It's so wrong and so funny

PASADENA, Calif. — To call "The Whitest Kids U'Know" irreverent would be a massive understatement.

In the first episode of this new sketch-comedy show on cable/satellite channel Fuse, the young comedy troupe features Hitler doing rap, the "real" story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and some potty humor — literally. (Two episodes air tonight at 9 and 9:30 p.m.)

It's often rude and crude. It's full of questionable language (and a whole lot of bleeps).

But "The Whitest Kids U'Know" is also wildly funny. This is intended for the teens and twentysomethings that Fuse is aimed at, but even if you're the parent of one of those teens, you may find yourself laughing despite your best efforts not to.

It's wrong — oh, it's very wrong at times. But it's funny.

Trevor Moore, Sam Brown, Zach Cregger, Timmy Williams and Darren Trumeter — who range in age from 25 to 27 — aren't afraid of much, at least not when it comes to comedy.

"We don't really have that many topics that we would consider off limits," Moore said. "I mean, it all depends on the spirit of what you're doing. ... We'll do a sketch about a sensitive subject matter if it's kind of lighthearted and not malicious. Some of our sketches will be about darker subject matter, but we just kind of try to take it as like a childlike — just kind of an innocence to that subject.

"Then you know, it all depends on where you're coming from, and as long as it's not mean-spirited, we'll do anything."

Executive producer Jim Biederman — a veteran of the "Kids in the Hall" TV show — sees more than a few similarities between the two. "There's a freshness and a daring in even handling difficult topics they pull off," he said. "And a lot of the stuff is relationship-based like 'The Kids."'

The troupe got its start in a "spillover dorm" in Brooklyn. Moore, Brown and Trumeter were attending the School of Visual Arts; Williams was at Brooklyn College.

"It was kind of a — if you missed out on getting housing at whatever college you went to in New York, you'd be put in this dorm," Brown said. "We kind of had this slacker attitude to us."

Moore added, "It was as though all the slackers from all the colleges in New York got dumped into one hotel, basically."

Later, Trumeter — who was at North Texas — joined them.