(Enlarge) Jack Black and Michael Cera of "Juno" star in the ancient history farce "Year One," now at area theaters.

Jack Black's approach to comedy has often been described as primitive. It's literally the case in "Year One," in which he and Michael Cera are like a Stone Age Laurel and Hardy confronting threats that range from their fellow cavemen to a snake of biblical proportions.

Playing fast and loose with ancient history, common sense and common decency, "Year One" is the kind of deliberately stupid comedy aiming to bring out the inner Neanderthal teenager in you.

The giggle-inducing initial scenes make it clear that the enthusiastic stars and director/co-writer Harold Ramis have got some smarts when it comes to playing dumb. It's no surprise that one of the movie's producers is Judd Apatow, because there are plenty of gross jokes that translate to movie grosses.

The swaggering hefty character played by Black and the timid skinny guy played by Cera fit within a long tradition of comedic odd couples. They're members of a hunter-gatherer community that seems like it's finding its way at the very dawn of civilization.

Of course, the anachronism-laden dialogue immediately lets you know that your distant ancestors are fluent in today's slang. The shopping mall has not yet been invented, but there already are teen slackers hanging out in the jungle food court.

Social misfits by any civilization's standards, Black and Cera are constantly at odds with their neighbors. When Black eats an apple from a tree that would look familiar to Adam and Eve, he basically experiences a surge in cranial capacity. He's suddenly smarter and more ambitious than this settlement's low-level norm, though you can rest assured that he's no genius.

Anyway, the two of them are exiled and then embark on a series of adventures through an ancient world in which any sense of accepted historical chronology is trashed. This misfortune-prone duo encounters Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, and, yes, even Sodom and Gomorrah. The comedy is slightly naughty, as you would expect, but it generally knows where to draw the line.

The caveman-spoofing, Genesis-ribbing plot is so slackly constructed that the anything-goes sketches often don't go anywhere. This is why the fairly clever opening section gives way to scenes so arbitrary that they verge on being directionless.

Although there is no shortage of manic action, the humor ranges from scattershot to desperate. The primitive duo supposedly learn how to outwit an eclectic roster of foes, but the movie itself goes from dumb to dumber.

The jokes in this Stoner, er, Stone Age comedy never completely verge on extinction, but they're finally so random that your attention may wander. Thinking about other movies set in very early human history, you can console yourself with the thought that at least "Year One" is funnier than the 1981 Ringo Starr-starrer "Caveman." Grade: C+

"Year One" (PG-13) is now playing at area theaters.

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