Wonkette
Oh here’s John Hodgman, author of the weird and hilarious The Areas of My Expertise, who is apparently also a “minor television personality,” who knew?! And here is his very sly “roast” of the president, Barack Obama, at some event covered by C-SPAN. Worth watching just to see Obama cracking up over the hinjinx of the Birthers. Also, there are hobbit jokes. Basically, EVERY WONKETTE MEME OF 2008-2009 is in this John Hodgman routine. [C-SPAN/YouTube]
Is Washington just one big party after another? Lavish lunches, humongous happy hours, and drunken revels all night long? No wonder hard workers like Liz Becton get upset!
I’m sorry, but after being exposed to the comedy stylings of Glen Beck, I just can’t find anything else funny anymore.
By Crom, the man is geekier than I am. And makes money at it. I’ve gotta step up my game.
I caught some of this on Rachel last night and now I haz a sadz bc I knew all three answers to his “Dune” questions. I’ze a nerd, oh wait! soz BHO, who also knew the answerz. I ken now haz a gladz. Live long & prosper ya geeks!
paintitblack: Well, he is the Kwisatz Haderach.
All this fun and games while Walter Kronkite is on his death bed, too. He may actually be pre-spinning in his grave, as we snark.
Does this mean I can give Nobama a wedgie when I see him next?
Lionel Hutz Esq.: yes, and I “got” that one, too. Now I haz a sadz again…
paintitblack: Christ On A Bicycle: I knew all three Answers to the “Dune” three-parter as well.
I guess it’s time to go kill myself.
I think I’ll try to sex myself to death with a Korean-American prostitute or something.
Neilist: well really, I was being silly, but if ya wanna take it srsly, then here’s the bloody rope…
Man, John Hodgman is a up there with Colbert in his ability to engage an audience (figures since they both did/do time on Daily Show). Nice jabs at the Bushies that they won’t get until a week from now and start crying “foul”. Maybe next year, they’ll get Justin Long so we can hear from PC and Mac.
Funniest radio moment of the last year: Hodgman explaining to an NPR reporter that William Howard Taft always kept a bowl of live frogs at hand so he could munch on them during cabinet meetings.
Who’s the white woman to the left of Barry? Is she the woman Michelle referred to in the Whitey tape?
And then Barry walked alone into the desert, blind and free…
dr.giraud: William Howard Taft was our first Morbidly Obese-American president, as well as Supreme Court (Chief) Justice. And like an onion on the belt, snack frogs were the style of the day. Far better for you than eels, and more satisfying than skinks.
Can someone point me to B-list appearances by this guy. As a fan of Police Academy movies, I’m sure he would elevate my thinking
Did you all see the Jib Jab clip? It seemed Southparkish. It sounded like the South Park guy singing. Next on the agenda…. Save Iran!(in his spare time)
http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/hes_barack_obama
Bruno: He had a guest spot as a doctor on an episode of Battlestar Galactica during its last season. Talk about a geek’s dream come true.
He also gets Jonathan Coulton to sing his theme song. That is major geek-fu.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLx8HR1pTHY
John Hodgman referencing Leonard Nimoy on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me while talking to/about President Obama is a liberal’s wet dream.
kilgoretrout: if only ira glass were somehow involved.
Pop Socket: Jonathan Coulton rocks! er, at least oscillates gently, a little bit, but not so much to make his monitor move. But still!
Thanks to this conversation I finally understand. You guys are geeks. I’m a nerd. Nothing wrong with either, but pretty much most of Hodgman’s amiable speech only tickled deep recesses of my brain. As a nerd, I will ponder this among my piles of books, one of which is a primer on social skills.
Was Kiwa hirsuta bisque on the menu? I sincerely hope so, because it is deee-lish!
Pop Socket: Jonathan Coulton, John Hodgman and the Johns from They Might Be Giants - awesome Jo(h)n-ness!
hobospacejunkie: If I understand you correctly, you’re implying that we both have a deep and abiding need to learn far too much about things about which the average person simply does not care, but that the distinction between the two groups is that your knowledge is useful (in a narrow technical sense) for, say, getting things done, & ours is not (except for perhaps sleeping with geek girls, if we’d only read your primer on social skills first).
Touche. Well played sir.
villageatrois: Jonathan Coulton rocks with this anthem of computer programmer geekdom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W_wd9Qf0IE&feature=related
dr.giraud: Link, please!!
Hodgman for president!
Crow T. Robot: Thank you but I cannot accept your compliment. Your explanation would work were I a useful member of society. But no, you misunderstand me. I am no professor of useful things. I read my books and collect vast stores of completely useless information, just as you geeks do. The distinction, in my mind, is in the information. No judgement implied.
The answers were Shai-Hulud, a thumper, and the Water of Life! Can I be President next?
As one of the nerds, I would like to accuse John Hodgman of tragic and unforgivably violating true nerd credentials.
Every self-respecting Tolkien nerd knows the three kinds of hobbits, and knew immediately that Hodgman gets it wrong. Professor T delineates the orders of Hobbits in the Prologue to the Lord of the Rings, and separates their orders thusly:
Fallohide, Harfoots, and Stoors.
NOT, as Hodgman suggest, FalloFIDES, HarDfoots, and Stoors.
I call him a pretender to the legacy of the Professor, and demand a retraction for the good of Tolkien nerds everywhere.
I’m so confused. The headline here says nerds. Yet the commenters talk mainly of geeks. Earlier I thought I understood the distinction between the two. Now? I’m pretty sure I’m a nerd — bookwormy, called “walking encyclopedia” as a kid, can repair your PC, problems being social, etc. I thought geeks were poindexters, sci-fi afficionados, arcana obsessives. Alas, perhaps there is no real difference. The only truth may be that both nerds and geeks are fuckin’ weirdos.
Tolkienista: But do you account for the shifting pronunciations as you drift from South Africa to England?
zenferret: It’s not continental drift.
hobospacejunkie: Jock.
Tolkienista: HardFEET!!!
Erg, John Hodgman. I’m pretty nerdy but didn’t know any of this stuff and I think if I were president I would have had an Al Gore Sigh moment. But actually it’s cool because Barry’s polite and suave passing as a nerd here is impressive and cosmopolitan (i.e. OF COURSE he knows the vulcan thing, it’s like knowing “Pah-kee-stan”) as always. And it was thus with this video that I have a Maddow-esque re-realization that just because your president isn’t intentionally hostile towards intellectual rigor, you don’t have to trip all over yourself assuming he’s just like you and trying to swap garbage pail kid cards with him. Yuck.
jamesi-kins: NO. HARfeet.