After a disappointing start the first two weeks, “Michael and Michael Have Issues” finally hit its stride last night.  The skit above, in which Michael Ian Black goes shopping for sweatpants after a bad break-up, damn near killed me.

The meta “behind the scenes” half of the show is coming along, too, as the Michaels are growing into their vain, petty alter egos.  I still don’t like it as much as the skits, but that’s because the “Curb Your Enthusiasm”/”Arrested Development” style of humor-through-awkwardness is hit and miss with me.

Whoa, whoa!  Put down your pitchforks!  I didn’t say anything bad about “Arrested Development”!  I was merely talking generally about a style of humor!  Hey, that’s real fire on your torch!  IT BURNS!  I take it back!  I’m sorry!  Michael Cera is a genius!

We’ve known for a while that “The State” — MTV’s subversive sketch comedy show that helped build the foundation of humor for a whole generation of kids who would grow up to become bloggers — is coming to DVD on July 24th, but this is the first I’ve seen of the trailer, so let me just reiterate my feelings on the subject: AWESOME.  WANT.

I’ve been re-watching Season 1 online at MTV, and it’s great to see how well most of the sketches have held up — everything is just so GD insane.  I hate to admit it, but a show like this — where an entire comedy troupe gets to air their vision of comedy intact — will probably never happen again, thanks to the Internet.  Sketch comedy that gets a viral video following may provide opportunities for individuals to become stars, but networks aren’t going to take a chance on an entire troupe.

Whoa, I just got nostalgic thinking about a time when MTV took chances with daring, edgy content.  And now it craps out shiny turds like “The Hills.”  I wonder who died or got fired over the course of 15 years to make that happen.  “All right, everyone, it’s gonna take a lot of effort to change our image, but we need to make everything stupider, top to bottom.”

Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter (of “The State” and “Stella” awesomeness) will be reuniting on Comedy Central, which has signed up for seven episodes of “Michael and Michael Have Issues.”

“Michael and Michael Have Issues” stars Black and Showalter in a new twist on narrative and sketch comedies that features the long-time comedic partners as the hosts of their own fictitious sketch show.  Sketches will be interspersed throughout the narrative thread of each episode.  Behind-the-scenes of the show-within-a-show, viewers will get a first hand look at issues, both big (in an attempt to broaden their appeal, the guys turn their show into a frat house spectacle) and small (the two Michaels fight over the approval of a teenage intern writing an article about them for his high school newspaper.) that the two misguided stars wrestle with as they confront their own issues of insecurity and jealousy as each attempts to undermine the other.

Whoa, that’s a whole lotta meta.  Charlie Kaufman approves.  Maybe one of the sketches on their show-within-a-show should be about them playing actors who have a show-within-show!!!  Then they could have a sketch-within-a-sketch!  And they could hold a picture of themselves holding a picture of themselves!  AHHHH I just shit my pants from having my mind blown!