“Death to Smoochy”? Yes, please. The cinematic equivalent of being poked in the ribs with a fork for two hours, this relentlessly irritating comedy directed by Danny DeVito redefines the term “over the top” Â and we don’t mean that as a compliment. The movie is destined for cult status, because it’s rare to see so many talented performers put so much effort into something this garish and obnoxious. Diehard film buffs will want to seek it out, if only because movies like this don’t come along often, which is a good thing.

Based on a screenplay by Adam Resnick, who has fared infinitely better on TV (“The Larry Sanders Show,” “Late Night With David Letterman”) than he has on the big screen (“Cabin Boy,” “Lucky Numbers”), the movie envisions the world of children’s television as a snake pit of corruption, greed and heartlessness. In other words, it’s just like every other aspect of the showbiz industry.

When the popular TV personality Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams) is arrested for bribery and fired from his show, he plots to murder his replacement, Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton), whose purple rhino Smoochy is an even bigger sensation than Randolph ever was.

There are traces of wit in “Death to Smoochy,” like some of the titles of Smoochy’s songs (“My Stepdad’s Not Mean, He’s Just Adjusting”), or a running gag about Sheldon’s genuinely sweet, Boy Scout disposition (he’s so anti-violence that when he and his brothers played cowboys and Indians as kids, he was always the Chinese railroad worker). But this is also a trite, obvious premise that relies on too many swipes at Barney the Dinosaur, a tired source of jokes that wouldn’t even cut it on “Saturday Night Live” anymore.

And the movie’s repeated juxtaposition of the innocent world of kiddie shows with the harsh, foul-mouthed truth of the real world isn’t as funny as the filmmakers think it is. There’s nothing here that Krusty the Klown hasn’t already done on “The Simpsons,” and better.