TVSquad

Yesterday, Leno mocked "Cash for Clunkers" by mocking up a "Cash for Flunkers" video. Tonight he tapped the same well with a "Cash for Chunkers" joke. I guess that's common in the late night arena, but I've never been a fan of using the same exact set-up on different nights to get a different joke. Unless you acknowledge how weak it is when you do it.

Tonight's correspondent was The Hangover's Rachael Harris, who came on to show us the lost art of bartering in this tough economic times. Like most of the other correspondent segments, it had some funny moments, but it just seemed to go on forever.

The late night talk show process hasn't been refined in any major way since the early days of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Well there is Carson Daly's show, but I don't count that as a late night talk show ... or a show, for that matter.

You've got your monologue, your one or two comedy bits or sketches and banter with the band and the sidekick, throw in two or three guests, end with a musical performance and you're done. It's comedy by the numbers that works as long as the comedy is funny.

So it's refreshing to see Jay Leno and company retooling the format of the bit, even if the result still screams of the old show. It's also nice to see a show that knows and plays on Leno's strengths and weaknesses as a comedian and a talk show host with the skills of an NFL offensive coordinator, even if it sometimes feels as though that offensive coordinator works for the Detroit Lions.

In the last twelve years, Lewis Black has gone from being "that angry guy on The Daily Show" to a comedy icon. Now, he finally has his own show.

In Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, which airs on Wednesdays at 10:30 PM ET on Comedy Central, two comedians argue why the pop culture item they represent is "the root of all evil." Last week's premiere episode, for instance, pitted Oprah against the Catholic church. Black plays the judge who controls the proceedings and makes the ultimate verdict. Sounds corny, but the first episode, which featured Paul F. Tompkins and Greg Giraldo, was wickedly funny and just a tiny bit subversive, everything you want in a good comedy.

I spoke to Black by phone last week; he was in Atlantic City on his stand-up tour. We discussed everything from the 2008 election to being on a cable news show with Ben Stein to sharing a jail cell with Jim Norton. The interview is after the jump.