Rick Spleen is a disillusioned stand-up comedian and writer whose career has not gone the way he had planned. Hosting corporate events, appearing on second-rate daytime chat shows and fronting cheap sell-through DVDs was not what he dreamed of as a young man. Worse still, he's stuck with a lousy stage name that he chose 20 years ago. Whether he is being accused of putting on weight, suspected of being gay or worried about accidentally poisoning another performer, Rick combines a mass or neuroses and petty grievances with a terrible propensity for lying. It is not a recipe for success. Along for the ride is his quick-talking American co-writer Marty, his unflappable partner Mel and his feckless daughter Sam.