Jonathan Storm: Slackers' revenge

Accuracy in media alert: On tonight's installment of the usually absurdly hilarious

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

, a critic from this paper claims to have visited every bar in Philadelphia.

Preposterous. Everybody knows there are far too many watering holes in the city for any Inquirer critic to have done that. A sportswriter, maybe. Or somebody from the Daily News. That we could believe.

But facts have never been a Sunny strong point. So far this season (the show's fourth) the gang of stupid, self-absorbed shirkers has gotten involved in cannibalism, door-to-door gasoline sales, faked deaths, and the case of the phantom bed-pooper, much to the glee of its loyal, mostly young and male audience.

If poop and various other juvenile humor topics have a strong presence on Sunny, they are the bedrock of the show's new companion piece, Testees. The wink-wink, nudge-nudgery begins with the title of this comedy about two slackers who make their living as professional guinea pigs for a pharmaceutical firm, and it never stops.

Cable's FX introduces new episodes of Sunny Thursdays at 10 p.m., followed by Testees at 10:30, and repeats both shows a few times throughout the week - always at 10 or later so as not to ignite public outcry at their atrociously crass lunacy and crude language. Only two dirty words and one racial epithet appear to be off-limits.

Nothing's out of bounds on Sunny, as the owners of a crummy South Philadelphia bar called Paddy's Pub try to make their way in a cruel world, or at least one that's cruel to them. Tonight, they kidnap the critic who calls Paddy's the worst bar in Philadelphia.

Now I've always been one to dismiss the idea that TV shows, with their far-fetched plots about suitcase bombs and jewel heists, plant the seeds for nefarious capers in the minds of criminals. But this time, it's serious.

The poor guy - played pitch-perfectly by the widely traveled Fisher Stevens (Lost's George Mankowski, Short Circuit's Ben Jabituya) - is duct-taped to an office chair and forced to type a nicer review as he's heckled by the girl in the group: "He sits around all day. He judges people with his words and fancy newspaper talk."

What effrontery is this? Where are the censors when you need them?

It gets worse: "This just in, poo-poo pants," one of the gang tells him. "People don't read newspapers anymore."

How can a show that in the past has been rib-wracking funny with its ill treatment of, oh, let's see, Jews, African Americans, Asians, Muslims, the developmentally disabled, cancer victims, alcoholics, the overweight, abandoned children, the elderly, sex-crime victims, the poor, the homeless, the police, even the Philadelphia Eagles, so badly lose its way by attacking, not just the Fourth Estate, but critics, for goodness' sake? They're the public's last, best defense against soggy spaghetti, tacky townhouses, curdled cinema, terrible television, gag-worthy guitarists, outré oboists, and bad taste in general.

As Johnnie Cochran would have said, "It's out-raaage-ous!"

But O.J.'s in jail now, and all's a little more right in that world, so it's possible It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia will recover from its horrible lapse, and our four worthies will proceed, as the fictional critic puts it, "in the hell on Earth that they've created for themselves, for the rest of their pathetic and miserable lives."

A real critic (me) once praised Sunny: "It's like Seinfeld on crack." The whole world appropriated the phrase, and hardly ever gives me credit, but, as tonight's episode affirms, it could be worse.

Nothing could be much worse than Testees, which does not mean it's not funny. You will hit yourself as you laugh off whatever particular part of your body that you're laughing off, all of which will be mentioned several times weekly. Tonight's plot, for instance: Medical experimentation causes grave changes inside the guys' pants, leading one of them to try lesbianism and the other to play prostitute to a friend's dad.

The show comes from Kenny Hotz, a writer for South Park and the creator and star of Comedy Central's irreverently crackpot Kenny vs. Spenny, which should give you the idea that it's not exactly Noel Coward comedy.

With strong Canadian roots, Testees is sillier and less subversive than It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Still, it probably won't appeal to all the millions of poo-poo pants who still do read newspapers and would never think of kidnapping, or even writing a nasty e-mail to, a critic.

Television Review

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, 10 tonight on FX

Testees, 10:30 tonight on FX