Absolutely brilliant, just like the “Look Around You” series.

F

“This is exactly what those environmentalists should be spending their time on: Finding ways to use nature against other forms of nature that are inconvenient to man.”

I can vouch for the first two, having interviewed Leo Gallagher in 2000. Only Walter Payton was more difficult, repeatedly passing gas during our chat, lifting his leg for emphasis.

Back to Gallagher. He had just sued his brother — who performed virtually the same act at smaller, more rural venues — because audiences were beginning to think “Gallagher Too” was the real thing.

Leo Gallagher was hostile from the start, insulting my questions and insisting on knowing whether I was a fan. I did my best to change the subject but he wouldn’t relent. He then accused me of not “getting” his act, which he said was influenced by the copious amounts of weed he smoked.

Meanwhile, his brother Ron (Gallagher Too) told me he was the first to smash melons with a mallet. Gallagher copied him, he said. (Gallagher insisted the melon smashing was his idea.) Their father vouched for the brother with no money, which tells you something about Leo Gallagher. The courts sided with Leo, who was granted an injunction prohibiting Gallagher Too from performing his act. Ron Gallagher, now unemployed, was forced to pay his brother damages.

Leo apparently used that money to hire a new joke writer, David Duke.

Gallagher is upset about a lot of things. Young people with their sagging pants (in faintly coded racist terms, he explains that this is why the jails are overcrowded—because “their” baggy pants make it too hard for “them” to run from the cops). Tattoos: “That ink goes through to your soul—if you read your Bible, your body is a sacred temple, YOU DIPSHIT.” People naming their girl-children Sam and Toni instead of acceptable names like Evelyn and Betty: “Just give her some little lesbian tendencies!” Guantánamo Bay: “We weren’t even allowed to torture all the way. We had to half-torture—that’s nothin’ compared to what Saddam and his two sons OOFAY and GOOFAY did.” Lesbians: “There’s two types—the ugly ones and the pretty ones.” (Um, like all people?) Obama again: “If Obama was really black, he’d act like a black guy and get a white wife.” Michael Vick: “Poor Michael Vick.” Women’s lib: “These women told you they wanna be equal—they DON’T.” Trans people: “People like Cher’s daughter—figure that out. She wants a penis, but she has a big belly. If you can’t see your dick, you don’t get one.” The Rice Krispies elves: “All three of those guys are gay. Look at ‘em!” The Mexicans: “Look around—see any Mexicans? Nope. They’ll be here later for the cleanup.” The French: “They ruin our language with their faggy words.”

Among the more unusual ideas are a live sex-chat talk show, a program based on a Funny or Die Web short, an update of “The Odd Couple” and an animated series about Jesus Christ.

That last item could raise eyebrows coming on the heels of the network’s censorship of “South Park” for its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. The show in development, “JC,” is a half-hour show in which Christ wants to escape the shadow of his “powerful but apathetic father” and live a regular life in New York.

“In general, comedy in its purest form always makes some people uncomfortable,” said Comedy Central head of original programing Kent Alterman, who returned to the network in January after a stint at New Line.

Unless those people are Islamic fundamentalists.