Adult Swim, you know I love you, but damn it, you make it so difficult to find information on upcoming series. Nevertheless, there seem to be a few clues floating around the online world of Adult Swim that indicate Tim and Eric, creators of one of favorite series of the last couple years, Tom Goes to the Mayor, are developing a sketch show (working title: Sketch Show) which is currently set to debut on February 11 at 12:15 am Sunday evening (early Monday morning). As I've stated before, this may have been mentioned on the Adult Swim TV bumps, but being a Tivo rider, I often miss those. However, the duo mentioned originally wanting to do a sketch show with Bob Odenkirk in this long and rambling IM interview, and the folks over at the Adult Swim messageboards have been chatty-chatting about it, as well.

I'm going to assume this new series won't be animated, which is just fine with me. I may very well be accused of blasphemy here, but I would love to see Adult Swim become its own 24-hour network dedicated to anything weird and unique, animated or otherwise. It seems to be going in that direction anyway, and if that means a place where alternative ideas can grow and flourish, that doesn't seem like such a terrible thing.

I was a big fan of Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse, which lasted for only one season on Comedy Central, though I have to admit I thought some of the animated segments were funny more in theory than in execution. One of my favorite segments from the show featured Bob Odenkirk as the host of a program on the extent of human knowledge and how much we actually know, or don't know. It's typical Odenkirk in that it's incredibly funny and makes you wonder just what part of your brain you need to whack with a hammer in order see the world the way he does. Scott Adsit, a fellow cast member on Mr. Show, makes an appearance as a scientist. More clips from the series and some full episodes can be found here. Enjoy Bobby after the jump:

(S02E02) This episode will air Sunday night on Adult Swim, but you can catch it over at the Adult Swim Fix site now. This episode begins with Tom visiting the town "darn" (he doesn't like to say "dam") while on a field trip with his adult school class. Sean Hayes from Will and Grace does a hilarious turn as a tour guide.

It turns out the dam is also home to Bass Fest (that's "bass" as in the musical instrument, not the fish). I'm actually a bass player myself, so I have to admit all the bass references cracked me up, especially when bass player Wizzard (Bob Odenkirk) announces on TV that he'll be playing a G three octaves lower than anyone has ever played. Tom tries to protest the festival, however, when he discovers that the low frequencies could rupture the dam. He takes his position in his "protest canoe" above the dam, and begs Wizzard to stop playing when leaks start appearing and water begins to pour out of the dam. The Mayor insists it's not the bass playing but Tom's "heavy canoe" that's causing the dam to give.

As I already mentioned, Conan O'Brien will be bringing his show to Chicago next week. He sat down (or maybe he was standing, I have no idea) recently with Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune for an insightful interview where he talked about wanting to do the show in Chicago for a long time. That's understandable, since Chicago, home of Second City, has been a place where a plethora of comedians were molded into the fleshy joke machines we know today. I found it very interesting that Conan once did a stage show in Chicago with Robert Smigel (creator of SNL's "TV Funhouse" segments and the voice of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog) and Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show and Tom Goes to the Mayor) called "The Happy Happy Good Show," which I totally would have gone to see had I known it existed and had I not been twelve years old at the time. Well, his famous "In the Year 2000" sketch originated from that stage show, so I guess we all got a little taste of it after all.

Bob Odenkirk of Mr. Show, and most recently Tom Goes To The Mayor, created a pilot called Derek and Simon along with Simon Helberg and Derek Waters, who also star. Bob describes it as "a great mix of funny and real." The show was not picked up by any network, however one of the two shorts that made up the pilot was screened at Sundance and can be viewed here. The short is called "The Pity Card" and deals with a young man who takes a girl to the Holocaust Museum on their first date, unaware that she's never heard of the Holocaust. Her emotional reaction and determination to spread the word about this human injustice is priceless. Comedian Zach Galifianakis also makes a hysterical appearance as a laconic party-goer who admires the home's high ceilings, or perhaps it's the low floors.