Kutcher puts focus on future of ‘Men’

Ashton Kutcher is not gnarly.

That simple fact makes the news that he’ll be taking Charlie Sheen’s place on “Two and a Half Men” highly intriguing.

It also helps capture the degree to which Kutcher strikes a contrast image-wise to Sheen. And how, presumably, he will put a new spin on the hit CBS sitcom from which Sheen was fired.

Bottom line: Whatever gnarly means, Kutcher isn’t it – whereas, in Sheen’s lexicon, it stands for much of what he famously celebrates and claims to be.

On Friday, CBS and Warner Bros. Television announced that Kutcher will join TV’s top-rated comedy next season.

This switcheroo will be nothing if not profound.

For starters, Kutcher is a baby-faced 33 years old, while Sheen is a sharp-featured, party-hardened 45.

The character that he played for eight seasons on “Men” – a fast-living, womanizing cad – drew comic inspiration from Sheen’s own life of sex sprees, serial marriages and substance abuse.

On the other hand, Kutcher has a bit tidier public image. He has been rather quietly married for almost six years to Demi Moore (who, in contrast to Sheen’s choice of partners, is older – by 15 years – rather than lots younger than her mate).

Kutcher first found sitcom stardom more than a decade ago as the lovable but goofy teen, Kelso, on “That ’70s Show.”

Onscreen since, he has retained a puppydog wholesomeness, an affable sexiness that translated to his romantic comedies. He is a sensitive, mischievously unassuming stud.

Consider New Yorker magazine film critic David Denby’s review of Kutcher’s recent film, “No Strings Attached”: “He seems puzzled a lot of the time, a little slow, though slyly amused around women. He’s not offensive in any way. He’s even rather likable.”

By contrast, the character Sheen played on “Men,” Charlie Harper, wasn’t meant to be likable so much as glorified for living the male dream.

“I make a lot of money for doing very little work,” Charlie boasted on the show’s premiere in 2003. “I sleep with beautiful women who don’t ask about my feelings. I drive a Jag. I live at the beach.”

Charlie was speaking to his dweebish, high-strung chiropractor brother, Alan (Jon Cryer), whose wife had just thrown him out of the house.

Alan and his son, Jake (Angus T. Jones), had crashed with Charlie. There they stayed.

The gist of “Men” lay in the disparity between Charlie’s life of plenty and Alan’s frustrated existence.

But now Charlie is gone.

And now that Chuck Lorre, the show’s creator and executive producer, has his new man, his challenge is how to make the new man fit.

Recall a wisecrack from this season when, with mock sympathy, Charlie Harper told his brother, “I get it. You’re bored, you’re lonely, you can’t afford a hooker.”

While waiting for “Men” to return for Season 9 this fall, many fans of the show could be wondering: What would Ashton Kutcher say?