Whether they serve as the marquee name on a network show or edify an ensemble with fast-deployed zingers, these women of primetime substantiate 2010 as a golden age of comedy. In our countdown we embrace live performers, scripted superstars, supporting cast members, new talent, veterans, and cable outlaws. The No. 1 pick is also our candidate for the task of Uncontested Comic Dictator For Life.
10. Kaitlin Olson, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's difficult to remain a standout against the primed chops of Danny DeVito, but Kaitlin Olson is often the quickest, punchiest character on IASIP. We'll never forget her for validating the hilarity of women getting smacked in the face. Moe Howard laughs on from the cosmos.
9. Julie Bowen, Modern Family
While Sofia Vergara plays the more traditionally kooky Gloria, Bowen scintillates as Claire Dunphy, the un-whimsical wife and mother in Modern Family's nuclear unit. While her husband Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) wins more laughs, Claire's self-doubt ends up producing the series' most unexpected laugh-out-loud moments. Quoth Mrs. Dunphy: "You know how growing up we all had that voice inside our head that tells us we're not good enough? Well, mine was outside my head driving me to school."
8. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes standard sardonic scripting seem real -- even cool. As the titular character in CBS's over-the-hill comedy, she transforms the self-absorption we loved about Elaine Benes and amplifies it into one delirious fragment of Christine's existential woes.
7. Jane Lynch, Glee
Years as a regular in Christopher Guest films have prepared Lynch for her most boorishly authoritative role yet: the bullhorn-savvy Sue Sylvester. Whether she's donning a tracksuit, a cone bra, or a cone bra over a tracksuit, Lynch's callous delivery qualifies her as this generation's Eileen Brennan.
6. Courteney Cox, Cougar Town
Maligned from the start, Cougar Town seemed poised to give us just menopausal gags and clueless young hunks. It did that for a few episodes. But thanks to Courteney Cox's performance, the show has graduated to a fleshed-out, singular series. It takes the well-timed restraint and abandon of an improvisational performer to pull off Cox's character Jules, who can't quite decide if she should dress like "a farmer's daughter or a Whitesnake video" when hitting the town.
5. Sarah Silverman, The Sarah Silverman Program
The comedian who proved long ago that the Holocaust and lavatories are endless diamond mines of material continues her trek to this day. She recently became the first Comedy Central star to earn an Emmy nod for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical, Comedy or Variety Series. Amy Sedaris is vindicated!
4. Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live
OK, so it's technically late-night. But still: SNL's had more downs than up this season, and thus, it's easy to dismiss some of Kristen Wiig's abilities, since she's been forced to star in a hefty percentage of skits and bail out some of her underachieving coworkers. But her characters routinely marry stateliness and battiness in a way that would impress Madeline Kahn or Jane Curtin. That Jamie Lee Curtis Activia ad still makes us lose control. Not like that.
3. Portia de Rossi, Better Off Ted
Playing the improbably heartless executive of Veridian Dynamics, de Rossi's Veronica Palmer is the best part of the hilarious-yet-overlooked ABC workplace comedy. In between assigning impossible missions to her team ("We want to weaponize a pumpkin!") and defending the company against indefensible crimes ("The company's actually the opposite of racist, because it's not targeting black people. It's just ignoring them.), Portia de Rossi plays the only female on television who plays harder than the men at the office while doubling as a magician's assistant at night.
2. Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock
To think of anyone else playing the ferociously unstable Jenna Maroney is infeasible, yet, of course, that almost happened. Jane Krakowski turns a character that could seem like a run-of-the-mill delusional actress on paper and imbues a kind of Brechtian urgency to her clamor. In fact, you learn to respect the insanity in a girl who survives a Gossip Girl role where her character died of old age, an engagement to David Blaine, and a threeway with Roseanne and Tom Arnold. "That was two years ago!"
1. Tina Fey, 30 Rock
The most award-blasted comedy in primetime also bears the funniest lead actress of the past decade. Tina Fey's Liz Lemon, the harried head writer of a late-night variety series, is a deceptive straight-man, thanks in particular to the caricatures who surround her. Against their cacophony, Liz seems like a monotone quip dispenser, even though she's often the most absurd part of the din. Wedding dress fixations, Princess Leia costumes, and the occasional mouth-crying jag all creep into her bookish sense of authority. Four and a half seasons in, her bubbling-under neurosis is still unbeatable.