The Sarah Silverman Program

NYPress.com

THE IRONIC WOMAN
Sarah Silverman, devastatingly cute and vice versa

The fall season has already seen its share of wimpy, moralistic compromises. The villainess of NBC’s “The Bionic Woman” smoked a cigarette, but only after explaining that her own bionics prevents lung cancer. Satan condemned a first-born son on The CW’s “Reaper,” and then put him to work doing good for mankind. But over on Comedy Central, “The Sarah Silverman Program” will have none of it. In the first two second season episodes, Sarah’s character takes a joyful trip down memory lane reliving her past abortions, sympathizes with a guy who had to give up crack and rigorously defends her right to lick a dog’s anus (“Fair, at best” is her culinary critique). It’s sick, stupid, brilliant and the bravest sitcom on TV.

Last year, Sarah had sex with God (in the body of a 62-year-old black man), so it’s not really a matter of Silverman trying to top herself in terms of outrageousness. Rather, she just loves to juggle as many comedic styles as she can, as fast as she can. Her portrayal of a selfish, cute, dirty, ignorant intellectual is aided greatly by the fact that she has no problem working the extremes of shock comedy, transforming it into silliness (“Babies should say “goo,” not become it.”) and then swan diving into a terrible pun. Even prop gags are not beneath her as she makes use of an abortion vacuum with a “shag” setting. Less helpful is her supporting cast, including real-life sister Laura—proof that comic timing is not an inherited trait.

Silverman’s talent balances at the edge of a precipice. Too much notoriety puts her sharp instincts in danger of crashing down around her. Last month, when she drove the final nail into Britney Spears’ coffin at the MTV awards (“Twenty-five years old and she’s already accomplished everything she’s going to accomplish in her life.”) and bashed Britney’s kids, it was mean and funny, sure, but it was also too easy, too YouTubed, compared with, say, her idea for an American Airlines slogan (“First Through the Towers”). With any luck, her TV show will barely get noticed at all.