Maybe you’ve seen some of the new “I am CNBC” commercials already – I caught one of the anchors this morning talking about brushing his teeth at his desk. It’s just part of the campaign to keep CNBC afloat, which also includes raunchy humor and rampant cost-cutting:

Now seated behind the Squawk anchor desk, [Erin] Burnett says: “There were 2½ million hits on Google for ‘Hogan’s bottom.’ I just thought you’d like to know that.”

Trying to suppress a grin, [Mark] Haines adds: “Art Hogan is really glad his bottom hasn’t been violated.”

This kind of ribald humor is tolerated—even encouraged—on CNBC. The network is understandably seeing record ratings, thanks to everyone from anxious office drones to stay-at-home moms who wouldn’t necessarily know the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) from a Labrador, all tuning in to monitor the nation’s financial meltdown—and its effect on the value of their 401(k) accounts.

While the gallows humor continues, CNBC isn’t exactly laughing all the way to the bank. Despite the yuks and the huge numbers, the network is now in the process of slashing as much as 10% from its budget. People at the network, says one staffer, “are scared s—less.”

Ratings are good, which you might expect in a time of economic turmoil. But none of that changes how NBC Universal and parent company GE are strapped for cash, so the anchors are trying to make themselves inseparable from the news by showing you more of their personality — and interspersing a lot of black humor, for which they have realized there is an audience. Hey, I could’ve told ‘em that!