What's the gist of Comedy Central's latest attempt at reality TV? Think of the show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, strike it, reverse it, and you have Straight Plan for the Gay Man, the new parody running its second of three episodes at 10 tonight.

The show is replacing Queer Eye's "Fab Five" with a group of straight comedians, the "Flab Four" (Curtis Gwinn, Billy Merritt, Kyle Grooms and Rob Riggle). The group works with a different gay man each week to turn him into a beer-drinking, badly-dressed slob, giving him the impression of being stereotypically straight ... for a day.

Each member of the "Flab Four" takes care of one aspect to complete the pseudo-straight image.

"We really had to formulate, dig deep in and find what character we each represented as the straight guy," Gwinn said during a teleconference with the show's cast.

Gwinn is in charge of environment, which means he "redecorates" the gay men's apartments. Gwinn said he's pretty much the same on the show as he is in real life, and admitted to losing potential hook-ups, even at 4 a.m., because of the condition of his apartment.

Riggle acts as the "culture coach," introducing the gay men to a straight man in his natural environment. Merritt is the "appearance guy" because he said he "looks the most like Carson [Daly]," and Grooms provides general information, such as the "walk and talk" of the straight man.

The question is: Why would a gay man ever want to fool the world into thinking he's straight for a day?

"I've been walking in high heels, and I wanted to wear army boots for the day," said Jonathan Schneider, one of the gay men featured on the show.

Schneider, who lives on the upper East Side of New York City and works as a fashion salesman, said he wanted to understand the lifestyle of straight men but was nervous about the experience.

He said he found it difficult though enlightening.

"I had no idea what they had in store for me," Schneider said. "I'm used to cold martinis, and these guys are drinking warm, cheap beer. It was like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz being plucked out of Kansas."

Though the change of beverage was shocking for Schneider, he said the hardest part was giving up his clothes.

"I'm used to getting dressed in the morning and feeling good," he said. "I put on my Gucci shoes, top the outfit off with a classy scarf, get a cup of coffee, hail a taxi and start my day. It was hard giving up feeling special."

Those participating in the show said that they feel its timing was right.

"Sometimes issues become over the top, and they snowball, and there needs to be a release," Gwinn said.

Schneider said there are many divisions and a lot of controversy in society, and this show says there doesn't have to be. There aren't as many differences between different groups as people think, he added.

Though the show may seem to focus on a touchy issue, the cast members and participants said it's one that viewers shouldn't be mad at.

"We're having fun with it, not at it," Grooms said.

Aileen Budow, a Comedy Central publicist, said the show has received a lot of positive response from the media.

"The media see this as a parody," she said. "I think people are going to love it more than Queer Eye, and I think the message in the end is those that are gay are happy to be gay -- They're just experiencing something different."

Schneider said he thinks it's important to experience all views of life, even if it involves eating wings, watching sports on big-screen TVs, bowling and playing paintball.

"In the end, though, I'm happy to be back in my Guccis and my pretty apartment sipping my cold martini," Schneider said.