Comedy Central's upcoming animated series, "Freak Show," boasts an impressive list for its cast of voices.

Show creators David Cross and H. Jon Benjamin (from "Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist" and the voice of Coach McGuirk from "Home Movies") voice Siamese twins Tuck and Benny. With these two voices side-by-side, comedic genius should ensue, but that is not the case.

The show's storyline is set up almost how "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" intended to begin: A group of misfits are given a mission every episode. In this case, the Freak Squad, a group of freak show performers, are given very low-priority missions from the Pentagon.

As sad as it sounds, the show's adherence to the plot is its downfall. If anything has been learned from "Adult Swim's" success on Cartoon Network, it's that cartoons for older people should mimic the cartoon format for kids. Cartoons should pander to the lowest common attention span, especially if its plot isn't all that funny.

The second episode does contain some "stoner" humor, but the first episode only has low-ball comedy.

The show's characters are flat. Shows like "Arrested Development" could rely on the character-based comedy, but the "Freak Show" characters are stereotypical and seem to revel in their own clichAcs.

In addition to The Siamese Twins, whose special power is separation, there is The Bearded Clam, The World's Tallest Nebraskan, Primi The Premature Baby and The Log Cabin Republican — the outlet for many gay jokes.

The cartoon takes the "Chappelle Show" approach, that is, if every social group is parodied then no one can be offended, but Dave Chappelle is actually funny.

Will Arnett, who plays Gob in "Arrested," is the voice of the president of "Freak-Mart," an evil corporate behemoth that is trying to buy out the independently owned show of which the Freak Squad is a part. His comedic timing is not the same, which may be due to the more scripted nature of this show.

It seems as if the actors were given more creative freedom, the ad-libs would be funnier than the written script, given the track record.

The most entertaining part of the show is trying to guess where else the characters have done voices. Some of the voices hail back to shows from when "Adult Swim" actually had adults swimming in the pool as their sweepers.

The same company that puts out "Aqua Teen" and "Squidbillies" produces "Freak Show," and the animation greatly resembles "Squidbillies."

Though the show has potential, it resembles Comedy Central's brand of animated humor, more in the spottily amusing vein of "Drawn Together" than the original humor of some of its "Adult Swim" counterparts.

The Verdict: **

Premieres Oct. 4 on Comedy Central at 9:30pm