The tagline of The Soup, possibly the only show on the E! cable network that won’t ruin your day, is that they watch it all so you don’t have to. In these times, that is no small service.

I watch this show every week, without fail. If I’m away, I set my DVR to record it Saturday and Sunday, as a fail-safe, because for all the easy targets–the Kardashian/Lohan/Abdul bloc, the reality non-shows, Cee Dub’s Dutch Oven Cooking–those brave scanners of cable culture ofen find something truly amazing. If Dadaist morning shows don’t do it for you, try Willard Scott’s Today-Show-sponsored madness.

It’s one of those wonderful accidents of television, like Space Ghost Coast to Coast in its prime, when nobody at the network has yet noticed how weirdly brilliant their tiny little show has become.