John Walker's Electronic House

Four new copyright infringing Copyright Watches are now up.

If you were paying close attention, you may have noticed that this past weekend there was the annual White House Correspondents (sic) Dinner. Not something that’s usually reported outside of the US, but was made more international by the sketch George W. Bush perfomed alongside an impersonator. The sketch, oddly, was very funny, with Bush lampooning his own inability to speak English, his dislike of speaking in public, and his extremely low approval ratings. He performs well, and is even endearing in his efforts not to corpse while his spitting image delivers the funniest lines. That’s right up until about three seconds after it ends when you realise, “Hang on – if he’s aware he can’t speak, doesn’t want to speak, and is believed to be doing a bad job by over 2/3 of the US, a) how come he’s not addressing it, and b) he thinks that’s funny? The shock factor of Bush himself performing well-written anti-Bush jokes is enough to engage, but upon further thought becomes deeply terrifying. It was enough to get reported in the UK and elsewhere.

However, what wasn’t reported in the UK and elsewhere, disturbingly including the USA, was the main speaker for the evening, Stephen Colbert. Currently riding high with the success of his excellent Daily Show spin-off, The Colbert Report (pronounced “Colberr Reporr”), the honour of giving the main speech at the dinner, which is intended to poke fun at the president, was his. From the reaction it seems no one was quite expecting what Colbert had to say.

In character, he addressed the audience from the perspective of his programme, ironically adopting a Fox News-like stance in order to make a mockery of it. Throughout, Bush was sat two chairs to his right.

“Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.” And reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

Bush, having done his own 32% approval joke (the doppelganger saying, “Why couldn’t I have dinner with the 32% of people who like me?”), smiled. Colbert went on, directly addressing him,

“So, Mr. President, please… pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32% means it’s two-thirds empty. There’s still some liquid in that glass is my point. But I wouldn’t drink it. The last third is usually backwash.”

The first hissed response from the 3000-strong crowd of journalists was inspired by,

“I believe in democracy. I believe democracy is our greatest export. At least until China figures out a way to stamp it out of plastic for three cents a unit. In fact, Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, welcome. Your great country makes our Happy Meals possible.”

The second from,

“I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound — with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.”

The word “rubble” seemed to do it.

What made the speech most interesting, however, was his turning on the press themselves. As Colbert’s programme exists to satirise the abysmal state of American news programming, it was only appropriate.

“But, listen, let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works: the president makes decisions. He’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put ’em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know – fiction.”

Obviously in print these jokes are not exactly world-destroying, but in context they were remarkable. I cannot stress enough, George W. Bush was two chairs to his right, and looking increasingly furious throughout. Those of the audience whom he hadn’t attacked were wavering in fear of the peculiarly uncomfortable air in the room, and the it all finished with a superb film of Colbert’s attempt to audition for the position of Whitehouse Press Secretary, which became a smart statement on the Bush administration’s inability to answer simple questions.

The quotes here are courtesy of the excellent transcript on Daily Kos.

The second half of Colbert’s speech can be seen, in terrible quality, on Crooks and Liars.

The whole event is obviously floating around on bittorrent, and was broadcast by C-Span.

EDIT: Thank Lewis. You can also watch it here.

Not one network showed clips of the speech, nor reported it. (I believe the Washington Post has finally gotten around to mentioning it, but then you’d expect them to). Shocking.

Colbert is a hero.

Other favourite lines include:

“Mayor Nagin! Mayor Nagin is here from New Orleans, the chocolate city! Yeah, give it up. Mayor Nagin, I’d like to welcome you to Washington, D.C., the chocolate city with a marshmallow center. And a graham cracker crust of corruption. It’s a Mallomar, I guess is what I’m describing, a seasonal cookie.”

“Everybody asks for personnel changes. So the White House has personnel changes. Then you write, “Oh, they’re just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring! If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”

“Joe Wilson is here, Joe Wilson right down here in front, the most famous husband since Desi Arnaz. And of course he brought along his lovely wife Valerie Plame. Oh, my god! Oh, what have I said? I am sorry, Mr. President, I meant to say he brought along his lovely wife, Joe Wilson’s wife.” [Oh my God, that joke’s so clever]

Nick and I decided to write a film script.

Yeah, every blog in the world is onto this, but I’m still joining in as I had to go out when the news was announced, and I want a go.

Nintendo, in case you’ve not looked at the internet, have announced that the Revolution is to be called the Nintendo Wii.

Pronounced: “Wee”.

So, after an hour sat in the fading evening glow of a clement Bath pub garden/carpark, and one hundred wee-jokes later, I want to compile the Ultimate List of Wee/Wii Jokes.

I definitely am going to queue up for a Wii. I might wait until the Wii prices are slashed. I really want a Wii right now, but I’m going to have to wait. Apparently to make your Wii work, you’re going to have to shake your wand…

Please, fill the comments with your toilet humour.

Yes, there is no doubt that there are far too many blogs. Yes, there is no doubt that ‘blog’ is a ghastly term. But once in a while, children of the internet, something a little bit special comes along.

If, like me and many others, you’ve often found your enjoyment of gaming hindered by the consistent and quite deliberate exclusion of owls, then I’m pleased to tell you at last some fine, upstanding, virile and remarkably attractive people are doing something about it.

Not Enough Owls is the beginning of what will be a very powerful campaign to end this strigiformiphobia that has been dirtying the industry for over thirty years. Thank you for your time.

**UPDATE**

Not Enough Owls now has a proper home!

A new radio programme by Triforce Hero Ste Curran and friends started this week in That London.

Called One Life Left, it is the meandering conversations of Ste, Robert Howells and Ann “The Hound” Scantlebury, discussing videogames and associated culture, with various guests, features and bits.

Once such ‘bit’ features me, doing a silly voice, in the guise of Dr. Watch. On alternate weeks, Jim and I will be presenting entries from Professor Game and Dr. Watch’s Lexicon of Gameography.

The programme is to be ‘podcast‘ (or as old relics like me call it, ‘stuck up as an mp3 on the internet’ – be sure this will constitute a future entry in the Lexicon) shortly after each week, and available for your listenage here.

(From the start, it’s probably best to establish that this is a single-player review of World Poker Tour, despite its online capabilities. There are two good reasons for this. First, I played it on PS2 and I’m not a witch. Second, if you want to play online poker, there are ridiculous numbers of far easier ways to do it, with infinitely more appropriate interfaces, making the online options of WPT entirely defunct from the off.)

We do seem to be rather lacking a decent poker game. The continuing international phenomenon of Texas Hold ‘Em (such that you can’t turn on Rich Man’s Telly without at least one channel showing a game, any time of day) means that everyone’s trying to find ways to make a buck (so long as it doesn’t involve actually playing Texas Hold ‘Em) before the fad fades away.

I’m going to prove that you’re a really sick puppy: You want serial killers to kill again.

But it’s only you that thinks that way, and the rest of us are sickened by you.

Keeping Sundays special.