says her name was “Seeeeemji.” But then Seeeeemji shows up, played by Christina Applegate.
7. “Very Drunk and Extremely Disorderly”: 3 million views
Somehow a woman nude from the waist down (Natasha Leggero) — who’s particularly picky about which garment she wants to put on her bottom half — gets the better of Dangle and Kimball as they arrest her at a bar.
6. “The Best of Frisbee (feat. Zach Galifianakis)”: 3.8 million views
On the outskirts of Reno, the gun-toting Frisbee (Zach Galifianakis) lives in an abandoned school bus along with his children named after sitcom characters (e.g. Ross, Chandler, Joey, Dharma, and Greg).
5. “Lottery”: 4.9 million views
When Wiegel, Johnson, and Jones (Cedric Yarbrough) are under the mistaken belief that they’ve won the lottery, they curse out their coworkers in epic fashion. “You people have been blisters on my [censored],” Johnson says. “And not just blisters, but in-grown hairs.”
4. “Lieutenant Dangle Is a Fashion Icon With His New Boots”: 5.2 million views
At Reno’s Zapateria La Bailarina, Dangle finds the perfect fashion accessory to go with his short shorts: White “genuine ostrich” cowboy boots that will only take him three payments to pay off.
3. “Drunk Catwalk”: 5.2 million views
Johnson gives a field sobriety test to a cowboy (played by Yarborough) who’s as gifted at dancing as he is at reciting the alphabet backwards… and who’s perhaps a little too honest.
2. “The Best of Keegan Michael Key’s Hypothetical Criminal Part 1”: 5.4 million views
Key’s inquisitive character returns with more antics — including saying he has jurisdiction over Deputies Johnson and Kimball (Mary Birdsong) because of his (either fake or pilfered) FBI and Department of Treasury badges.
1. “Trapped in a Sex Doll”: 8.2 million views
Motel guest Andrew (Jim Rash) says it’s not his “finest hour” when he needs Dangle and Wiegel to extricate his — ahem — “manhood” from inside a sex doll. (“Are you going in the front or the back?” Dangle asks as he gets a handle of the situation.)
