By  David Kronke
TV Critic

Who'd have thought that the breakout star of "Lewis Black's Root of All Evil" would be Greg Giraldo? The comic is a valuable utility player, appearing on a number of Comedy Central series and specials, and in the first two installments of this new series, he's smart and endlessly funny as he reams sundry cultural irritants.

Black is best-known for his stand-up act and appearances on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" in which he works himself into an apoplectic rage over the day's issues. But he's kind of phoning it in here, using his explosive anger more as a prop popgun firing at scattershot topics than as the righteous anger he hones against the injustices perpetrated by the targets of his stand-up act.

Part of the joke are the straw-man competitions, usually pitting something or someone powerful against some triviality that somehow has insinuated itself into the public consciousness. Hence, future episodes have Dick Cheney competing against Paris Hilton or North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il vs. slatternly YouTube and MTV self-promoter Tila Tequila.

Tonight's episode offers a brazen provocation: Oprah Winfrey vs. the Catholic Church, a battle royal between an ancient belief system and a fairly recent one. Comic Paul F. Tompkins takes up the cudgel against Oprah … her goal is not to inspire women to love and respect all women, but "all women who are Oprah."

Giraldo ensures he won't be going to heaven any time soon with his evisceration of the Church's past sins ranging from the Spanish Inquisition to the recent pedophilia scandal. Noting that the Vatican opted not to initiate a one-strike-and-you're-out policy for priests caught abusing youthful parishioners, Giraldo suggests, "That wouldn't be fair to the guy with a lot of hot kids in their parish."

Next week, Giraldo attempts to convince host Black that Viagra is a more grievous presence than Donald Trump, who's prosecuted by Andy Kindler. He does yeoman-like work, but would probably have been more convincing had he mentioned those execrable "Viva Viagra" commercials.

"Lewis Black's Root of All Evil" is an equal-opportunity offender boasting wickedly articulate monologues that range from perceptive to utterly absurd. Though occasionally a target will run out of bull's-eyes for its marksman to trample upon, rendering his shtick repetitive, the episodes provided for review featured more laughs than most sitcoms these days. And no doubt many will find watching some of those getting creamed here pretty cathartic.

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LEWIS BLACK'S ROOT OF ALL EVIL
What: Comics argue the relative lack of merit of two cultural irritants; the "Daily Show" regular decides which is worse.
Where: Comedy Central.
When: 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 12.
In a nutshell: Black's just phoning it in, but the comics – particularly Greg Giraldo – do smart work.