Deadpan walking

Michael Ian Black: Have you ever seen M*A*S*H? You know in those operating scenes, where they're operating on people and simultaneously having witty repartee? That's how we write. It might impede the creative process to a certain degree, but it's all elective surgery, and it's very profitable. Michael Showalter: We operate on people and write sketch comedy at the same time.
David Wain: None of us has ever been to med school.

Stella is an acquired taste, just like The State and Wet Hot American Summer, the other two offerings from Black, Showalter and Wain. Funny, but awkward funny, nerdy funny. In a good way.

The trio has toured as Stella for years, and now Comedy Central is giving the goofballs their own show. Their deliriously deadpan style isn't the most obvious choice for a TV show, but on the heels of Arrested Development, and Stella's lead-in, Reno 911, there might never be a more fitting era for its debut. Comedy is at a turning point right now—of the top 20 most popular shows from this past season, only two are comedies (Everybody Loves Raymond and Two and a Half Men). The traditional sitcom format has seen better days, and now unfunny is the new funny. Think Tobias on Arrested Development, David on the British The Office or Michael on the American version, Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm: These aren't customary joke-telling leads. While Stella doesn't fit exactly into that school, it does frolic in the post-ironic, so-unfunny-it's-funny, uncomfortable-silence-as-the-punchline playground.

Stella the group and Stella the show both benefit from specific expectations and repeated viewings. The more you watch, the funnier it gets; such humor might not bode well for Stella's fate. But Comedy Central is home of the rerun (The Daily Show is on 45 times a day), and at a scant ten-episode initial run, one can enjoy all of Stella, over and over, without sacrificing several days to yuk-charged solitude.

That said, Stella is facing an uphill battle. The State maintains a cult fan following, which is exactly the problem: Shows are only "cult favorites" when they fail to become actual hits. Stella will no doubt thrill State diehards and Wet Hot fans alike, but those have each nurtured much of their fanbase far after their initial release.

DW: We feel like we kind of made every dick joke that can be made on this great planet. Now we're going to make some different jokes.
MS: Pussy jokes, vagina jokes, balls jokes.

Stella isn't as dildo-obsessed as The State: The first episode revolves around the difference between funk and funk-rock, the real estate market and performing open-heart surgery on Dr. Mengele. The threesome of naive, effete, suit-clad roommates offers screwy, stream-of-consciousness commentary and oddball ideas. There's even a dance number. And they're wearing skunk tails. Yeah, it's hard to explain. This bizarre detachment from reality is part of Stella's charm—its quirky, insider feel is more reminiscent of Mr. Show than anything else.

MS: Every show gets canceled at one point or another.
MIB: It's like a fruit fly. A fruit fly only lives a day. But the goal of the fruit fly is to make that day count. We're like that fruit fly.
DW: We put our heart and soul into every episode.

Comedy Central is struggling to market the show. One poster calls it "Dumb comedy dressed in a suit." The humor isn't dumb, exactly, though; it's silly (see: fake mustaches), but it's not According to Jim or anything. Another asks, "Is it a sitcom? Is it stand-up? Is it sketch comedy?" Briefly, no; more elaborately, kind of. Stella is definitely not a sitcom, but Black, Showalter and Wain play the same eponymous characters in every episode. It's not stand-up, though many of the jokes would probably play better in front of a live audience. And calling it sketch comedy sells it a little short. Each scene is a sketch, but the sketches fit together as a 22-minute narrative, unlike, say, Saturday Night Live, whose sketches don't relate to each other whatsoever.

MIB: Statistics are pretty grim. They say 50 percent of all comedy groups break up.
MS: We've been in counseling for years.
DW: Every night, we take our pillows and smash each other to get out our aggression.
MIB: What it really comes down to, we have one piece of advice that we gave each other years ago, and we've stuck with it, and it's this: Never go to bed angry.
MS: And the other thing we say as often as possible is, "Fuuuck you."

Stella airs Tuesdays at 9:30pm on Comedy Central.