Michaels Ian Black and Showalter.

"Michael and Michael Have Issues"
Premiering on Comedy Central on July 15 at 10:30 p.m.

I saw Michael Showalter open for Eugene Mirman about three years ago. I decided I hated "Sho" somewhere between his bit about songs he's embarrassed to say he loves ("Crash," Dave Matthews Band) and the 15-minute "10 commandments of making a sandwich" bit, in which Sho details how he makes a sandwich, repeating "bread is king" about 8 million times. "If you have bread," he says, in front of a whooping, howling audience, "If you have bread! And anything else! You can make a sandwich!" Or something. It was unbearable. Or so I thought. I think I was wrong.

After watching the pilot episode of "Michael and Michael Have Issues," I changed my mind about ol' Sho. When I saw him shrieking about mustard, I hadn't yet understood the kind of comedy that guys like Showalter and Michael Ian Black helped to pioneer. In the '90s, both Michaels were big players in the burgeoning NYC comedy scene. They were involved with the MTV sketch-comedy series "The State" (which, incidentally, is being released on DVD for the first time ever this week on July 14) and then later, with David Wain, they formed the improvy, sketch-comedy trio Stella.

"Stella" and "The State" have always been popular with comedy buffs. They're in the alt-comedy hall of fame with "Mr. Show" and the Upright Citizens Brigade. And these days alternative comedy has risen pretty much completely to the top. Defined, generally, as a style of comedy employing everything from surrealism to "extreme slapstick" (look that up, it's awesome), alt-comedy is rooted in British humor — Monty Python, even Mr. Bean.

The Hangover thrust Zach Galifianakis in the spotlight. The fratboys are shelving Borat and Dane Cook and picking up "Flight of the Conchords" and Tim and Eric. David Wain just wrote and directed Role Models, that surprisingly-really-funny movie with Paul Rudd and that dude from American Pie with too many N's in his name. Alt-comedy isn't looking so alt anymore.

So now Comedy Central is putting Sho and Black back on ("Stella" aired on that channel, also) and what's surprising is how funny "Michael and Michael Have Issues" is, and how much weirdo-humor the show retains. It's a part-sketch/part-improv/part-quasi-sitcom (there's a bad laugh track, which is used at all the "wrong" times) that basically centers on the Michaels as they act kind of like little girls, or prissy movie stars, or flamboyant gay guys. Or, in some of my favorite scenes, they rip off their shirts and do air-karate kicks at each other on the front lawn. As in "Stella," they playfight and say things that don't really mean anything. In this episode, Sho describes the relationship between him and Black: "Every John Lennon needs his Ringo. You know? Because John provides the passion and the genius and the writing and the vision, and Ringo plays drums. And that's Mike, Mike's Ringo." (Black retaliates later, saying Sho is his "Garfunkel.")

The timing and the pacing is really good, and when Michael Ian Black dubs fart sounds over footage of a butterfly for five minutes, it's actually really funny. Funny not because ha-ha, it's so funny when people fart, but funny because we think it's funny, and isn't it funny that we're taking the thing that's funny and making it even funnier by overemphasizing how funny and silly it is that we think it's funny? The genius of this comedy is that there are lots of layers, and you don't necessarily need to get into those layers to laugh. It's both simple and complex. With "Michael and Michael Have Issues," they've made arguably perfect comedy for the Comedy Central audience, which is basically everyone.