Still, it is gratifying to come across a mainstream film that seems happy to risk offending so many different groups. And, best of all, Weitz bravely declines to chicken out and give us a cosy ending.

Don't be offended, none of this really means anything, it's just a goof about a lot of dumb stuff going down around us.

The film takes on more than it knows how to handle, and what starts out as a standard poke-in-the-eye of TV switches its satiric focus to the incompetence of terrorists and politicians, the heartlessness of celebs, and even the mess of Iraq.

An all-over-the-map satire of American Idol where there are enough positives to outweigh the negatives.