Comedy Central's bitch bites back at NBC's The Office. Yes, that's right. I said Comedy Central.

Like the loosely scripted and somewhat odd entry from NBC, Dog Bites Man features the shaky camera ("of different genres") and generally weird musings of the characters on KHBX's news team. Led by Kevin Beekin (Matt Walsh), and his traveling band of merry, um, newspeople — Tilly Sullivan (Andrea Savage), Alan Finger (Zach Galifianakis), and Marty Shonson (A.D. Miles) — tackle hard-hitting news stories around Spokane, WA. Bios for each KHBX-12 News personality are available online at Comedy Central, with clips of the show appearing on Motherload.

Part improv, part just plain goofy, the team interacts with real life people during real events. Or not.

 

In the opening episode, Kevin and Tilly's tawdry one night stand serves as the "most awkward" of awkward subplots. Kevin wept over his moments spent peering into another being's soul, Tilly just wants to forget it ever happened, and Alan wants to know how he should refer to his testicles in front of Condoleeza Rice if "Mary Kate and Ashley" is deemed too offensive. References to shafts and Siegfried and Roy abound.

This week, we follow the news team as they interview body-builders before and during a body-building competition. Kevin is searching, awkwardly, of course, for any hint of scandal, including steroid use, testicle size, and bisexuality. None of which pan out.

Funnier and more irreverant than The Office, the only thing on TV to which this show can be compared, Dog Bites Man might just prove to be the perfect 10-week romp through the "nut" house, especially if Zach Galifianakis is given the freedom to keep renaming his "Hardy Boys"*.

Other than Galifianakis and his nuts, I'm completely unfamiliar with any of the actors on the show. Each has their own charm, the other actors, not Galifianakis' nether regions — although, I'm positive they're delightful. The comedy is often found in uncomfortable silence, sort of like real life.

 

My true calling to this show, however, lies in the presence of Zach Galifianakis, my Greek prince of all things funny. Hopefully, Comedy Central will allow this show to run the full ten weeks, a whole week longer than his ill-fated Late World With Zach on VH-1, way back in 2002. He did better with Tru Calling on Fox, but just barely. His small parts (the acting sort, people) in movies like Heartbreakers, Corky Romano, and Bubble Boy (to name a few) provided this viewer with moments of uncontrollable laughter. Left to roam free, Zach could easily take this ensemble to great comedic heights.

Of course, it could be that I'm the only one fascinated with Zach and his jewels. His nuts and I go way back. That could a be story worth exploring for the terminally non-intrepid reporters at KHBX.

Definitely worth another look.

* Zach Galifianakis as Luke in Out Cold: "This suit is really cramping my Hardy Boys. It's no mystery."