Ball Buster

One of the few things that make Silverman uncomfortable is talking about her looks. Like, for example, when she was named one of Maxim's hottest women. ''I was the only woman pictured in a sweater,'' she says. ''I don't know. Maybe I'm good-looking in a very attainable way. I mean, let's not go crazy. I'm not a Kelly Monaco or something.'' Kimmel thinks the whole sex symbol thing misses the point. ''It makes her fearlessness even more shocking,'' he says. ''In my opinion, too much focus is put on her appearance. I think she'll be just as funny, if not funnier, when she's a wrinkled old lady.''

When I ask Silverman if there's anything, or anyone, she wouldn't make fun of, she pauses for a minute and replies, ''Personally, I wouldn't make fat jokes about women. It just bums me out. I think all women are fat women in their heads. I know I talk about rape and stuff, so it's completely ridiculous.''

As Silverman polishes off her eggs, she looks ready for a nap. She's been up late for the past week taping the pilot for The Sarah Silverman Program for Comedy Central, which she describes as ''retarded'' in a good way. Beyond that, she has a hard time explaining what the show is about. But Comedy Central's exec VP of development, Lauren Corrao, takes a stab: ''In the pilot, her remote control runs out of batteries and she has to get new ones because she can't stand the images on her TV, like children dying of cancer. She ends up meeting God, who's black and who she has sex with only to find out he behaves like a needy, insecure guy afterwards and she can't get him out of her apartment.''

When brunch is over, Silverman decides to take a stroll through L.A.'s Farmers Market. And every couple hundred feet, she stops and presses her face against a different store window to peek inside. At one of the boutiques, she smooshes her face so hard against the window that she leaves an imprint of mist on the glass. When she steps back, she looks at it and smiles. And after a second or two, she draws the arch of a frown on it with her finger, making a sad face.

Could it be that maybe deep down inside, the funniest and lewdest woman in America is indeed a crying clown? I run the theory by her. And without missing a beat, Silverman laughs and fires back, ''How do you know it's not a rainbow?''