TVSquad

Part of me is surprised that this deal took this long to happen. But when you watch the recent crop of new shows on the Chortle Network (with the exception of Tosh.0), it really shouldn't surprise anyone.

Comedy Central has ordered a half-hour scripted pilot based on the Onion's Sports Network. The OSN is part of the popular satirical magazine's online TV news network that launched a little under a year ago.

This isn't the first time the network has tried to do a satirical sports show. Comedy Central also shot a pilot for a Daily Show-esque sports show called Sports Central that died in the pilot stage. This incarnation sounds much more promising since it will spoof not only sports figures and stories, but also the tone and style of sports media. Sweet sassy molassey, this is gonna rock!

Even though the show has been on forever, I still enjoy my weekly dose of the new South Parks. But lately, they seem to be running out of targets or have narrowed their focus too much on one particular evil: reality television.

The season opener featured a rather nasty swipe at Disney's Jonas Brothers. The recent "Dead Celebrities" chortle-fest took a much needed pot shot at Ghost Hunters, aka, "the gayest f#*$ing show on television." And last week launched an all out attack on Discovery's Whale Wars and Deadliest Catch, particularly against Whale Wars star Paul Watson.

The show has always been a bitch to write and making every episode a satirical masterpiece is impossible without suffering a full-on breakdown. But should the show lay off reality TV and take some bolder shots at reality, which as we all know are two completely different things?

The man might have terrible taste in comedy special titles, but it's helped him score on his own little corner of the TV dial.

Comedian Nick Swardson has scored his own sketch comedy series on Comedy Central. The show will hit the air next year and feature a lot of digital shorts and animation, some of which will be based on almost Python-esque "Gay Robot" character. Swardson and Adam Sandler actually shot a pilot for his "Gay Robot" character years ago and thanks to the magic of YouTube, you can also enjoy it. Warning: if you're easily offended by jokes of a sexual nature, please get over yourself and grow a sense of humor before watching it.

The Goode Family -- the Mike Judge show ABC did everything it could to kill -- has a new home at Comedy Central.

According to Daily Variety, the cable network will air all 13 episodes of the animated comedy that ABC canceled last summer. That's good news for fans of a show ABC buried in its line-up -- moving it around like a pea under a nutshell until it finally put the Goodes out of their misery.

At the time, the show was embraced by fans of Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill as a worthy sardonic successor to Judge's animated quiver. But, critics often attacked its mockery of political correctness and progressive politics. Some pundits went so far as claiming such a show was inappropriate in the era of Obama.

In other words, it's only censorship when your side is the one being silenced.

Here comes one of the most brilliant casting moves in television history since Saturday Night Live hired a 12-year-old boy to play Dan Quayle.

Ron White, one-fourth of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, has been cast as the lead voice in a new animated sitcom called "Hounds" for Comedy Central.

The show will be set in a small Southern town where White will play Chicken, "a countrified Yoda with a bottle of Jack and a bag of weed, an opinionated Southern philosopher who considers himself the center of the universe." No offense intended to "Tater Salad," but I can't think of a better person to play that part...until someone resurrects the remains of Sorrell Booke in some kind of horrible government experiment to turn flesh eating zombies into a military weapon.

In the original version of this post, I wrote about the big success of Jeff Dunham on Comedy Central -- last Thursday night, his new show The Jeff Dunham Show drew 5.3 million viewers, the highest ever premiere for a show on that network. However, I mistakenly thought the show aired Friday and compared the ratings to shows on other networks that night. I sincerely apologize if that confused readers. Here's the story as it should have been written in the first place.

Jeff Dunham's success was surprising and quite a feat. As my mother might say, "Go figure." The Jeff Dunham Show.

And the number of viewers got even better later that night when a repeat of the show aired -- 7.9 million viewers.

The Colbert Report's The Word is one of those iPhone applications that takes advantage of that sort of portable player. The Word is one of those segments that doesn't translate well to a book, unlike Letterman's Top Ten Lists. Video clips better convey the emotion of the segment.

Basically, the application is all the clips of Colbert's most famous segment, and I mean all of them. The app requires a WiFi or data connection to work (because you don't want all those clips taking up memory) but they're constantly updated. I'm not sure if this will be forever or until they get bored with it and figure out another way to make money.

Right now, Comedy Central's new Jeff Dunham Show is buzzing in the background and I can't get the voices out of my head. Now I know what it's like to be a ventriloquist and a meth addict.

No disrespect to Dunham and company, but there was a time when throwing your voice was impressive enough to get on television. Check out the late Señor Wences chatting it up with his friends Johnny and Pedro on the original Muppet Show. It's alright.

Comedian man-child Nick Swardson has a new comedy special premiering this week called Seriously, Who Farted? I smell a Kennedy Center Honor (sniff, or is that a People's Choice Award?).

Now normally, I do like to literally judge something by its cover, but it's hard not to with a title like Seriously, Who Farted?. A title like that could be either the greatest or absolutely worst of anything of all time, whether it's a comedy special, video game, or brand of cereal. If it's a brand of cereal, then it would most likely be the worst.

So I asks ya...

I've just learned from a source at Comedy Central that Krod Mandoon and The Flaming Sword of Fire will not return be returning for a second season. Now, I'm sure this wasn't anyone's favorite show, and there won't be too many online petitions for its return. But I was fond of it, and was hoping it would get a chance to grow a bit more.

For one thing, a fantasy comedy was a departure for Comedy Central's schedule. It was a little island of oddity amongst the more modern-looking programming, a pleasant change of pace. I also enjoyed the crew of supporting characters. Mandoon himself was kind of the standard altruistic oaf, but there was plenty of room for development, especially learning the others.

Since we've already covered one television-based iPhone and iPod Touch game with Dexter, I thought I'd try my hand at a different one: the recently-released South Park Mega Millionaire.

The game plays like a missing episode from the television show. Unlike the last game South Park Imaginationland, this one is not based on a pre-existing episode (unless it's one of the upcoming ones). The plot is that the boys appear on a Japanese game show in an effort to win money. Each boy then goes through various mazes on roller skates with embarrassing obstacles along the way.

The funniest bit is the dialogue between the Japanese game show host and the boys. While the game has no sounds (which is my only complaint about the game as I would love to hear Matt Stone and Trey Parker speak the lines), it does have word balloons. From that, you get a sense of how the lines would sound. It wouldn't surprise me if Trey and Matt themselves had a hand in this game. The app also allows you to listen to any audio track on the iPod while playing the game.

The characterizations of the Japanese in the game could be perceived as racist, but anybody who watches the program knows that such crass characterization is in the spirit of the show. Some of the prizes awarded include references to the show such as Chinpokomon. The game itself plays like such classics as Sonic the Hedgehog or one of the Super Mario Bros. games. It's simplistic but fun.

Currently the game is on sale for $1.99 (down from $4.99), possibly in anticipation of the new upcoming episodes. If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch and like South Park, I recommend it.

Mitch Fatel's new special, Mitch Fatel is Magical, debuts tonight at 11PM on Comedy Central. And whether you agree that Mitch is, in fact, magical, depends heavily on two things. First, whether you like his delivery, which makes him look like an eight-year-old who has pulled you aside to tell you a really important secret about boogers, complete with a goofy smile at the end. And the second thing is whether you enjoy stand-up comedy about sex.

The more than one-hour of comedy on the DVD version of the special, which is the one I reviewed (it hits stores Tuesday with bonus interviews, animations, etc.), is devoted almost entirely to sex. In fact, the first ten minutes are devoted almost exclusively to boobs. He talks about the variation of nipple types, and how God went crazy on the day he made them - "Mrs. God's like, 'Come to bed, God,' he's like, 'I'm makin' more nipples.'" He's also convinced that Edison invented the light bulb so he could watch oral sex (and invented a movie camera shortly thereafter).

How do you top the competitions in a show that forces two TV schlubs to wear a dead octopus on their heads or consume more beer than an Oakland Raiders tailgater?

You let their crazed fans throw down the gauntlet for them.

The Canadian Jackass-off that is Kenny vs. Spenny wants competition ideas from their viewers for their sixth season.

When I first previewed Important Things with Demetri Martin, I was hoping it would get good enough ratings to allow Martin to stick around and explore a little bit. I've enjoyed him as a stand-up comedian, both live and on his Comedy Central specials.

Important Things was the perfect vehicle for Martin, showcasing his absurdist deadpan, allowing him to work with some talented friends like John Oliver, Jon Benjamin, David Cross, and Amanda Peet, and even letting him play a musical number or two.

Last night was the season finale of Michael & Michael Have Issues on Comedy Central. Which means fans of the show can look forward either to its second season or its quiet death. With rare exceptions (like Important Things with Demetri Martin), shows come and go on Comedy Central with little fanfare. Mind of Mencia and Lewis Black's Root of All Evil weren't renewed, but their cancellations were never really announced, just mentioned by the players on the shows themselves.

So here's your chance to weigh in. Did you like MMHI? Were you one of the fans who attended the "blarties" and "twarties" (blog parties and twitter parties)? Did you pick up The State on DVD and watch for nostalgia? What did you think of the sketch show within a show format?