The always exceptional PBS documentary series "Frontline" topped itself this week with "The Merchants of Cool," a fascinating examination of how corporate America markets pop culture to teenagers, particularly on MTV.
    The 24-hour music channel (isn't that description getting a bit antiquated considering how few videos the network plays?) apparently shoehorns its stars into one of two molds.
     All young women on MTV are known as "midriffs" because of the sexually precocious way they dress, especially in navel-baring tops. Think of Britney Spears as their patron saint. 
   Men are known as "mooks," neo-Neanderthals like Tom Green and Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass" who are equally rude, crude and lewd.
    As gender stereotypes go, "Frontline" charges, MTV is perpetuating poor role models.
      Well, "Frontline" probably won't want to take a gander at MTV's newest mook, the appropriately named Andy Dick. His imaginatively titled "The Andy Dick Show" (Tuesdays, 10:30-11 p.m. ET, beginning this past Tuesday) extends the burgeoning mook genre to satire.
    Which means that the usual mix of potty humor and bleeped expletives is utilized in the service of skewering Hollywood clichés.
      Unfortunately for Dick, he himself is something of a Hollywood cliché: The comedian/actor has a real-life history of drug and alcohol abuse that ended two years ago when he wrapped his car around a utility pole. 
    After a stint at rehabilitation, he says he is clean today, which has done nothing to curb his mile-wide obnoxious streak. Given how deranged he seems, it is hard to imagine how much more manic he could possibly be on any amphetamine drug.
      His career highlights so far have been unremarkable, playing fourth banana on extant comedies like NBC's "NewsRadio" and Fox's "The Ben Stiller Show," the sketch comedy show on which "Dick" is clearly modeled (sans ensemble cast). 
   Still, as some memorable roles in pre-taped segments for the "MTV Video Music Awards" indicate, he is at his best in satirical skits.
      Smartly, the target of the very first segment on "Dick" is himself, by way of a "Behind the Music" parody.
      He references his own troubled personal history but takes a little creative license, showing himself doing bong hits during an anti-drug public-service announcement and enjoying work in the gay pornography business ("There was some good scene work, plus I got to direct.")
      A rather impressive array of actual celebrities ranging from Stiller to "NewsRadio" co-stars like Dave Foley and Maura Tierney, offer faux commentary on the comedian like, "Five years on 'NewsRadio' with Andy was like 10 years in a bamboo cage eating my own poop."
     This being mook territory, poop and other bodily functions are celebrated; Dick finds a way to spit or fart in nearly every segment in the premiere episode. There's even some graphically altered nudity used to hilarious effect in a send-up of trite football films. Dick depicts a coach who insists his players practice naked. "This isn't about pants," he bellows. "It's about teaching kids not to be afraid of winning!"
      Put clothing back on those players, and the film being parodied could be MTV Films' own "Varsity Blues." In fact, the entire show is devoted to MTV laughing at itself. Dick makes fun of network properties like Tom Green, Christina Aguilera and the "Scared Straight" specials.
       Given how MTV-mined satire also appears in the boy-band sitcom "2Gether" and "Kathy's So Called Reality," another recent addition to the MTV schedule featuring another former NBC sitcom star in Kathy Griffin, the network is intent on showing how it refuses to take itself seriously, which is a good thing.
      If anything, "Dick" and "Kathy" will come as comfort to Matthew Perry, the "Friends" star who shocked Hollywood this week by reentering rehab amid rumors of another round with non-prescription painkillers. If and when his career bottoms out, MTV will probably make room for him. Otherwise, there's always gay porn.

-Andrew Wallenstein is the television critic for Media Life.

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