What are they smoking over at "The Sarah Silverman Program?" Actually, it's pretty obvious

"The Sarah Silverman Program," which we've pretty much liked in the past, returns for a new season with an episode in which Sarah (guess who) and Brian (Brian Posehn) smoke a bunch of pot. You, too, will have to smoke a bunch of pot to find much of this episode funny. Be warned - or prepared. Garry Marshall, of all people, guest-stars.

Things improve considerably in tomorrow's second episode, which debuts in the show's regular time slot. It makes comic hash of Mongolians raping and pillaging Russian Jews in the 1200's, which is pretty much a universe apart from tonight's bumper crop of stoner jokes.

Sarah sues the Mongolian Board of Tourism on the behalf of her sister Laura (Laura Silverman), whose features kinda sorta betray a blending of Jewish and Asian heritage. The Mongols' attorney suggests that the Russian village had it coming to them, because its women's traditional clothing revealed a bit of ankle.

Thankfully, both parties are able to reach a rapprochement at the Mongolian Embassy suite at the Valley Village Radisson.

Sarah remains as blissfully, biliously clueless as ever. Her production team just needs to allow their scripts to be processed by sober people to make certain that they're actually funny in the chemically-unaltered world.

- "The Sarah Silverman Program:" 10:30 p.m. tonight and Thursday, Comedy Central.