Wednesday, February 17, 2010

There is Something Like a Dame

This is kinda funny. The infamous Dame Edna is about to open in a new Broadway show — kind of an evening with Dame Edna and Michael Feinstein. This morning, they held auditions for Dame Edna's understudy and the job went to a gent named Scott Mason.

No one expects Mr. Mason will ever go on in the role but he'll be listed in the program book and maybe he'll get a few bucks out of it. If I were running this operation, I think what I'd do is send Mason out every night after the show in costume to sign autographs at the stage door. And while he's doing that, Barry Humphries — who plays Dame Edna for real — will be able to slip out unnoticed.

• Posted at 9:17 PM · LINK

Two Happy Comedy Central Employees

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today that President Obama would "love to" appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart...but not The Colbert Report. This undoubtedly pleases both Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert. Mr. Stewart will get a great guest spot out of it. Mr. Colbert will get an awful lot of material out of it. And of course, after Colbert's made an enormous fuss, President Obama will appear on his show...

• Posted at 12:44 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Harry Shearer makes a good catch: The U.S. Justice Department no longer disputes that your country and mine has tortured prisoners in its custody.

Maybe Jon Stewart could have the Daily Show staff reach back to the Clinton Impeachment days and make up a montage of clips showing Senators and Congressfolks explaining how we had to follow The Rule of Law at all costs.

• Posted at 11:57 AM · LINK

Today's Health Care Rant

When Republicans are asked to present their ideas for Health Care Reform, they usually offer one or both of two ideas. One is to allow insurance companies to sell across state lines. Ezra Klein has a good explanation of why that's a very bad idea. It's the same reason why it was a bad idea to allow credit card companies to do the same thing. It leaves the companies governed by whatever state will be the most lax in its regulation.

The other thing Republicans mention is tort reform and limiting malpractice awards...and they don't even think this would safe enough to really affect the cost of health care. They just want to slap down trial lawyers and to protect the rich from the poor. Someone oughta point out that not that long ago, a lot of the same G.O.P. leaders felt that there was nothing more important in this world than to keep the heart of a woman named Terri Schiavo beating. Okay, but one of the things that kept her (technically) alive was the large malpractice settlement that paid for her frighteningly-expensive health and hospice care. If Republicans had their way, she would have gotten about a third of what she actually received in that lawsuit.

• Posted at 11:51 AM · LINK

Go Watch It!

Real Time with Bill Maher returns to HBO on Friday. Here's a little video monologue that Maher did for the web.

• Posted at 10:11 AM · LINK

Last Thought Before Bed...

This is way too late to be up writing scripts.

• Posted at 5:01 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Let's say you're piloting a helicopter. I know you'll probably never do that but just pretend. Let's say a large turkey buzzard suddenly crashes in through the windshield and lands on your lap. What happens then?

• Posted at 1:03 AM · LINK