WINGED NUT

What in the world does Duckman (USA, March 26, 10:30-11 p.m.) have to be so smug about? This trite new cartoon series acts as if it's the hippest satire on cable, but look at some of its targets: TV, hard-boiled detective stories, and hypocritical televangelists. Oooh, how gutsy! Seinfeld's Jason Alexander provides the voice of Duckman, a harried private-eye fowl. The animation is all jagged lines and bright primary colors- you're supposed to think you're seeing something cutting-edge just because all the characters look as if they've been snipped by rusty scissors. Duckman's notion of a good joke is to suggest that there's a channel called the Let's Talk in Pig Latin Network. When it wants to parody modern art, it offers an artist who looks like Andy Warhol, but whose name is Duchamp-how postmodernist recherche! Lest you think Duckman is a highbrow bore, be assured that it's also tedious on the lowbrow level-one regular character is an elderly woman whose sole contribution to the show is to pass gas occasionally. D-

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