Real People? Ha! Who Needs ‘em Anymore?

Rob Cohen and Dana Gould met about seven years ago, on Fox’s short-lived comedy “The Ben Stiller Show,” and now here they are, in a modest studio on the outskirts of Burbank, playing with puppets.

Not just any puppets, mind you, but anatomically correct rubber marionettes made by the same makeup effects house, KNB EFX Group, that endowed Mark Wahlberg in “Boogie Nights,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s film on the pornography industry.

Is this any way to make TV history?

For now, MTV has ordered a modest six episodes of “Super Adventure Team,” Gould and Cohen’s inspired superhero/sci-fi spoof that stars a team of adventurers who specialize in international crisis intervention.

Or, put another way, puppets who crack jokes and sleep together.

“Super Adventure Team” debuts today at 10:30 p.m. Along with the claymation “Celebrity Death Match,” such shows are part of MTV’s growing lineup of adult puppet theater; the current wave includes a sock puppet variety show, “Sifl & Olly,” which can be seen at 12:30 a.m. weeknights.

It seems safe to say that these shows are in part an outgrowth of the popularity of adult-themed cartoons, a genre reawakened by Fox’s “The Simpsons” in 1989. Nearly 10 years later, the animated sitcom--from Fox’s “King of the Hill” to Comedy Central’s “Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist” and “South Park”--has become a convention to the left of center, fueled by writers whose wicked sensibilities aren’t necessarily a good fit in live-action comedy.

Next month even marks the return, on the Fox Family Channel, of “Mr. Bill,” the accident-prone Play-Doh figure made famous on early episodes of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

Walter Williams is Mr. Bill’s creator and the man behind his comeback on “Ohhh, Noooo!!! Mr. Bill Presents,” in which the misbegotten clay stick figure plays host to a clip show highlighting slapstick comedy from around the world, all the while dodging dismemberment and various other “accidents” perpetrated by his longtime nemesis, Sluggo.

Williams, who ended up as a staff writer on “SNL” after his “Mr. Bill” series of short films met with raging success, says he’s always looked at his creation as a “satire on the trials and tribulations of everyday life.” That’s why he never concerned himself too much with the technical side of his films.

“How the stuff looks is not the key, it’s the ideas behind it,” he says. “You can have Popsicle stick theater if it has enough of a story behind it and good characters.”

“South Park” isn’t exactly Popsicle stick theater, but its crude, cardboard cutout look has given further license to others to go for a more scaled-down approach.

“That’s the great thing about ‘South Park,’ it’s crude on every level,” says “Super Adventure Team’s” Cohen. “When they got their show, they didn’t try to clean anything up.”

For his part, Brian Graden, executive vice president of programming for MTV, dismisses any direct link between his network’s puppet shows and the breakout success of a show like “South Park.”

“These are fresh voices who now have a chance to be heard,” he says of his show creators. “Forget if they have a warped sense of humor or work in animation.”

But even MTV is promoting “Sifl & Olly,” for instance, with a line worthy of a “South Park” character: “Sifl & Olly could kick Kukla, Fran and Lambchop’s ass any day.”

Created by childhood friends Matt Crocco and Liam Lynch, the show features strange-looking sock puppets talking to other strange-looking sock puppets, all of them occasionally pausing for a music video.

“Super Adventure Team,” meanwhile, is a bit more grounded in pop culture, spoofing as it does everything from “Lost in Space” to “The Six Million Dollar Man” with a team of superheroes who wear their psychoses as prominently as their weapons.

And the story lines have the feel of good camp; in one episode, a group of terrorists occupy the Fredonian Embassy. They have one demand--a live concert by the rock group KISS, which means members of the Super Adventure Team have to disguise themselves in the band’s overblown ‘70s garb.

Both Gould and Cohen say they’re using this venture at least in part as a break from the higher-paying but highly frustrating world of the mainstream sitcom, where they’ve so far enjoyed limited success.

Gould, a veteran stand-up comic, was last seen as an underused third banana on the NBC sitcom “Working” (he will not be back on the show this fall).

Cohen’s fitful TV writing credits include 13 episodes of “The Naked Truth,” an episode of “The Simpsons” and a three-week stay on “Saturday Night Live.” “I’ve gone on staff [of a prime-time sitcom], and even if it’s a very good show, you’re being paid really well to stay late and be miserable,” he says.

Adds Gould: “If this show’s a success it’s because it hasn’t been developed in [executives’] offices.”

Budgeted at $230,000 per episode, “Super Adventure Team” isn’t going to break the bank at MTV even if it does an immediate nose dive. Then again, if it hits, there are those merchandising possibilities.

And just in case there are “Super Adventure Team” lunch boxes, coffee mugs and T-shirts in America’s future, Gould and Cohen held out for a piece of the action. Considering the sheer volume of “South Park” paraphernalia out there, you can never be too prudent.

* “Super Adventure Team” can be seen Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. on MTV.

“Sifl & Olly” appears Monday through Friday at 12:30 a.m. on MTV.

“Ohhh, Noooo!!! Mr. Bill Presents” debuts Aug. 15 on the Fox Family Channel.