Blog: Comedy

The big story of the day is how bad last night's ABC Democratic Presidential debate was, with George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson studiously avoiding any intelligent questions in favor of rehashing the campaign's inane "gotcha" moments long past.

The Minnesota Monitor was able to obtain a secret list of questions that ABC had planned, but ultimately cut from the debate. As you can see, we're all poorer for their editorial decision not to tackle these key issues:

Gibson: There is ample evidence that the public is tired of all the partisan turf battles in Washington--all the red vs. blue, day after day. Are you prepared to tell the American people -- here, tonight -- that you will set aside the red and the blue and tell us what some of your other favorite colors are?

Stephanopoulos: Senator Clinton, if you win this nomination, you'll be running against John McCain, a man who once joked at a Republican Senate fundraiser that the reason your daughter, Chelsea, was so ugly was that Janet Reno was her father. She was just a child then, an awkward teenager in braces. Do you take pleasure in the fact that, these many years later, she's turned into a total hottie?

Gibson: Senators, let's talk about white-collar crime. Your opponent John Edwards, before he left the campaign, spoke tirelessly of the need to rein in the depredations of corporate America. Tonight ABC News has learned that Martha Stewart, who spent time in prison for insider trading, has lost her beloved Chow, Paw Paw, to kidney disease. Surely that must move you at least a little? I mean, her dog died.

Stephanopoulos: Some media critics have bemoaned a growing conflation of politics and of celebrity media culture -- a tendency, even on the part of ostensibly serious journalists, to see everything through the lens of personality and character and to ignore issues. My question for you is, what's your most trusted source of celebrity news? And are there some celebrities who interest you personally more than others?

Dan loves traffic. But his lifestyle is under attack by politicians who are trying to "mitigate" traffic.

"In 2009, Congress will decide whether to continue to spend billions on highways and roads to generate more traffic. Or whether they're going to spend more money on trains and buses that suck the lifeblood right out of traffic."

Via Smart Growth America.

Every election, Californians have to deal with a bewildering array of propositions to vote on, many of which are arcane matters the state legislature ought to be dealing with. But they can't, because California law requires voters to approve every change in another law voters have approved, making it necessary to vote on propositions concerning expanding the authority of the BART police force to cover light rail trains and minutiae like that. Even when the propositions matter, there are so many of them as to make this parody, by Laughing Liberally comedian James Adomian, not far off:

The December 30th FoxTrot comic hits on the very idea IPac ran with two years ago: sending iPods to Senators. Back in February 2006, Senator Ted Stevens mentioned the iPod he'd gotten for Christmas in a hearing, and to educate Senators on the many legitimate uses of digital technology, IPac launched the Your Senator Needs an iPod campaign.

It was a stunt as much as anything, but it generated awareness of the digital divide between citizens and elected officials who barely understand the technology they are legislating. The humorous nature of the campaign was the very quality played up by Sunday's FoxTrot, in which Jason sends iPods to members of the U.S. Senate this Christmas for exactly the same reason IPac did.

A small excerpt of the comic (click to read the whole thing with punchline):

When I was first at Google, Chef Charlie Ayers and Googler Joe Sriver created parodies of popular cereal boxes featuring various Googlers, like Larry-O's with Larry Page and Larry Schwimmer Larry-Os, Raisin Brin for Sergey Brin, Golden Vikrams, Frosted Mieke-Wheats, Honey Nut Jenny Zhous, and more.

The cereal art is now hanging at Google Headquarters, where Danny Sullivan saw it on a recent visit and wrote an article which made the rounds online, leading a few friends and former coworkers to notice the cereal box second from the left on the second row.

And for more in a similar vein, click on "Facebook Off" once you're done (or here if it no longer appears at the end).

A tornado has transported you to a magical land, where a jubilant throng of midgets greets you as liberator. They direct you toward a road paved with yellow bricks. We'll start with you, Mayor Giuliani. Would you consider capturing one of these exotic creatures and subjecting him or her to enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding and electric shock, if it means extracting vital information that will determine whether the yellow route leads home—or into a trap?

More at Slate.

The Daily Show, in its thoughtful and mature coverage last night of the CNN/YouTube debate, interviewed several members of Drinking Liberally at their debate watching party.

"The inaugural burrito (carnitas with lettuce, salsa and avocado, no beans) was loaded into the breech at the Alameda terminus at 10:05 AM and was served to a beaming Cavanaugh, Vice President Walter Mondale and New York mayor Ed Koch in Weehawken 64 minutes later."

Read it.

SNL's "A Special Christmas Box" may be the Internet's hottest comedy right now. But to tickle the very geeky side of your sense of humor, there's xkcd.

I also give honorable mention to this crypto parody and this, to which I can't stop chuckling as long as it's on my screen.