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Since the dawn of time … or at least modern cinema, there have been few films as mind-numbingly awful as "Year One."

At least in a bad summer action movie some of the fight scenes and special effects can save the film from being a waste of time. There's no such saving grace in a bad comedy. The jokes in this movie about cavemen fall flat, and the characters tend to go from one asinine situation to the next, seemingly forgetting the most important element of a comedy — making people laugh. Sadly, the laughs are all but extinct in "Year One."

Sitting through this comedy is a torturous exercise waiting for the end credits. It would be better not to see it all or to walk out and demand a refund.

The lead actor, Jack Black ("Tropic Thunder"), seems to know the movie is terrible and overcompensates by overacting. It's as though he hopes his shtick will overcome flaws in the script. It's a solution that never works and makes him come across as extremely obnoxious.

Black can be funny in the right role (see "Be Kind Rewind" and "Tropic Thunder," for example) but when his material isn't up to par, his performance suffers.

In this outing, he stars as Zed, a well-meaning, but hopeless caveman who cannot do anything right. His best friend, Oh (Michael Cera, "Paper Heart"), is too passive to have a meaningful conversation with his crush, Emma (Juno Tempe, "Wild Child").

Cera has yet to vary his performance from role to role. It's the same old nasal-voiced, low-talking, timid bit he has done since "Arrested Development." He works best in an ensemble but not as the second lead.

After yet another Zed mishap, the two are kicked out of their village and have to fend for themselves.

Screenwriters Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg and Harold Ramis keep the script focused on mocking Old Testament stories, such as Cain and Abel, and humor largely focusing on homophobic situations. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the scene with one character farting because nothing screams hilarious comedy like a good fart scene. Sigh.

Not that this premise was all that great to begin with, but instead of coming up with something to make the audience laugh, the screenwriters got a good chuckle out of it and figured everyone else would, too.

I was expecting a bit more from Ramis ("Caddyshack," "Groundhog Day"), who directed the movie and knows a thing about putting together good comedies but settled for appealing to the lowest common denominator.

This has been an awful year for movies and with jokes that stopped being funny in the Stone Age, "Year One" continues that trend.

Year One

PG-13; Comedy; 97 minutes

Director: Harold Ramis

Cast: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Vinnie Jones, Olivia Wilde, June Diane Raphael and Juno Temple

Rating: One out of five stars