One of the first guests ever on the show “Space Ghost Coast to Coast,” a show that takes the original animation from a 1960s superhero cartoon and dubs it into a poorly done late-night talk show, was Dr. Timothy Leary.

It is not even remotely difficult to make a connection between the doctor who did research about LSD as a form of therapy and a show that produced a spin-off described by its creator as “’Three’s Company’ on acid.”

The first volume DVD sets of both these shows (the latter being “Aqua Teen Hunger Force, or ATHF, a show about a meatball, a milkshake and some French fries who live in New Jersey) have been available since November, and now Cartoon Network, the network both shows are on, has announced that it will be releasing the second volume DVD of ATHF this June.

Both shows have accrued a large cult following thanks to their unique brand of creepy weirdness. ATHF has been such an immediate success that the first DVD volume comes out just two years after the show first debuted. Although both DVD sets were released simultaneously last November, “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” debuted in 1994, while ATHF premiered in late 2001.

ATHF is a spin-off of Space Ghost. Thus many of the people who make Space Ghost are responsible for ATHF. That might explain why during the as-of-now two-year run of ATHF, in which 42 episodes have been produced, there have only been 12 new episodes of Space Ghost.

And now Cartoon Network has announced that it is releasing the second volume DVD set of ATHF in June with the next 13 episodes of the series, while there are no plans to release a second installment of Space Ghost on DVD.

Much of this makes it easy to infer that ATHF is a much more popular show than Space Ghost. And indeed, whether you’re looking at the ratings, internet surveys or nearly anybody who has seen the shows, most people seem to favor ATHF.

Recent trends would suggest that the casual consumer would arrive at the conclusion that ATHF is the better show, and thus would be the better buy. However, the casual consumer would be wrong. You might think that it would be an opinion to say Space Ghost is a better show, but you would be wrong about that too; it is a proven fact that Space Ghost is better.

The following is an attempt to scientifically prove that Space Ghost is a better show than ATHF, not to take anything away from ATHF.

I have a theory that almost all comedy shows, and certainly all sitcoms, are essentially just shows about a bunch of people who hang out and stuff happens to them. The actual premise of the show is only important in making one of the characters a cute kid who adorably mispronounces popular hip hop vernacular.

Think about it: if you took the show “Cheers” and made it take place in some generic office full of computers, you would have the premise of almost every single situational comedy ever made. In fact, I’m sure there has been more than one occasion when some network bigwig used the exact phrase “’Cheers’ but in an office” to describe what should be on the fall schedule.

Would the show “Friends” be at all different if the show’s main characters all worked as lion tamers and suffered from scoliosis? No, it would be pretty much the same show, except the topics of conversation would be those pertinent to people who work in a circus. And “Seinfeld” marketed itself as a show about nothing; it’s hard to alter nothing without turning it into something.

As creators Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro say during the pilot episode commentary, ATHF was originally a detective show because the network wouldn’t have picked the show up if they had described it as “some fast food products just hang out and some stuff happens to them.”

The detective theme, while prevalent in the first episode, is barely noticeable in the second and third episodes and after that is entirely absent from the series. In fact, 32 episodes later, one of the main characters references the fact that they are no longer detectives because they weren’t making any money doing that, and their new job is selling a hair braiding product called Ultra Mega Braid.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the fact that they aren’t detectives anymore; even though there’s almost no conflict and usually no resolution, the same weird stuff happens to them, and if anything it makes the show even funnier.

Space Ghost, however, is still, for the most part, a talk show. Of course, since it’s an animated talk show with heavily edited footage from live-action interviews the show does get borderline dadaist at times, such as Space Ghost eating oddball musician Moby and oddball stand-up comic Emo Phillips.

But even within that example there is enough celebrity-interviewing for Moby to comment that Space Ghost seems to be inexperienced at asking questions. Whereas ATHF became just a show about stuff happening to guys hanging out, while Space Ghost stayed a talk show for 88 episodes.

Part of the reason Space Ghost stayed a talk show for ten years is because that genre is so ripe for parody. There isn’t much opportunity to satirically lance detective shows, especially when you require the viewer to suspend enough belief to not question the fact that the main characters are food monsters.

Arguably Space Ghost’s biggest strength is its ability to actually make celebrity interviews funny. On nearly every single late-night talk show, no matter how funny the show is otherwise or how entertaining the interviewee usually is, “special guest interview” segments are excruciatingly painful.

However, celebrities somehow become interesting when they get perturbed after being told by a cartoon not to plug their book (Adam West) or that said cartoon is asking the dumbest questions Jeff Foxworthy has ever heard.

Space Ghost is funny both when it closely resembles a talk show and when it looks nothing like one. ATHF is just as funny but doesn’t have the severely edited celebrity interviews as a change of pace from pure, unadulterated weirdness.

So what does that actually mean? Both shows are hilarious, and diehard fans of such things as fun and humor would be wise to buy both shows on DVD. But according to the popular stereotype, college students are notoriously poor.

Both DVD sets are available now for $30, but since thirty bucks could buy enough individually wrapped slices of processed cheese to keep your belly full for weeks, you might have to prioritize and buy only one of the two DVD sets. You might need to wait until you get another student loan check to buy the ATHF DVD set, but you absolutely need the Space Ghost DVD set right this minute.

Note: This column warrants a very special thanks to Kon Stamadianos, whose encyclopedic knowledge of Space Ghost made it possible for me to write an academic analysis of cartoons.