In the past few years, Comedy Central has mostly left it to South Park to piss off religious groups, but no longer! The network is developing 22 series — a significant amount for a channel currently airing fewer than ten shows — one of which will be JC, an animated show about Jesus Christ, living like a regular dude in New York City, while his father sits around and plays video games. Should that not be controversial enough (South Park has, after all, had JC on for years), there’s also Supermax, an animated series that will feature John Walker-Lindh, Ted Kaczinski, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, Omar Abdel-Rahman, and other bad dudes living and learning at a maximum-security prison, having what we can only assume are politically incorrect conversations about current events and shower rape.
The rest of the network’s development slate suggests they’re pursuing a throw-everything-even-slightly-edgy-against-the-wall-and-maybe-something-funny-will-stick-there strategy. (Which is also a good compete with Conan strategy, though when asked about Coco, Comedy Central’s head of programming demurred, “I think the world of Conan and I think he will be unleashed, targeting new things, which is great for cable television.”) They’ve got a Loveline-esque show for late night, dueling series about jerks (Assholes and Rich Dicks), a sketch show curated by UCB, a comedian answering questions only stoners could ask, a comedy version of Tales From the Crypt, a comedy on a space station, a comedy about aliens on Earth, and a police procedural co-starring Muppets. Just imagine a Muppet trying to play “bad cop.” Funny.
Comedy Central’s slate: 22 projects in the pipe [Live Feed/HR]