A funny TV show with the same small group of characters, usually in the same few places — a flat, an office, a coffee shop — and a new little problem each week that gets solved by the end of the episode. Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and Modern Family are sitcoms. Each episode runs about twenty to thirty minutes, and the world resets afterwards, so you can watch them in almost any order. Many older ones were filmed in front of a live audience, which is why you hear people laughing. The word is casual and everyday — it is the short form that has almost replaced the full one, and people would find "situation comedy" a bit stiff now, though critics still write it. Use it as a noun (a new sitcom, my favourite sitcom) or before another noun (a sitcom actor, sitcom writing). It is neutral, but a little dismissive when used about real life: "That family is like something out of a sitcom" means their troubles are silly and small.