By Brian Heater

 “In Living Color” was something of a revelation during its four-year run on the fledgling Fox Network. At the time, the station had a good deal invested in its posturing as “cutting edge” entertainment, and compared to the three dinosaurs it was taking on, the network was downright revolutionary. The prime time “urban” sketch comedy program was perhaps the perfect encapsulation of such countercultural leanings: absurd, topical, overtly offensive. Over the course of its run, it helped launch the career of some of the biggest comedic stars of the next two decades. For better or worse, Damon Wayans was one of the biggest names to graduate from the program. Since then, he’s gone on to star in films (Blankman, Major Payne), produce a cartoon series (“Waynehead”) and take the lead in his own domestic network sitcom (“My Wife and Kids”). Now, a decade after the demise of “In Living Color,” Wayans has returned to the sketch comedy fold with “The Underground.”

Starring Wayans, his son Damon Wayans Jr. and a cast of otherwise largely unknowns, the series’ goal, first and foremost, is to reinforce just how “underground” it is. In the first episode, Wayans opened with a brief monologue, an attempt to further justify the show’s title: “A lot of people want to know what ‘Underground’ stands for. It stands for freedom. Creative freedom.” The actor caps the 20-second intro with a heartfelt “Yee-ah!” an unleashes approximately 30 minutes of some of the worst attempts at comedy ever committed to film (and this is coming from someone who sat through all 109 minutes of White Chicks).

The first sketch appears to be a circa-1992 outtake of “In Living Color,” featuring Wayans in a turban and false mustache, armed with one of the worst Middle-Eastern accents of all-time, as the atrocious pun-based host of “Iraq’s Funniest Home Videos,” Bomb Sagdat. A “Taxicab Confessions” spoof treads similarly dated territory, while in a momentary injection of 2006 pop culture, a Krumping segment replaces the infamous Fly Girls from “ILC.” The potentially “dangerous” sketches (a talking vagina and Peter Pan enticing starving children in Somalia to play with him) are vaguely upsetting at best.

“The Underground” represents a major brow lowering for urban, sketch and comedy in general. It’s appallingly, mind-numbingly horrible, representing a new low for the already atrocious state of American television. Wayans would do best to return to sitcoms where there (might) remain some envelopes he’s still capable of pushing.