TV Shows Like PEN15
If you like PEN15, here are 11 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
Hulu · Comedy · PEN15 is ended
PEN15 works because it commits fully to a strange premise: two adult women playing their thirteen-year-old selves, surrounded by actual kids, trying to recreate the specific misery and occasional joy of being a seventh-grader in 2000. The show gets the small humiliations right, the ones that stick with you for twenty years. It's funny not because middle school is inherently comedic, but because the writers remember what it felt like when gel pens and AIM away messages mattered, when a single social misstep could reshape your entire social standing. The performances work because Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle commit to the awkwardness instead of laughing at it.
The best shows like PEN15
1. South Park
South Park has spent decades mining elementary and middle school dynamics for humor that's both specific to childhood and sharply political. Like PEN15, it finds the comedy in group friendships, social hierarchies, and the gap between how kids see themselves and how they actually look to the world.
Stream on Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Paramount+ Amazon Channel
Renewed100%
2. Big Mouth
Big Mouth shares PEN15's obsession with puberty and middle school as comedy material, and both shows understand that teenage sexuality and social mortification are genuinely funny. Where PEN15 gets its edge from adults playing kids in a live-action setting, Big Mouth uses animation to push the same emotional territory into wilder, more abstract directions.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
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3. Blue Mountain State
Blue Mountain State trades middle school for college and swaps puberty for hazing, but the core is similar: a group of young people figuring out social and physical survival in an institution, with comedy built from genuine group dynamics and shared vulnerability.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Philo, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
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4. Jackass
Jackass shares PEN15's willingness to look foolish and embrace physical humiliation as comedy material, with both shows built on the idea that pain and embarrassment can be genuinely funny when the performers are committed enough.
Stream on Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Paramount+ Amazon Channel
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More on shows like PEN15
Fans of PEN15 tend to appreciate comedy that isn't afraid to be uncomfortable, that mines humor from genuine emotional stakes instead of just punchlines. They like shows that value character detail and specific texture over broad strokes. The best of them understand that comedy about adolescence works when you remember the actual loneliness, not just the funny parts. They want humor that earns its laughs through specificity and honesty.
The recommendations here approach similar territory from different angles. Big Mouth shares the puberty fixation and the middle school setting, using animation to free itself from the reality constraints that make PEN15 so strange and grounded. South Park attacks adolescence and social dynamics through satire and irreverence, with a group dynamic similar to what PEN15 captures in its friendships. Vice Principals shifts the school setting to high school and focuses on adults behaving badly inside an educational environment, trading the kid's-eye view for workplace comedy. Blue Mountain State moves past school entirely but keeps the group dynamic and the comedy of young people fumbling through social expectations. Jackass abandons narrative altogether for pure stunt comedy, but shares the willingness to look foolish and embrace physical humiliation for laughs.
More shows like PEN15
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like PEN15?
- South Park is the most popular show similar to PEN15 in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like PEN15 still on the air?
- Of the 11 shows similar to PEN15 listed here, 1 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like PEN15?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.