Laughs plentiful in TeleMongol

These are trying times for the Asia Home of Language Entertainment. It's hard to create programming by and for the Asian Pacific American community and snag their dollars at the same time. That clash centers TeleMongol at GTC Burbank. By taking down stereotypes in the context of a fictional cable network, this riotous collaborative sketch show attains a satiric edge that ranges from sophomoric to savage.A joint presentation by Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, Cold Tofu Improv, OPM and 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors.

TeleMongol tackles every Asian trope imaginable and then some. "APPA Knows Best" pits writer-performer Charles Kim's priceless Korean mom against Jully Lee's modernized daughter, engaged to a Filipino who Mom insists is Mexican.

Take a stroll through "Mr. Hueser's Neighborhood," in which author Aaron Takahashi and actor Robert Covarrubias ravage KCET-TV's "California Gold" series. Wanru Tseng's "Desperate Asians of Lotus Lane" upends the Marc Cherry ethos with hilarious zest. "Brokeback Gold Mountain," written by Michael Chih Ming Hornbuckle, goes just where we're afraid it will; Kim's jaw-dropping "The Very North Korean Holiday Hour" goes further than that.

Director Henry Chan and his fearless cast keep the energy high and the laughs plentiful. As the network execs, Corinne Chooey, Ewan Chung and Michael C. Palma maintain straight faces, no small feat. Other standouts are Denise Iketani as an unctuous Asian history drone, Tseng as a Vietnamese manicurist/advice guru, Takahashi and Kim as jewel-crotched rappers, and Lee and Greg Watanabe as news anchors.

Ruthlessly romping about Alan E. Muraoka's logo-dominated set, TeleMongol may horrify the racially sensitive and easily offended. Fans of Comedy Central and "Borat," however, will roar at such wicked comic comment.