Comedy debuts with a bang

The Monty Python troupe has amused a generation of fans, inspired a Broadway comedy and launched countless copycats. Add “The Hollow Men” (9:30 p.m., Comedy Central) to the legion of imitators. Like Python, the “Men” combine university smarts with a refined sense of silliness. The Cambridge-educated Brits take their name from a T.S. Eliot poem, after all.

The Comedy Central show offers staged skits and on-location gags, as well as recurring bits. In one, an “Antiques Roadshow”-like appraiser evaluates a relic that happens to be an old lady. Others feature a NASA mission to the moon that unfolds like a rather sloppy beer commercial, a pornographer who decides to go for very specific niche markets, and an office worker who experiences a memorable casual-Friday wardrobe malfunction.

The most clever and elaborate sketch involves a trio of demented customers at a shoe store who repeatedly pester the clerk with absurd questions about quasi-obscene and farcical animals. Their frantic interrogation eventually morphs into a ridiculous song right out of a cracked Gilbert and Sullivan operetta — or a Monty Python skit, if you will.

While the quips often involve adult humor and terminology of a sexual nature, the off-color material is more absurd than raunchy. Like most rapid-fire sketch comedy, “Hollow” has its hits and misses. But most of the time, “The Hollow Men” are on the mark.

Tonight’s other highlights

  • Tribal politics on “Survivor” (7 p.m., CBS).
  • On back-to-back episodes of “The Starlet” (WB), 10 wannabes (7 p.m.), a shocking love scene (8 p.m.).
  • Advanced technology puts a fresh spin on old evidence on “CSI” (8 p.m., CBS).
  • The teams organize a charity concert on “The Apprentice” (8 p.m., NBC).
  • Christina hits the road and takes a harrowing bus ride on “Point Pleasant” (8 p.m., Fox).
  • A broker’s lowlife pal may have been behind his demise on “Without a Trace” (9 p.m., CBS).