Inside the Sports Dome

Like most American twenty-somethings with a sense of humor, I've always been a fan of The Onion.  I spent a summer working in Richmond, Virginia during which I read the fake news source cover to cover each week (it was a boring summer internship), and still log on to read some articles when I have a few spare minutes at the computer.  Perhaps not surprisingly, I really enjoy the magazine's sports-related humor.  The Onion frequently pokes fun at the world of professional sports; just this week, a friend forwarded me this article about Europeans in the NBA (I suggest you read it), and there are a lot worse ways to spend a few hours than flipping through the website's sports news archives.

When I recently read in Sports Illustrated that the creators of The Onion were bringing a Sportscenter-esque spoof to Comedy Central (Tuesdays at 10:30 PM ET / PT), I was pumped.  The 30-minute weekly program, entitled Sports Dome, certainly had potential - Sportscenter, while still entertaining, has become so over the top that it's ripe for parody, and I was confident that the fine people at The Onion could deliver.  While I've made some bad TV predictions in the past (I could have sworn that Sit Down, Shut Up was going to be the next Family Guy . . .), I'd been pitching Sports Dome to all of my fellow sports fans throughout the week, even before I had seen an episode.  After finally watching the show last night I'm glad I got on the bandwagon early, because the Sports Dome might surpass Outsourced as my favorite new show of the year.

Tuesdays at 10:30 ET / PT on Comedy Central.  Watch it now, thank me later.

You really have to tune in and watch Sports Dome for yourself, but trust me - through two episodes, it's been great.  Not only does the show make fun of professional sports teams and leagues like the news articles do, but the way the show makes fun of Sportscenter (and its anchors) is absolutely brilliant.  Like the ESPN staple, Sports Dome features a mix of (fake) news stories, (fake) human interest stories, (fake) fan polls and (fake) top plays.  This weeks episode reported that the NHL Hall of Fame had been acquired by Ripley's Believe It Or Not, that the Clippers traded $4 million in cash to Portland in exchange for $6 million in cash, and that Ken Griffey Jr. was coming out of retirement to go after one last hamstring injury.  In addition, the show had a mini-documentary about a small Texas town whose football team was about to break the record for most times featured as the subject of a sports documentary.  The "One Second Challenge" lets fans make a video pleading their cases for free Super Bowl tickets.  The catch?  Each video can only be one-second long.  Not only was each of these segments hilarious, they all did a great job of making fun of what ESPN's Sportscenter has become.

If you like sports on any level, I would highly recommend the Sports Dome on Comedy Central.  With a DVR you can run through an entire episode in about twenty minutes, and you won't be disappointed.  While I'm not sure if the writers can come up with enough material for the long run, I'm not worried about that now.  I'll be tuning in each week until the show stops being funny.  Judging based on how long I've enjoyed The Onion articles online, I have a feeling it might take a while.