Buffy was occassionally funny. Here is my beef with Buffy and Angel. They tried to be very serious dramas, and I couldn't take them serious. People keep raving about the great characters and stories. People also said the show got better with each season. It was supposedly darker and more serious.
So why in the last season were they still pulling stupid ****?
A demon is over for a party at Buffy's house when she brings home a potential boyfriend, who knows nothing of the whole demon/vampire/slayer thing. The demon has red skin, horns, the works. They explain him away as having a simple skin condition and play it off for a cheap laugh.
Occassional witty banter was sandwiched in between weak plots, contrived conditions, lame jokes, and a show that tried to take itself seriously.
The X-Files managed humor suprisingly in a dark show, If Buffy was camp all the way, so be it. It worked wonders for the Evil Dead movies. But Buffy didn't want to be camp, and failed in it's bid to be a serious show.
Angel had less witty banter, less empathetic characters, more silly Demon-universe stuff, and more contrived situations.
Given that most of the people who recommend Firefly to me insist that Buffy was the greatest show on the planet, I have reservations about Firefly, but I still want to see it.