There are two ways to do a medical show on TV. One way is to be sincere and dramatic, with doctors working around the clock to save Timmy’s mother from some mysterious disease. The other is to be so off-the-wall hilarious that sitting still is an impossibility, and drinking a soda results in half the bottle shooting out of your nose.

No show does the first one very well. ER comes closest, but it is old and the plots, once interesting and engaging, are now too wishy-washy. House is a strong contender as well, but there is still an uneven connection between reality and humor: pick a side, Hugh Laurie. And Grey’s Anatomy? My sister is in love with it and even she admits this season has gone the way of daytime soaps.

But on the other side of that bridge sits Scrubs. Never before have there been such uncontrollably funny scenes set in a hospital. That this is the last season of the NBC treasure is truly one of the hardest things to wrap my mind around. Comedy, forget the setting, has a bar to which they should strive to meet. And when the day comes that human beings can safely separate their heads from their bodies, Doctor John ‘J.D’ Dorian has shown us the way to live.