TV REVIEW : ‘MTV’ Cable Parody Witty but Lame

Who needs to parody MTV? It’s not as if the music video channel doesn’t already indulge in its share of ironic, self-conscious self-parody; the network is just hep enough to beat outside satirists to the punch. But if the tame spoof “MTV, Give Me Back My Life: A Harvard Lampoon Parody” (an hourlong special at 10 tonight on the Comedy Central cable channel) seems superfluous, it’s at least good for its share of chuckles.

The style of this ersatz 10th-anniversary tribute is so dead-on it doesn’t seem all that different from a real MTV documentary. Of course, the host network, Comedy Central, is half-owned by the same corporation that owns MTV, and the object of parody fully participated in its own roasting--with appearances by veejays Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, Kurt Loder, et al.--so the level of mockery is pretty doggone gentle.

Nonetheless, there are moments that have some bite. Best bit: A spoof of LL Cool J doing a number called “The Modest Rapper,” with the rapper’s look-alike ‘fessing up to his own, uh, underendowment, among other uncharacteristically humble attributes. (Sample lyrics: “There are plenty of rappers more skillful, but hey / Perhaps I’ll improve to their level someday.”)

Meanwhile, MTV is attacked by the usual preachers (Al Franken, in a predictable bit) and radical feminists (thinly disguised “Andrea Rifkin,” author of the books “Porky’s--A Response” and “I Have No Father”), while veejay Daisy Fuentes gets pummeled by an Axl Rose look-alike.

These kinds of moments come off as more congratulatory than condemnatory toward MTV, so it’s saying something that the special (which repeats on Sunday, Monday and Thursday) is often witty despite its overall toothlessness.