Mail Goggles and late night talk show hosts
Saturday, October 11, 2008
I have a couple of amusing email-related links to share. If you have a problem with late-night drunk emailing, Google has a solution for you: “Mail Goggles: A breathalyzer test for your Gmail.” Similarly, do you know people who overuse smilies and exclamation points in emails? Do they happen to worship cats? Are you aware of the T.S. Eliot equation? Comedian Mark Day says it’s time to stage an intervention: The ‘smiley’ intervention.
Below I’ve created a late night talk show host/comedian chain of funniness for you (from hilarious to unwatchable):
John Stewart > Craig Ferguson > Conan O’Brien > David Letterman > Stephen Colbert > Jimmy Kimmel > Jay Leno > Carson Daly
Note: My original talk show host chain also snidely included a potted plant before Jay Leno and a boiled potato before Carson Daly, but I have since reconsidered, deciding that was too cruel – even as savagely unfunny as those two are. On second thought, it might have been more appropriate to choose organisms we’re sure are sentient, like a species of parrot or monkey.
Anyway, the above comedy chain means this for late night talk show programming:
Comedy Central > CBS > NBC > ABC
Speaking of Comedy Central, this week’s South Park episode, The China Probrem, was fantastic. It’s fun to rip on George Lucas (I mean, if he were alive today). And speaking of talk show hosts, “Talk Show Host” by Radiohead is one of my favorite songs.
OK, now that we’ve got all that cleared up, let’s move on to politics.
This New York Times op-ed column was a well-written and frustrating reflection of the reality of sleazy, mud-slinging presidential campaign strategies: “The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama.” Once backed into a corner, even the strongest among us seem ready to sell their souls out of desperation. I also liked this piece from last month: “Making America Stupid.”
The U.S. is in a sad state of affairs right now. So many economic disasters, so little time: Special Coverage: Financial Crisis.