The first thing you notice about Comedy Central’s revival of the television classic The Gong Show (which debuted last night on the cable channel) is that the set is considerably more subdued than the original. Gone are the flashing lights, quilted curtains, and gold glitter that dazzled us denizens of the ‘70s. It appears that Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, producer of the 2008 version, didn’t want to spend a dime on this thing.

Also gone is the quirky, smiling, huggable host Chuck Barris (now 79). His replacement, the brilliant Dave Attell (of Insomniac fame), is, by all accounts, Barris’s polar opposite. The dour, chain-smoking New Yorker had little visible enthusiasm for the parade of wacko “talent” that made it onto the stage last night. But the show, which clipped along at a much livelier pace than the original, was damn funny regardless.

If you are unfamiliar with the original Gong Show, the premise remains unchanged: It’s basically a talent show where outrageous guests compete before three low-rent celebrity judges (in the case of last night, comics J.B. Smoove and Andy Dick with rocker Dave Navarro) who either score them or gong them (literally) based on how preposterous the act is. If nothing else, last night’s offerings (which included a magician who pulled a bloody, fake rabbit out of his abdomen, a cavegirl/caveman acrobatic striptease, and a Milli Vanilli-looking duo that slapped out rhythms on their buff, nearly bare bodies) prove that, though over 30 years have passed since the original Gong Show’s debut, there is still a bounty of painfully bad entertainment out there. Apparently, “stupid” never goes out of style.

Not surprisingly, the new show is darker, bawdier, and more extreme than its predecessor – a sign o’ the times. But it’s funny nonetheless. Attell has none of Barris’s nurturing charm, but he makes up for it with lightning-fast acerbic wit, at one point describing a performance by a pair of wrestling midgets to be “like watching a fight from really far away.” The judges, too, seem to relish in this comic spectacle. And though, predictably, his best moments from last night are unprintable here, Andy Dick is one of the funniest people who ever lived. I hope he’s on every episode.

The description of the show at the Comedy Central website says it all: “Stars will be made, feelings will be hurt.” And, if next week is as good as this week, many, many laughs will be had. Tune in next Thursday at 10 p.m. EST to find out.

Wendy Case is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Arts & Entertainment.