Joel McHale, known as the host of E!’s “The Soup,” stars in the pilot for NBC’s new series, “Community.” He puts his quick wit and acidic tongue to good use as ex-lawyer Jeff. Tonight’s premiere episode centers on the premise of Jeff (McHale) lying about being a Spanish tutor with a study group in order to get to know pretty girl Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and getting test answers from Duncan (John Oliver, “The Daily Show”). His plan quickly and obviously doesn’t work, as trivia machine Abed (Danny Pudi) tells their entire Spanish class about the study group. What follows is Jeff’s attempt to manipulate the group and get to know Britta.

While the previous paragraph might read as a cookie-cutter plotline for a sitcom, “Community”‘s fast paced dialogue and surprising bite–one of the first jokes is about how Jeff got Duncan out of a DUI by connecting it to the September 11^th terrorist attacks and, later, an angry Jeff’s comeback to Abed is, “Yeah, well you have Asperger’s”–pushes the show into pretty risky territory past the safe archetype of “smarty pants lawyer suffers through hi-jinks while manipulating others.”

Like all pilots, “Community” rushes into introducing the various characters. After one episode, none of them stand out past their obvious descriptions–the love interest, the trivia machine, the middle-aged mom, the high school dropout, the high school jock, and the clueless old man. This episode was dedicated to recently deceased John Hughes (director, “The Breakfast Club”) who made a highly successful movie based on having the characters stereotyped and then trying to disprove those stereotypes, so hopefully “Community” will be able to develop its side characters.

It is notable that Chevy Chase lingers as the token old guy, Pierce, and doesn’t have many lines in the pilot, which is strange since he was such a big part of the advertising. Also, while Abed’s manic pop culture references are the easiest jokes in the show, they have great potential for meta-commentary on television and movies and parody of college life.

At a time when sitcoms rely on familiarity, “Community”‘s snark and irreverence proves it to be worth your time (especially following “The Office”). McHale has more charisma than anyone this side of Steve Carell’s Michael Scott and even better pick-up lines to use on intelligent, self-serious college women–“What’s your deal, and is God dead?”

Community airs Thursdays at 9:30/8:30 C on NBC