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The NY Times looks at the obstacles that "envelope-pushing" sitcom script "The Cell," about the wacky world of a hapless terror cell, has faced while trying to find a network willing to suicide-bomb itself by putting it on the air. Development execs, it seems, are raving about it behind the scenes, secretly wishing they were edgy enough to let someone apply Still Standing-quality jokecraft (a highlight: "'You're bright, you're funny, you're talented,' Musab says, urging his comrade on. 'Who made the best nail bomb in training camp? You did!'") to the still-taboo subject of terrorism. But why won't anyone take a chance on these lovable death-merchants? The agent of one of "The Cell"'s writers lends some crucial, bottom-line perspective:

"People say tragedy plus time equals comedy, but the timing is always iffy," said Matt Solo, Mr. Wilding's agent. "It's still too close to 9/11, and 9/11 can repeat itself. You'd be sinking money into it, and then at some point, there'd be a tragedy out there in the world. Imagine you're on the hook for tens of millions, and then you get a massive boycott."

And, you know, after the tragedy out there in the world or whatever there would be, like, thousands of dead people—bummer, dude—and what if they had Nielsen boxes for the 18-49 demo? Then you'd totally be out tens of millions of dollars, get the boycott and whatnot, and have shitty ratings, The advertisers would so not be down with that at all. Imagine the hell that tragedy shit would be on agency commissions!