NBC gave its "upfront" presentation today...sort of. Normally, this is where you would get the fall schedule, and for those of you who have been following the fate of the ratings-challenged, critically adored, bubble-riding Chuck, this is when the answer should have come.

It didn't. Instead, the network unveiled some new shows, renewed some existing shows (among them the recently launched Parks and Recreation and Southland), and told fans of Chuck and Law & Order that they'd have to wait for final answers.

The new series include medical dramas called Trauma and Mercy (please note that Trauma And Mercy would make a pretty good name for your indie band, if you are looking), but the posted preview that grabs my attention is for a comedy called Community. Because...it actually looks funny.

A curious pedigree and the charmed life of the E! host, after the jump...

 

Community, about a group of adults attending community college, has an interesting pedigree. It comes from Joe and Anthony Russo, who were both directors on Arrested Development. The pilot was written by Dan Harmon, who worked on, among other things, the 1999 sci-fi comedy Heat Vision And Jack, directed by Ben Stiller and starring Jack Black, which is probably the most famous pilot ever to be not picked up by a network. (See more about it here.)

Most promising for me personally, though, Community stars Joel McHale, the marvelously funny host of the E! news highlight show The Soup.

(Don't scoff — in the early '90s, before his Oscar nomination and his appearance in Little Miss Sunshine, Greg Kinnear was the host of Talk Soup, the predecessor to McHale's show.)

The preview for Community manages the neatest of neat tricks for a comedy advertisement: it contains things that are funny. If you've ever had the experience of watching a trailer for an allegedly hilarious movie and thought, "None of these jokes are funny, so are they...hiding the funny ones?" then you know what I'm talking about.

A genuinely funny movie (or show) should be able to come up with good jokes to sell itself with, and if it can't, you can bet you won't find them once you commit to the whole thing.

So watch it for yourself and tell me: Is it funny, or do I just really like Joel McHale?