"Tom Goes to the Mayor"

Ok, haters, hate all you want, but you're missing out on the best show on television.

Ever since "The Simpsons" proved that you can put anything on TV and avoid the FCC and the morality police as long as the show is animated (prudes and censors are confused by repeating backgrounds, I guess), we've known to look to Adult Swim for the most interesting social commentary on television. (Come to think of it, Anderson Cooper should be animated -- that's how good he is.)

TGTTM is not only freaky-looking, with the stop-motion green screen photo-animation thingy that I don't even have words to describe, it's also subversive + ridiculous which = brilliant. It's great satire -- mall-culture America, get-rich-quick bad business schemes, a bored City Council, a self-absorbed yet super-friendly Mayor who loves every bad idea, then distances himself from it as soon as it tanks, and the worst wife the world has ever seen. Once you watch this show, you see bits of it everywhere in and around your life, which is both horrifying and hilarious. This is what America feels like sometimes.

And it's exec produced by Bob Odenkirk! If you can't trust Odenkirk to point you in the direction of the smartest, most daring comedy out there, who can you trust? Larry King?...you can't beat Norm Crosby for a night full of chuckles...And skirt steak! I love it. No!

Nothing dooms a show faster than the words "it's satire", so let me mitigate the damage by pointing out that Dustin Diamond (aka "Screech") was highlighted in a very strange and funny way on the recent season three opener. And Sir Mix-A-Lot sang a song about big cups. Come ON, people!

I'm so glad this show is back.