Top 20 Red Dwarf Moments

#20: Celebrity Waxwork Army

In the series, we learn that humans created waxwork androids for amusement. The crew encountered these contraptions while visiting an ancient waxdroid theme park. Many of these waxdroids resembled celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, but they’re separated into two factions - heroes and villains. The conflict begins when Lister and Cat are arrested by the villains, who brutally execute Winnie the Pooh outside their cell. Rimmer decides to create an army out of the heroes, then leads them into a sidesplitting battle. In the end, all waxdroids on the planet are wiped out, which in Rimmer’s mind is nothing but a win.

#19: Ace Rimmer

It turned out all Rimmer needed to grow up cool was get held back a year in school. An alternate dimension version of him learned this, which led to him becoming wildly popular. This is the backstory of Ace Rimmer, who appears in quite a few episodes, all of them golden. The first time both Rimmers meet is a hilarious encounter, which turns into one of his most humiliating moments. It’s so much fun seeing Chris Barrie playing two opp osite roles simultaneously, with his passion making Ace one of the most sta ndout characters in the series.

#18: Lister’s Father’s Day Messages

As any fan will tell you, because of a causal loop paradox, Lister ends u p bizarrely becoming his own father. After time-travelling, he fathered himself with navigation officer Kochanski, then left his baby self in a pub in Liverpool. This led to the iconic episode in Series X, where he finally starts to accept that he is his own dad. What follows is an incredibly funny exchange, with Lister arguing with a Father’s Day message from his drunk self. The dad version of Lister also quits his job, so the ship decides to end his oxygen privileges. Lister claims to do this every year, which makes us wonder if similar events are an annual occurrence.

#17: Jape of the Decade

This episode premiered all the way back in 1988, but it’s easily one of the funniest moments from those lower-budget early seasons. The widely adored computer Holly is replaced by Queeg, who is far stricter and more hated than his predecessor. Queeg makes the crew do horrific things, like getting up early, doing regular exercise, and cleaning before eating. The arc ends with them nearly getting Holly erased and replaced by Queeg for good. Then, in a hysterical twist, it turns out it was a prank orchestrated to make them appreciate Holly more.

#16: Double Polaroid

Mechanoid Kryten spends most of the series in robot form, but in the episode “DNA,” his dream of becoming human came true. This led to some of the most amusing dialogue in the series, so funny that you can see Craig Charles struggling to hold back a smile. Kryten ends up taking polaroids of his private parts and making Lister check their normality. Things become more awkward when he hands over a double polaroid, revealing what happened to him after thinking of a machine. It’s easily one of our favorite Kryten moments, and makes you ponder how the show ever worked without him.

#15: Fighting Jesus

Time travel is frequently utilised across the show, and it never fails to make us laugh. One especially iconic episode is “Lemons” from series X, where the crew gets stranded on Earth in 23 AD. They end up getting involved with Jesus, resulting in an almost blasphemous episode. This Jesus ends up getting into a tussle with Rimmer, which came close to offending almost every Christian on Earth. The crew takes him on a brief space chase, reminiscent of “Life of Brian”, then convinces him to use what he saw to benefit himself, which ends up being designing bags. As it turns out, it was a different Jesus all along.

#14: Rimmer on Trial

In this series 4 episode, the crew arrives on the Justice World, which tries to convict Rimmer of killing Red Dwarf’s old crew. He gets put on trial and is almost sentenced to 9,328 years imprisonment, but Kryten saves the day. It’s not in the heroic manner Rimmer hoped, though; Kryten is beyond savage. His decision to mercilessly roast Rimmer convinces them to find him innocent. We wish Kryten were always this savage, as it’s priceless to watch. It’s highly unlikely the defense would have worked in a real-life trial, though, so don’t look to Kryten for legal advice.

#13: Rimmer Knees the Grim Reaper

The original run ended with series 8, which dropped in 1999. It concluded with a massive cliffhanger, where Rimmer was stuck in a fatal situation. Things were so dire, the Grim Reaper appears to claim his life. In typical Rimmer fashion, he decides today is not the day he dies, knees Death, then runs off into the distance. For quite some time, this was the ending for “Red Dwarf.” Fans believed it would be resolved when a new series was finally released, but instead, they got “Back to Earth,” which ignored the cliffhanger entirely. Rimmer explaining how he saved the day became a gag in later seasons, implying the existence of a series 9 which was never released.

#12: Blue Alert

The intro for the episode “Legion” is loaded with jokes, with none of them falling flat. For context, the ship is running low on supplies, and is then pulled into an abandoned space station. It includes one of the best lines in the series when the crew is determining their preferred alert level. Barely any scenes match the banter between all four crewmates displayed here. Interestingly, this is also the episode where Rimmer’s light bee is adjusted so he can finally touch objects. The writers said they did this as they were fed up with having to write around him being intangible.

#11: Backwards Fight

The first episode of series 3 turned into one of the greatest openings to a season in TV history. It’s based on a simple concept: what if there was a world where everything happened in reverse? This basic idea then evolved into an episode jam-packed with iconic gags and quips. One of the greatest jokes is at the end, when the Cat goes to do his business. The scene we remember most fondly, though, is the backwards bar fight. Not only is it a blast to watch, but everyone involved looks like they’re having the time of their life.

#10: Everybody’s Dead, Dave

Kicking off the Top 10 where it all began, with the very first “Red Dwarf” episode ever. “The End” is a largely expositional episode, setting the scene for the space hijinks to come. But it does have a stone cold classic moment in the form of Lister discovering the entire crew have been wiped out in a radiation leak. Lister, who has been in stasis for three million years while the radiation dispersed, struggles to wrap his head round the news. Ship computer Holly grows increasingly exasperated in the process, leading to one of the most quotable moments the show has ever produced. “Red Dwarf” never looked back from here.

#9: The Rimmer Experience

The departure of Chris Barrie from the main cast early in Series 7 made many episodes from this era unpopular with fans . Yet the lack of Rimmer allowed for one of the show’s most over the top, self-aware and hilarious moments. Kryten creates a virtual reality rollercoaster ride to remember Rimmer by. Unfortunately, he only has Rimmer’s own diaries to base it off - and as we all know, Rimmer’s perception of himself is not exactly accurate. The resulting ride portrays Rimmer as a hero, performing a musical number with marching puppets in his honour. If you can’t laugh at the munchkin puppets rhyming “Rimmer” with “strimmer” and “Yul Brinner”, are you even a “Red Dwarf” fan?

#8: Saloon Showdown

Almost every scene from the Emmy-nominated Series 6 classic “Gunmen of the Apocalypse” could be a contender for this list. But for our money, it’s the showdown in the saloon that takes the cake. The crew enter a virtual reality game and find themselves in the Wild West, complete with alter egos and special powers. Each one is hilarious in its own right, with a special shoutout to the whisky-guzzling Kryten. But the Cat steals the show, in the guise of the “Riviera Kid”. Everything from his South American-inspired outfit to his immaculate knife-slinging skills is just perfect for this often overlooked character. And of course, the Spanish guitar riff seals the deal.

#7: Mr Flibble

Seeing beloved characters acting totally unhinged is always great fun. So Rimmer’s descent into chaos in Series 5’s “Quarantine” simply had to make it onto this list. After contracting a holo-virus, Rimmer decides to deprive the quarantining crew of oxygen for two hours, as punishment for their insanity. Of course, he’s the insane one here, and it doesn’t take long for the viewer to work this out. Just look at his new outfit! Perhaps most memorable of all is his right-hand man during his moments of madness - a hand-puppet penguin named Mr Flibble. The visual of the usually uptight Rimmer communicating death wishes via a child’s toy is simply unforgettable. Mr Flibble, we salute you.

#6: Tongue Tied

The second musical number to make our Top 10, and likely the one that’s left the biggest impression on viewers. Danny John-Jules was known for his singing and dancing skills prior to joining the “Red Dwarf” cast as Cat, so it was inevitable that he’d get a chance to showcase them at some point. And boy, did they deliver. “Tongue Tied” is hilarious and catchy in equal measure, with Cat’s silky smooth moves and sultry voice contrasting gloriously with Rimmer and Lister’s jerky, out-of-breath backing vocals. The song went down so well that John-Jules later released it as a single, where it reached number 17 in the UK charts. But it’s the original version that captured the hearts of fans.

#5: What a Guy!

Another showing from Ace Rimmer, he makes his bombastic return in “Red Dwarf VII” to rescue a princess from the clutches of some villainous Nazis armed with pistols and one angry crocodile with halitosis. After surfing the crocodile into occupied Europe, he lands in a shed, rides out on a motorbike, and rescues Princess Bonjela – who falls instantly in love with him. As usual, it’s great to see this wildly different take on Rimmer. It’s the most outrageous, heroic moment in “Red Dwarf” history, even if this episode also marks the departure of OUR cowardly Rimmer as he goes to take his doppelganger’s place.

#4: Kryten Learns to Lie

Kryten is one of the most loveable and wholesome characters in British sitcom history. His programmed inability to lie once made him a beacon of honesty and respect. But that all changed when Lister finally broke him down in Series 4. After several failed attempts, Kryten finally works out how to lie - and it’s incredibly funny. But while calling a banana a Czechoslovakian traffic warden is one thing, he finds it’s much harder to insult his superior Rimmer. His attempts to follow Lister’s orders to call Rimmer a “smeg head” are about 50% successful, but 100% hilarious and iconic.

#3: Lister Eats Dog Food

“Red Dwarf” is probably better known for witty one-liners than gross-out visual humour. But Lister’s moment of desperation in Series 3 classic “Marooned” stands out as one of the funniest, most memorable minutes in the show’s history. Stranded on an ice planet with rapidly dwindling food supplies, Lister does the unthinkable and reluctantly swallows a big mouthful of slimy pet food. But though that alone would be enough to secure a Top 10 spot, it’s the context that makes this moment so special. Lister could have chosen to eat actual human food in the form of a Pot Noodle, but he considers them so disgusting he’d rather have the dog food. Coming from the ultimate slob, that’s brutal.

#2: Duane Dibbley

This Top 10 just wouldn’t be complete without the Duke of Dork himself. The epic episode “Back to Reality” briefly suggests that the Boys from the Dwarf have all been mere virtual reality simulations the whole time, and reveals their “real life” personalities. All the alter egos are funny in their own way, but once again it’s the Cat’s that comes up trumps. Seeing one of the most style-conscious and self-absorbed characters in British sitcom history turn into a uber nerd is incredibly gratifying. Just look at those teeth! Duane appeared several times later in the show’s history, but with diminishing returns. Thankfully, his debut will forever live on as one of “Red Dwarf’s” funniest ever moments.

#1: Listers’ Shrinking Boxer Shorts

It was going to take something special to beat Duane Dibbley. But when you’ve got a moment which caused the studio audience to laugh so much the crew had to pause filming for several minutes, it simply has to be the number one. A shape-shifting polymorph catches Lister unawares, transforming into a pair of boxer shorts which he absently puts on without realizing. The following events are side-splittingly funny. The speed in which the situation escalates into farce is spectacular, and all the characters are perfectly captured, from Lister’s fear to Rimmer’s disgust. We’d see polymorphs again in the show, but they couldn’t hold a candle to the original. “Red Dwarf” was never funnier or more iconic than this.

What’s your favorite “Red Dwarf” moment, and did it make it onto our list? Let us know in the comments below!