If FX’s Archer is a deliberate throwback to the stylish and cool cartoons like The Pink Panther, then Comedy Central’s new Ugly Americans owes a clear debt to shows like Ren and Stimpy: deliberate gross-out gags abound, drawn, along with everything else, in a palette of earth tones. But Ugly Americans has a sweetness to it that Ren and Stimpy always lacked.

Revolving around Department of Integration employee Mark Lilly (voiced by Matt Oberg), Ugly Americans follows him as he tries to adjust to a NYC that has been overrun by fairy tale and horror story creatures, from werewolves to mermaids. Mark’s job is to keep them employed and legal residents, even as his demon bosses slash his budget for no reason other than that they’re, well, demons from hell. Mark’s home life is hardly better, including as it does his zombie roommate who has a yen for Mark’s flesh, and a bumpy fling with his boss.

The sweet-n-sour humor is offbeat enough to mark Ugly Americans as something special, even as the flat images and sight gags feel stale. The voice cast is superb, but the storylines can sometimes veer into the saccharine. But every time the show threatens to drown in an ocean of sentiment, Mark’s roommate will roofie him and watch him sleep. That’s not something you ever saw on Saturday mornings as a child. At least, not on TV.

Ugly Americans. Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. on Comedy Central.

Photo courtesy of Comedy Central.