Chris Hardwick’s ‘@Midnight’ Is the Funniest New Show on Television

@Last, my comedy love has come along.

Chris Hardwick’s new Comedy Central series, @Midnight, is the funniest new show on TV — and for an incredibly simple reason: It allows professional funny-people a platform to say funny things. Like Scott Aukerman’s surreal IFC mock talk-show Comedy Bang Bang, @Midnight is a comedian’s comedy. With its faux-quiz show structure (and cheap internet source material), it’s a show build entirely on punchlines — which arrive in gleeful, rapid-fire succession.

Hardwick, the King of Comedy Nerds (as host of the Nerdist podcast and AMC post-show interview series Talking Dead and Talking Bad) entertains a panel of comedians, who craft quick-witted, pop-culture-referencing one-liners in response to assorted internet absurdities (viral videos, inane chat-rooms, Yahoo answers, Twitter hashtags) and are awarded points by the sheer amount of laughter they elicit from Hardwick himself. It’s a bit Who’s Line Is It Anyway?, a bit Tosh.0, a bit Web Soup, and more than a bit genius.

One of my favorite recurring bits came on the show’s second episode (October 22nd): Hardwick displays a woman’s grammar error-laced Craigslist ad — “Pregnant Women Urine For Sell (sic)” — and the comedians (Andrew Daly, Kurt Braunohler, and Brendon Walsh) respond with a series of crude fake responses. Later in the episode, they play a game based around the similarities between descriptions of Ke$ha and Yelp reviews of a rest-stop bathroom.

Yes, the entire premise of @Midnight (watching comedians make other comedians laugh) is a bit smug — but it’s also funnier than most scripted comedies on the air (and the rest of Comedy Central’s original programming). But the show wouldn’t work at all without Hardwick’s magnetic presence as host — he’s the most loveable nerd on TV.

@Midnight airs Monday through Thursday at (duh) midnight EST on Comedy Central. Tonight’s episode features comedians Randy Sklar, Jason Sklar, and Ron Funches.