Here's a funny bit from Late Night with Seth Meyers.  Thanks to Shelly Goldstein for calling it to my attention…

My pal Paul Harris notes that the opening titles of Stephen Colbert's show now say it's "live on tape." As Paul notes, it's impossible for a show to be "live" if it's been recorded for broadcast later. And it's not "on tape," either. It's a digital recording.

But I'd like to point out that it's even worse than that. If "live on tape" means anything, it means that the show is recorded in real time with no edits. Colbert's show is edited all the time. The cold opening comedy piece is always pre-recorded. If Colbert ventures out on the street, as he did last week with Robert DeNiro, we see him exiting the main part of the theater and then they cut to an exterior segment that was recorded earlier. And sometimes, they just plain edit an interview that ran long or got boring.

When he has done shows "live" (for real), they sometimes pre-record most of the show earlier, then do live segments at the proper time. They've been known to even bring in two audiences, one for the non-live portions done earlier.

I would love to see a show like that done live — or at least recorded in one non-stop effort with no edits. Alas, late night TV prizes polish over spontaneity. Once upon a time, it was the other way around and that was one of the big things that separated late night from prime time.

Also, the other day, I caught an interview with James Corden, who was talking about his experiences hosting the Grammy Awards. He mentioned that his late night program ran new shows Monday through Thursday, then aired a rerun on Friday. This is not so. His show goes on in most time zones after Midnight…so he has new shows that air Tuesday through Friday and a rerun that runs Saturday morning. And I really can't bring myself to watch Jimmy Kimmel's show but do they still call it Jimmy Kimmel Live? It's recorded earlier, too.

Paul Ryan, who's always seemed to have no mission in life other than to see that wealthy folks get more out of government and pay less for it, claims in a Tweet that…

Freedom is the ability to buy what you want to fit what you need. Obamacare is Washington telling you what to buy regardless of your needs.

So I guess he's going to push for a health plan that will make it possible for everyone, including those who can't afford to pay and/or have pre-existing conditions, to obtain the kind of health insurance they think is right for them. That's terrific! I mean, he must understand that not being able to get health insurance or going bankrupt due to medical bills is certainly not freedom, right?

When last I posted my Friends-Lost-Because-of-Trump Counter, we were up to seven. Two of them have since apologized and patched things up but recently, another acquaintance got furious with me for that Tweet I tweeted when it was announced that Michael Flynn had resigned.  To save you the trouble of scrolling down, here it is again…

Hope there's video somewhere of Trump telling Michael Flynn, "You're fired!"

This brought me a vituperative e-mail laced with personal invective from someone who I guess never liked me as much as I liked him. Essentially, he called me a scumbag liar (he used nastier language) for saying that Flynn was fired when in fact he quit because Donald Trump is loyal to his people and would never in a million years actually fire someone. Sure, he'd do it on a "Reality" Show but never ever in real life.

I was accused of spreading "fake news," which is the new term folks use for any news story they don't like, even if it's true. By the time I read this crazed message, Trump's official spokesguy Sean Spicer had already said…

The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the President to ask for General Flynn's resignation.

I sent that link to the guy who shot back a new round of insults and the claim that it proved I was wrong because asking for someone's resignation is not the same thing as firing him. Maybe in a microscopic sense he's right but it's kind of like the scene in The Odd Couple where Oscar demands that Felix remove a plate of spaghetti from the poker table and Felix laughs disdainfully and says, "It's not spaghetti! It's linguini!"

Well, now it's garbage.

Looks to me like something ain't working for the Trump people, which was this idea that if they stay on message — insisting that every single thing he does is a huge, smashing success and every report to the contrary is a lie — they could get enough of the country to buy it. It's the old trick we've discussed before of thinking that never admitting you're wrong is the same thing as always being right. There's always a point where that stops working.

Despite the loss of a "net" six friends who back Trump, I still have quite a few. The dividing line between the two groups seem to be that the ones I've kept believe that he's preferable to the alternative and/or he'll change things in this country that they think he should be changed…but they aren't willing to believe all the bullshit. They don't believe he got the largest electoral landslide in history and that he really won the popular vote…or would have if those millions of phantom illegals hadn't voted.

They don't even think he's a good human being who knows what his administration is doing. They just think they'll like most of what he does. I can kinda respect that even if I think they're wrong about what should happen…and maybe even whether Trump will do what they want. I think I can stay friends with these people just so long as they don't tell me I'm horribly wrong if I confuse spaghetti with linguini.

Today on Stu's Show, Stu Shostak plays host to voice actor extraordinaire Billy West, who's best known for his work on Ren & Stimpy, Futurama, Doug and dozens of others. He's also in lots of commercials, like he's the red M&M and the voice of the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee and he's been Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker and Elmer Fudd and…oh, he's just a brilliantly clever performer. He will doubtlessly do his legendary Larry Fine impression and it'll be so good that Stu won't be able to resist poking him in the eyes and breaking plates over his head. Don't miss this one, people!

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there and then. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond. Then shortly after a show concludes, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a bargain 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. Even if the shows weren't really good, that's the kind of bargain you can't pass up!

A few nights ago, the New York branch of the Writers Guild gave out awards at the Edison Ballroom back there. It was hosted by Lewis Black and I suppose I should warn you that the following clips contain naughty words, humor in questionable taste and many unflattering remarks about the current occupant of the White House. First, here's Mr. Black's opening monologue…

And now, here's an award presented by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog…

Here's a real good piece by Matt Taibbi on Milo Yiannopoulos and the premise that Free Speech is endangered whenever someone doesn't give such a person a forum — and usually, a nice speaker's fee. And make sure you read all the way through to the end because the last half-dozen paragraphs are pretty important.

An up-and-coming cartoon voice actor sent me this question and asked that I leave his name out of it…

I was in the audience at one of your Cartoon Voices panels in San Diego, wishing I was established enough to be up there on the stage with the pros. I heard you make a remark that intrigued me and I was wondering if you could elaborate.

I have watched as the industry has transitioned from hand-drawn animation to computer animation and I never imagined that would affect the voice actors. After all, a voice role is a voice role, right? But I heard you say offhandedly that casting voice actors for CGI shows is different from casting them for hand-drawn shows and I can't imagine how. Can you tell me how?

Well, it may seem like a small thing but it does matter. My job in casting is to do the show right with as few actors as we need to pay to come in. As is allowed by the Screen Actors Guild contract, many of those actors will do two or three parts.  Some of the actors in the session will be regulars — folks who voice characters who are in every episode. They may double or triple and do "incidentals" (characters unique to each episode) but I will probably also need a few guest actors to do all the incidentals.

Let's say in a scene for one cartoon, I as the writer want to have a two policemen walk in and each say two lines and exit. Piece o' cake. I describe the policemen I want the artists to draw and they draw them. I as the voice director assign the roles to two of the actors in my session. Simple.  At least, that's how it was in a hand-drawn show.  It was very cheap to bring in a new character so there were a lot of them.

But with CGI animation, every character is a computer model that has to be designed from every possible angle. We need to design them from the back even if you only see them from the front. Someone builds a fully functional computer model and that costs a heap of money. So instead of spending the dough to design two policemen, I have one do it. Right there, there's less for actors to do and if I think small that way throughout, I might need one or two less actors in the session.

Plus, there's this: If you watch a CGI show, you'll notice that if a policeman walks into a scene in one episode, it's usually the same policeman who walked into the last episode. If there's a TV newswoman, it's usually the same TV newswoman. If you look carefully at most crowd scenes, you may notice a lot of "extras" who were major characters in other episodes because each different figure is expensive.

So CGI shows generally have fewer characters per episode…ergo, fewer voice jobs.  And the jobs you do have are usually spread around among fewer actors.

Let's say in Show #1, I have that policeman and since guest actor Victor Voiceover is in that episode playing a big role, I have him also do the two lines as the policeman. Then two shows later, I write an episode about a race of Worm People. The big guest role is that of their leader but one scene calls for a policeman to walk in and say a few lines. On a hand-drawn show, it would probably be a different policeman so it wouldn't matter who did his voice and I could hire any actor.

But in the CGI show, it's going to be the same policeman and often the producers want to keep the voices on repeat characters consistent…so I hire Victor to do guest voices on that episode so he can do the policeman's lines. And of course, since he's there and we're paying him, I think, "Hey, Vic would be great as The Leader of the Worm People" so I assign him that role and he also does the three lines as a pizza delivery guy. And then the week after, since we spent all that cash designing Worm People, I bring them back again, which means I bring Victor back again.

And then a few shows later, I build the main storyline about that pizza delivery guy since we spent so much money making his computer model…and that means we bring Victor back yet again.  Over the course of thirteen episodes, I might need to book Victor eight times to do guest voices.  In a hand-drawn show, I might have had twice as many guest roles and spread them around among a greater number of actors.

There's nothing really different about what the actors do in a CGI show as compared to a cartoon drawn by hand. There's just fewer characters, which means fewer jobs, and a tendency to hire the same folks over and over for guest roles.

At the San Diego Comic Fest, I got into a brief (thankfully, brief) political discussion with an old friend of mine.  I can remember when, not that long ago, this fellow thought that the tales of Bill Clinton philandering were (a) all unquestionably true and (b) solid proof that the man was unfit to hold public office.  He still thinks that but he's fine with Donald Trump.  The tales of him abusing women, despite his recorded bragging about it, are unproven and surely way exaggerated and should not be mentioned, lest they tar a good Man of God who's going to do great things for this country.

That's one of the things that's so maddening about what's going on.  It's not even a matter of Party over Principle.  It's the realization that with some people, there's no Principle at all apart from "our side winning."  Here are some links…

• Trump is sure having a hard time sounding convincing when he says Anti-Semitism is a bad thing.  It's like he's thinking, "How can I officially come out against it without losing the support of people who hate Jews?"
• Our reality-show prez has been promising to bring back jobs for coal miners.  I respect the grand and dedicated tradition of that profession but I think it's a lot like being a Betamax repairman these days. The best thing that could be done for the miners might be some kind of retraining and placement program.  Here's Brad Plumer on what Trump can and cannot do for them…and the "can" does not include bringing back that industry the way they want.
• Joe Conason on why that Russian Dossier on Trump can't be ignored.  Something in there really smells and it isn't the part about the alleged Moscow hookers.
• Daniel Larison writes about "American Exceptionalism" and the flawed premise that you must not think America is a very great thing if you're against us getting into a lot of wars.  What's scary is that a lot of people who believe that are the people Trump is playing to.

I do these on the similarly-flawed premise that if I do all my reading and writing about Trump in the morning, I can pay little or no attention to him the rest of the day.  It hasn't worked yet but still, in the immortal words of Elmer Fudd, "I twy and I twy…"

The first Comic-Con International was held under a different name in San Diego from August 1–3 in 1970.  That is darn close — and getting closer with each passing day — to half a century. The four people above were each present for at least one day of that convention.

The gentleman at left is Gene Henderson.  Next to him is Jackie Estrada.  Gene and Jackie have both been of great service to the convention over the years, working on various aspects of it.  In the back are, also reading from left to right, illustrator Bill Stout and me.  We believe we four are the only people who have been there for at least one day of every one of those forty-eight conventions…but before we say that too loudly, we want to ask around a bit and make sure.

Is there anyone else?  Anyone who has shown up on at least one day of every single Comic-Con International, including the years when it was called the Golden State Comic-Con, San Diego's West Coast Comic Convention or the San Diego Comic-Con?  (It became Comic-Con International as of 1995.)  If there is, we'd sure like to know.  Drop me a note if you are one or know of one.

The Oscars are coming up. We would like it if even one of the acceptance speeches sounded anything like this one by Rowan Atkinson…

Trump seems to be trapped in a vicious circle: The more he gets criticized by the press and ridiculed by comedians, the more his ranting provides ammo for those who criticize or ridicule him.

There's a certain poetic justice happening with his TV coverage. Not that long ago, the programming folks seem to have come to the conclusion that covering Trump's campaign speeches, usually in full, was good for ratings. That helped him a lot to get where he is today. But now, the folks who do late night programming seem to have concluded that calling Trump a clueless, lying lunatic is good for ratings. Live by the Nielsens, die by the Nielsens. Here are some links…

• As Kevin Drum notes, enthusiasm for getting rid of Obamacare is faltering among Republicans now they they've gotten rid of Obama. I agree with his observation that "Hating Obamacare was mostly just a way of hating Obama."
• Matt Taibbi explains what Trump is trying to accomplish by repealing the bi-partisan provision of the Dodd-Frank bill known as the Cardin-Lugar Amendment. Hint: It isn't to keep his promise to cut down on the power of special interests to get what they want out of government.
• Daniel Larison explains why it would be foolish and counter-productive for the Trump administration to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Some people sure want them to.
• Trump just selected Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser. Fred Kaplan explains why this might turn out to be a pretty good choice.

Lastly: I've been catching up on TV programs I missed while I was away and I have to say I was really disappointed in Bill Maher for having Milo Yiannopoulos on his show and for acting like the mere fact that some people don't want this man to speak in certain venues means that he has something to say worth hearing. Yiannopoulos struck me as one of those people who has learned that saying outrageous things that piss people off is a good career move…so he says outrageous things that piss people off.

I am reminded of when I worked with the late "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, back when he was a superstar bad-guy wrestler. Out of the ring, Roddy was a great, funny fellow who admitted his villainy was all an act…but, as he put it, "It made me rich and famous and I didn't have to work on a loading dock anymore."  To some, being a hated somebody is better than being a non-hated nobody, especially if there's money in it.

No principle of Free Speech guarantees anyone a forum to air their views. I live not far from where Maher does his show and there's a derelict-looking guy who's sometimes about, yelling hatred of Jews and Blacks and women who don't stay home and just make fudge and babies…and there are no coherent views behind any of this. It's just kind of a desperate primal scream to be noticed. I look forward to seeing him on Real Time in the near future.

• It's kinda fun watching a president who repeats and spreads any silly thing he hears or thinks complain that the news media isn't accurate.

That's me interviewing Disney Legend Floyd Norman on Saturday at the San Diego Comic Fest…a different kind of comic book convention in San Diego but a very enjoyable one, nonetheless. Enjoyable for me, anyway. If you go to Comic-Con just to see movie stars and hear about next year's movies and to shop the giant Dealers' Room, you might have been lost at this intimate gathering which was just about comic books, especially older comic books. I love The Big One in July but for a guy like me, there's a lot of fun in just hanging around for a few days with folks of my generation, talking about how comics used to be.

Which is what I did. This was a small con in a small space with a small array of dealers (some of whom had very small prices) and a small guest list and I sure wasn't bored. I don't think anyone was.

The theme of the con was Jack Kirby, who would have turned 100 this August. On Facebook, I saw someone say that this con took us back to the days of the other San Diego Con, when you could sit by the pool in the evening and talk with Jack. I didn't check the pool at the hotel but I don't think he was there. They did though have three people who worked with Jack — myself, my then-partner Steve Sherman and Jack's favorite inker, Mike Royer. We did a number of panels about him and there were others. Attendees seemed quite happy.

The convention, by the way, concludes today. I had to get home. I kinda wish I was back there instead of back here.

Last night, I took advantage of being in San Diego to go into town, dine with friends at one of my favorite restaurants when it wasn't full of Comic-Con people and see a production of the musical 9 to 5 mounted by the San Diego Musical Theater group at the Spreckels Theater.

I didn't see the musical based on the 1980 movie when it played Broadway or elsewhere and was curious but I mainly went because my friend Candi Milo was in it. Candi who is one of the best voice actresses working today did not surprise me by getting every possible laugh anyone could ever get in the role she played — that of Roz, the loyal secretary to the boss played by Dabney Coleman in the film. I knew she'd be funny. Then again, I didn't know she'd be that funny.

Joy Yandell played Violet (the Lily Tomlin role in the film), Allison Spratt Pearce was Judy (the part Jane Fonda had) and Karyn Overstreet, who looks a lot like Dolly Parton or at least did on stage, played the Dolly Parton role, Doralee. All three leading ladies have powerful singing voices and did fine jobs of disappearing into their characters and making us feel their pains and frustrations.

David S. Humphrey had the Dabney Coleman role and managed to pull off the Dabney Coleman trick of being very funny and very sleazy at the same time. In fact, everyone was pretty good and the whole show was professionally directed, choreographed and staged.

So did I like everything about it? Well, I did have this teensy complaint: I wish all these talented people had been in a better show. The musical itself seemed unspectacular to me with no memorable songs except for the title one. Dolly Parton wrote them and I guess I'm more forgiving of pedestrian lyrics and "near" rhymes in country pop tunes than I am in something done for Broadway.

The storyline itself was starting to feel dated when the film first came out. I recall a lady I knew at the time remarking that the core problems of sexism and discrimination in the workplace weren't really about obvious a-holes like the one Coleman played but from the kind who can retain some veneer of respectability and innocence.

The message of the show is that women should stand up for themselves and not allow discrimination by gender or to be the victims of unwanted sexual aggression. I'm 100% behind the message but I thought the show got a little ham-handed with delivering it.

That said, the audience last night loved it all and many were on their feet for the closing ovations…so what do I know? If you're in the area, you might want to take it in. The show's there through February 26 and I guarantee you laughter every time Candi Milo is onstage. And other times, as well.