There may be no crying in baseball, but it’s perfectly acceptable if you’re brought to tears laughing when watching “Onion SportsDome,” a “SportsCenter” spoof on the world of athletics through the lens of the satirical jokesters at The Onion.
“We really feel like part of our duty in making this show is bringing some attention to the long-neglected world of sports,” jokes executive producer Will Graham. The taking-off point for the series, he says, was the chance to lampoon “the whole kind of bizarre, cultish, money-laden world of sports.”
The 30-minute show is an extension of The Onion’s hilarious, slightly skewed sports coverage in its humor newspaper and website. “SportsDome” employs all the hallmarks of modern sportscasting — including graphics and noisy special effects to tell stories about (and reported by) even more bombastic personalities. Matt Walton, who portrays anchor Alex Reiser, wouldn’t even be surprised if it was occasionally mistaken for a real sports-news show, but “only in bars when your sound is down,” he says. “Then you won’t be able to tell [it’s not ESPN]. But once you are hearing what we are saying, I think you will know.”
Graham would actually prefer the series becoming fans’ first stop for sports highlights, both real and made up. “We definitely encourage people to mistake it for the real thing,” he says. “We’re hoping to just eventually replace ‘SportsCenter.’”
Talking with ‘Tosh.0’
Daniel Tosh is the most politically incorrect man on TV, but he’s also one of the funniest, making fun of himself as much as the Web videos he lampoons on his Comedy Central series “Tosh.0.”
“I don’t know why I get away with some things,” he admits. “I’m not a misogynistic, racist person, yet I do find those jokes funny, so I say them. My goal has never been to offend people, but I’m not going to hold back.”
Tosh.O has its season premiere tonight on Comedy Central at 10 p.m.
