‘DMV’ on CBS
  
According to legend and online sources that might be somewhat reliable, the British character actor Edmund Gwenn, best known for portraying Kris Kringle in 1947’s “Miracle on 34th Street,” expressed the sentiment, if not the exact quote, “Dying is Easy. Comedy is Hard.”

That axiom is truer today than ever, as the shortage of comedy in films and television should be evident to anyone. Perhaps, political correctness run amok may have been the death knell for comedy that is edgy or insulting.

The relative scarcity of comedy might be the result of a lack of originality. Consider how many films today are remakes, and that’s not just taking into account the surfeit of superhero stories that operate on a nearly identical premise.

Comedy is hard because there are too many constraints on what is considered acceptable humor. Think about how many people are easily offended by provocative jokes. Could the hilarious “Blazing Saddles” even be contemplated now? Not very likely.

Anyone easily offended by off-color humor or offensive material should never venture to a comedy club. Standup comedians don’t mind controversy; they seem to relish it – to wit, performers like Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, and Dale Quinn, among others.

Lamenting the dearth of comedy, whether it is provocative or even mainstream, is evident in the current state of television comedy generally. “DMV” on CBS is the only new comedy debuting on a broadcast network this fall.
  
The premise of basing a comedy on one of the most dreaded places does present a challenge. After all, a trip to the DMV ranks with other awful things in life, such as having a tax return audited, getting a root canal, and preparing for a colonoscopy.
  
The East Hollywood DMV is divided mainly by two categories of workers, namely the driving examiners and the paper pushers. In the former group, Harriet Dyer stands out as Colette, a single woman in her thirties hoping to get noticed by surfer dude Noa (Alex Tarrant), the hunky new documents processor.
  
In the premier episode, Colette’s first test is with a Norman Bates-type creepy dude with mother issues, followed by a hair-raising drive with an elderly woman who knocks down every cone, and then incredulously asks if she passed.
 
“Saturday Night Live” veteran Tim Meadows’ Gregg is a curmudgeonly former English teacher, who unlike some of his colleagues has resigned himself to a life sentence of grinding away in a stultified bureaucracy.
  
Looking and acting at times like a nightclub bouncer on steroids, Vic (Tony Cavalero) revels in sarcasm, mostly directing barbs at Colette for how she hardly ever fails any of the driving test takers. Vic’s fashion statement is a wardrobe of ugly tight-fitting shirts.
  
Newly promoted to office manager is Barb (Molly Kearney), whose insecurity might prove to be an impediment in dealing with a pair of efficiency consultants evaluating whether the East Hollywood branch should be shuttered.
  
One of the funnier scenes involves DMV photographer Ceci (Gigi Zumbado) trying to take a headshot of Barb to hang in the office, while her subject ridiculously gyrates and mugs for the camera.
  
Meanwhile, Colette would like to make a move to get Noa’s attention, but an attractive co-worker nicknamed Hot Kristen (Samantha Helt) gets in the way. Eventually, Colette awkwardly strikes up a connection with the newcomer by talking about a rescue dog.
  
Visitors to the DMV provide comic relief, especially when an obnoxious guy (Mark Feuerstein) shows up with an expired passport to get a Real ID license, and becomes incensed when Noa turns him away for not following the rules for documentation. 
  
Aside from Catherine Heine’s short story about a very big-hearted driving examiner inspiring “DMV,” co-creator Dana Klein informed critics at a CBS press conference that two of her daughters took multiple tries to pass their driving test, leading to spending too much time at the DMV.
  
While sitting in the waiting room and dealing with forms, Klein came to the realization that the DMV is “the perfect setting for a workplace comedy” and “the idea of a show about people who work at a place that is notoriously despised was really interesting to me.”
  
Klein’s creative partner, Matt Kuhn, related that his vision of the show was to “explore all the fun and heart of everyday working life for the good people at the DMV,” who mostly “don’t want to be there any more than you do.”
  
While Kuhn’s view that the folks at the DMV are “doing their best to help you and get through their day, often navigating seemingly conflicting and frustrating regulations to do so,” may be overly charitable, nobody looks forward to a trip to the bureaucratic nightmare of the DMV.
  
The challenge for the writers and the actors in “DMV” is how to make a dreary, depressing workplace consistently funny for an entire season. There are some funny as well as cringe-worthy moments that send mixed signals. The verdict remains unknown about whether the show has legs for a good run. 

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.