George Lopez, David Hasselhoff roast themselves – with varying success

Jack Benny earned one of the longest laughs in recorded history during a 1948 radio broadcast that played off his image as a cheapskate. In the sketch, the comic is confronted by a mugger who barks, "Your money or your life!"

After a perfectly timed pause, Benny delivers the four-star zinger: "I'm thinking it over."

Neither "Lopez" nor "Hoff the Record," both premiering this week, merits future consideration in the Comedy Hall of Fame. But one of the sitcom stars knows how to poke fun at himself without appearing as if every move has been orchestrated by a PR firm.

It's not David Hasselhoff.

In "Hoff," the former "Baywatch" star lands in England, and is forced to audition for the role of himself in a biopic. Along the way, he reads lines with Knight Rider, re-creates his much-spoofed musical performance atop a crumbling Berlin Wall and drops references to the viral video in which he ate a hamburger off a hotel floor.

Points for being a good sport are taken away by a ridiculous plotline about a long-lost son — a bit of gossip that wouldn't get more than a paragraph from TMZ — and the fact Hasselhoff is much too eager to climb into the dunk tank. It's no fun when squirming looks like a smug dance.

George Lopez, who performs in Minneapolis next Saturday (see page E2), comes off as genuinely uncomfortable in "Lopez," a vast improvement over his past few efforts. That's what makes this under-the-radar project such a treat.

The actor, sporting an old-man goatee and the exasperated look of Larry David confronting a bad pastrami sandwich, barely puts up with racially insensitive white neighbors and valiantly tries to prove he's a nationally beloved stand-up comedian to a skeptical date.

The show, which Lopez helped create, doesn't shy away from his tabloid past, most notably the fact that he divorced his wife shortly after she gave him a kidney. Through it all, Lopez is anything but a good sport, which is what makes the ordeal so believable — and so funny.

Celebrities acknowledging red-face moments isn't very entertaining if they seem too game to laugh at themselves, a rule Hasselhoff may want to memorize — as soon as he gets done admiring himself in the mirror.

Neal Justin • 612-673-7431 •

njustin@startribune.com • Twitter: @nealjustin