For years, sitcoms have ruled the world of televised comedies. Those beloved groups of families and friends with odd quirks and a laugh track to back up their jokes have made us comfortable and set the bar for what is funny. The mix of comedy and touching moments has drawn in audiences and made us content, but a recent trend on cable has taken that ease away from us.

These programs have taken the situations out of the sitcoms, substituting strong characters for definitive plots and structure. They are based around hard-luck protagonists whose fortune just keeps getting worse. Often these characters are awkward and well-meaning, but just seem to get it wrong time and time again.

One of the first critically praised and popular programs of this type is FX’s Louie. Based on and peppered with the self-deprecating comedy of Louis C.K., the program follows Louie through often failed attempts to raise his two young daughters right, his also often failed attempts to date and his comedy career, which while not failing is also not exactly taking off.

Louie is extremely awkward and often unrelatable, but every time something goes wrong for him it’s hard not to laugh at his misfortune. In this sense, the genre has created situations in which it becomes unclear whether to laugh or cringe or simply sit and watch the ridiculousness.

Similarly, HBO’s VEEP is centered around the trials of Emmy-winning Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Vice President Selina Meyer as she attempts to make use of her office, which she is quite often reminded is actually powerless. At her side is a cast of aides including the ass-kissing Tony Hale, the old vet Matt Walsh who is phoning it in and the young up and comers Anna Chlumsky and Reid Scott who are constantly butting heads to further their career.

Each episode has no shortage of wit and banter, but once again nothing ever seems to go right for the Vice President. As she tries to hold up her campaign promises she is often shut down by bureaucratic bullshit mostly handed down by the unnamed and unseen pontiff himself. The only thing that settles her is that the job is only four years, well eight if they win again, twelve if she decides to run, sixteen if there’s a second term.

The newest addition to the genre is IFC’s Maron. Like Louie, this program centers around comedian Marc Maron and his podcasts that he records in his garage with friends and comedians. As the standard is in this genre, Marc just can’t get right. Twice divorced, he lives at home with his cats, often dwelling in his own self-pity. Less than a season in, it is hard to say how the show will develop, but Maron fits the criteria of the unfunny comedy.

Laugh tracks have become a thing of the past as it becomes harder and harder to decipher when it is appropriate to laugh. The answer is easy, when these programs are on it is always appropriate to laugh. Louie, VP Meyer and Maron never seem to get things right, and I for one never hope they do.