Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei

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Modern society has many holes, and SZS jumps right into that hole with details. Our MC, which is Itoshiki Nozumu, explores those holes with heavy, sometimes dark jokes. It is very common not to understand those jokes if you are not from Japan, as most of them are references to Japanese society, though they may also apply globally.

For the most part, the plot is conveyed in episodic format. Yup, "for the most part".
There's a teacher and a few students who explore the world with their own distinctive viewpoints.

The Surreality of this manga is amazing. One more thing is that this manga is loaded with ... many dialogues.
Moreover, there's a lot of references spread throughout the manga, which you don't want to miss. 

Talking about the characters, they all have different traits and are interesting in their own way.
The author didn't hesitate a single bit to make fun of himself, his editor, and his assistant. He also mentioned a lot of things from his past work.
Lmao, he made jokes about his past deeds too.

Overall, this manga is awesomely hilarious, filled with dark jokes and satire and lots of "fun events.". 

P.S.:
I'll just say one word: "The Ending."

That's it. Enjoy and have fun.
 

Zetsubou-sensei fucking rules and if you disagree it is probably because you are intellectually maldeveloped. Koji Kumeta is the most powerful disgruntled middle aged man in existence and it shows in every frame of this. Because the humor actually references things like sports, politics, and contemporary events, average w**aboos will not be able to appreciate most of the jokes, but this only serves to reinforce that SZS is a thinking man's manga. The way the jokes build upon themselves and upon the central idea of each episode really tickles the brain. The art is idiosyncratic and beautiful. If you like Zetsubou-sensei, then I like you.

The easiest way to convey what mind state you should read this manga in is that it is like South Park but for Japan. Every chapter has a new dysfunction of society or psychological disorder that is poked fun at and trivialized in a way that makes people afflicted with these dysfunctions laugh at themselves, a much needed remedy. The first chapter opens up with suicide being the main joke, a huge problem in Japanese society being suicide rates. This joke often comes back to in the form of the main character falling into despair over various aforementioned social or personal dysfunctions.

Each volume is sub-titled ... "The Power of Negative Thinking", negativity being a constant personality trait of the MC's.

The twist on it being a straight up social commentary is that the MC is the quirky teacher of a quirky group of curious students, mostly females, all who have something wrong with them to say the least. They are all infatuated with Itoshiki Nozomu their teacher, and time and again are completely thrown off by his sudden outbursts. It is almost as if he intentionally derails their thoughts every episodes with his own "band-aid thought" of the subject. His silly little comforts often drive them crazy or make them unimpressed, but they still pay attention to him.

The other MC is a girl who is super positive and often comes around when he is hanging his head in despair. Their dynamic usually leads to her positivity overwhelming the situation, sometimes not to a good end result (each chapter ends with an often whacky punchline, making fun of "explosive ending" or "it was a dream all along" tropes").

I enjoyed the representation by each of the characters of separation anxiety, OCD, dissociative identity disorder, guilt complex, acute social anxiety, manic depression, toxic positivity, truancy, and many others by the characters. For a mangaka these disorders are actually represented surprisingly realistically.

A lot of jokes fly over my head being American but I still find the ones I understand hilarious and relatable.

You either understand it right away and fall in love, or are confused by the pacing and seeming lack of plot. I fell in love clearly lol 10/10