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A pair of comedies about teachers are coming to television — and one of them takes subtle-but-direct aim at a former Mormon apostle.

TruTV's "Those Who Can't" is set at fictional Smoot High in Denver — and the name is not random.

Cast member/co-creator Ben Roy was eager to explain that the school was named for Reed Smoot, an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1900-41) and a U.S. senator from Utah (1903-33).

"He created the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which is single-handedly responsible for plunging the country into the Great Depression and keeping it there," Roy said.

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Smoot-Hawley didn't start the Depression, but the tariff act is generally blamed for worsening and prolonging it.

"Oh," Roy continued, "he was impeached for taking an oath against the government."

That's a bigger misstatement of history. Smoot was not impeached, but there was a four-year battle over seating him in the U.S. Senate because he was a leader of the LDS Church — including the allegation that church members took an "oath of vengeance" against the United States. Eventually, the Senate voted to allow him to take his seat.

Roy clearly has some strong feelings about a Utahn who died almost 75 years ago.

"Look him up. A real peach of a man," Roy said.

Ah, well. The other reason for giving his name to the school is completely legit — it's kind of a funny name.

"Smoot just rolls off the tongue," Roy said. "I mean, having Smoot Jazz Club — that's hilarious. Sounds like a made-up name. But, yeah, it's real."

Oddly enough, "Those Who Can't" and "Teachers" are sort of flip sides of the same coin. They're both half-hour comedies. They're both from improv comedy groups — the all-male, Denver-based Grawlix (Adam Cayton Holland, Andrew Orvedahl and Roy) and the all-female Chicago-based Katydids (Caitlin Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O'Brien and Kathryn Renée Thomas). They're both about emotionally stunted adults whose personal lives spill out at school, where the kids are more adult than the adults.

How parallel are the shows?

"Teachers" star Lambert, describing her show, said, "Sometimes the kids are the ones who actually give the reasonable advice. And they turn into the teachers instead."

And in "Those Who Can't," Roy said, "The students actually act as stark contrast to how ridiculous and awful we're being."

"I think they're very often the voice of reason," Holland added.

("Teachers" premieres Wednesday/early Thursday at midnight on TV Land; "Those Who Can't" debuts Thursday, Feb. 11, at 11:30 p.m. on TruTV.)

Scott D. Pierce covers television for The Salt Lake Tribune . Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.