Amy Schumer: Five reasons to watch my show this season

So, why should you tune in to the second season of Inside Amy Schumer, which premieres Tuesday night on Comedy Central? Simple: “You’ll laugh for 30 minutes,” Schumer tells EW. “I would say only watch it if you enjoy laughing.”

Point taken. When pressed, though, the sketch show’s creator and star did come up with a few more specific highlights — including season 2’s greatest guest stars (Paul Giamatti!), targets (Aaron Sorkin!), interviewees (a phone sex operator!), and, perhaps most importantly, its effect on Schumer’s own desirability. (Though clearly, that’s not the word she uses.)

1. It might save your relationship

“It’s a good way to avoid whoever you’re dating if you guys are going through a rough patch, and it’s a little awkward,” Schumer explains. If you’re watching episode 2 with that person, though, you may want to leave the room when a certain sketch about military video games starts to play. Trust us on this one.

2. Everything’s more ambitious

From the scope of its jokes to the quality of its production, season 2 is bigger and bolder than season 1. Schumer is most proud of a bit from episode 3 called “Wireless Bummers,” in which her character struggles to contact Time Warner after her internet goes out. Naturally, the process turns out to be far from easy: “It goes to a Requiem for a Dream type of a scenario, just really intense. It’s almost like a short film,” she explains. Schumer’s also fond of “The Food Room,” an extended Newsroom parody that co-stars guest Josh Charles — a.k.a. the star of Aaron Sorkin’s beloved series Sports Night. And Charles wasn’t just there to deliver patter: “He’s hilarious, like, pitching amazing scenes,” Schumer says. “He totally helped craft that [sketch].”

3. Did we mention the guest stars?

Tuesday night’s premiere features Paul Giamatti in the role he was born to play: A schlubby, exasperated God who realizes too late that he’s going about this whole creation thing all wrong (“I really need to stop making so many white girls”). According to Schumer, convincing the Oscar nominee to take the part was as easy as running into him on the streets of New York City — “It was 9th Street and I think Fifth Avenue” — and simply begging him to take the role. Other guest stars — including Charles, Zach Braff, Janeane Garofalo, Parker Posey, and Rachel Dratch — were recruited using more traditional methods. (Presumably.)

4. There’s more to it than raunch

Granted, Inside Amy Schumer often goes blue; in the aforementioned Paul Giamatti sketch, God appears to Amy only after she prays that she doesn’t have herpes, and an episode 2 sketch about a fake snack food called “Finger Blasters” is among the show’s dirtiest gags to date. Then there are the people Amy interviews for this season’s episode-ending “Amy Goes Deep” segments, which include a sex columnist, a phone sex operator, and a porn movie editor, along with a few more neutral figures (a flight attendant, a 108-year-old woman). Even so, the comedian promises that her focus isn’t only genital jokes: “No question, that’s an angle of the marketing, and I’m not someone who’s shied away from that. But the show has a lot more to offer than that. And it’s a comedy. You’ll laugh if you let yourself enjoy it.”

5. It might make you warm up to Schumer herself

What do I mean? Well, season 2’s premiere opens with a sketch about a focus group that quickly devolves into a female comedian’s worst nightmare. (The guys in the group refuse to talk about anything besides if they’d theoretically have sex with Schumer.) When asked whether season 2 will make her seem more or less bangable, though, here’s how Schumer responded: “Oo, that’s tough. Probably more easily banged, becasue they know that I’m a year older, and my stock is about to plummet. So they probably know that I know I need to sell this stock.”

Inside Amy Schumer returns to Comedy Central at 10:30 p.m. ET tonight. And, as a bonus, here’s a shot of Schumer making her own deep, dark PopWatch Confessional in EW’s video studio: