Q: What is the hardest job in television? A: Making shows that attract young male viewers. A decidedly fickle bunch, the “dude” demographic is difficult to pin down. Remember when wrestling was the answer? Then NBC hooked up with the WWF (now the WWE) to produce its own XFL football league with X-ecrable results.

If there is one genre that grabs guys, it appears to be cartoons. “The Simpsons” has been around for a dozen years primarily because it still attracts the young and restless male viewer to Fox. Cartoon Network claims that its “Adult Swim” regularly draws more young men than either Jay or Dave. But not all cable cartoons have been hits. Remember “Stripperella” and “Gary the Rat”?

VH1 becomes the latest network to animate its ratings with “ILL-ustrated” (10:30 p.m., VH1). This sketch cartoon comedy series was “previewed” last week, and will now air Fridays.

Unlike its caustic cartoon cousin “South Park,” “ILL-ustrated” does not feature a consistent band of characters. Created by Bob Cesca, founder of Camp Chaos Entertainment, these cartoons have been featured on the popular Web site www.campchaos.com since 1998. “It’s purely a sketch-comedy show with roots in ‘SNL,’ ‘Mr. Show,’ ‘Ernie Kovacs’ and ‘Kids in the Hall,”‘ Cesca said. According to the Chaos people, fans stumbled upon the Web site and liked what they saw.

“Ill” has its share of pop-cultural riffs. One short cartoon shows a superhero named He-Man getting a makeover from the “Queer Eye” Fab Five. But, unlike many live-action shows, “ILL” also has political bite. Several cartoons portray the president as a mischievous “Yogi-Bush” continually bedeviling park ranger Al Gore in his quest to drill for oil, despoil the environment, and so on. Vice President Dick Cheney and former president Bill Clinton come in for some savage lampooning, too.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Joan makes a special effort to comfort a despondent pal on “Joan of Arcadia” (7 p.m., CBS).
• A jilted Jane (Ashley Judd) sets out to find out what makes men tick in the 2001 comedy “Someone Like You” (7 p.m., Fox).
• A scientist accidentally clones the beautiful object of his affection (Ali Landry) in the 2002 comedy “Repli-Kate” (7 p.m., UPN).