'Tosh.0': From YouTube to his tube

THE SHOW "Tosh.0"

WHEN | WHERE New episode Wednesday night at 10:30 on Comedy Central. (Encore times include Wednesday at midnight, Monday-Friday at 5:30 p.m., Thursday at 8 and 8:30 p.m., and a four-episode block most Mondays 7-9 p.m.)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Viral videos replayed, rehashed, ridiculed and righteously elevated to pop-culture prominence.

REASON TO WATCH Lots of other people are. Last Wednesday's episode was the night's highest-rated show on all TV among young men, and highest on all cable among adults 18-49, drawing 2.7 million viewers.

Besides - so sue me - this trip is funny.

Genial comic-host Daniel Tosh stands in front of a studio audience and riffs on Web laughers, like the teen who freaked out throwing a physical fit when his mother canceled his World of Warcraft online gaming account. Surely you've seen this viral video - just one YouTube upload among many has tallied 31 million views, and the Comedy Central website's "Tosh.0" take from July 14's episode totals its own views at nearly 210,000 (at comedycentral .com/tosh.0).

But "Tosh" went beyond host commentary that "the video didn't add up." (C'mon, whose mom knows how to log on to cancel a WoW account?) He flew the teen to Hollywood to grill him to admit the footage was fake, "to find out if I need to punish him, in our first-ever Web investigation."

His attack got zanier from there, in indescribably quick and clever ways, through a stream-of-consciousness sketch that managed to both mock Web junk and recognize its big-deal place in today's media landscape.

MY SAY Tosh's (mostly) good-natured joshing is sharper than it has any right to be, turning a clip of neck-to-neck giraffe combat into topical riffs on Animal Planet, Toys R Us and Michael Vick. His bouncy demeanor wears well, making seriously scatological discoveries seem (almost) wholesome.

That jaunty attitude helps him glide through even controversy-courting zingers - buff black men dating fat white girls, "The Daily Show's" recent sexist-workplace accusations - without seeming to intend offense.

BOTTOM LINE "Tosh.0" takes Web junk only as seriously as it deserves to be. Watch his zippy 30-minute lampoon, and you've spared yourself hours of YouTube brain drain.

GRADE B+