Showbits

It was ten years ago that I first became aware of The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn. The political commentary and satire that are the show's hallmarks provided welcome relief from the doom and gloom of daily newspapers and evening news. The show lasted only a short time with its first host but has enjoyed great success with Kilborn's successor, Jon Stewart.

Now the entire archives of the Stewart era are available for free online viewing at the show's official Web site. Comedy Central's library features an easy-to-use slider for calling up specific days, months, and years of episodes, as well as offering a standard keyword search. It's easy to find and watch classic interviews such as with Scott Bakula or Jeri Ryan, or more recent episodes such as an aforementioned critique of Representative Wu's analysis of the White House administration:

Mystery Science Theater 3000, the television series that for ten years lampooned terrible B-films, will see its twelfth DVD collection released this October, reports TVShowsOnDVD.com.

Since I was a latecomer to the series, the three Comedy Central-era episodes in this set are unknown to me. More appealing is the inclusion of episode 811. When I was taking a college course on bioethics that steered one day toward cloning, I offered to lend the professor a film about cloning. I didn't warn him it was the MST3K version of Parts: The Clonus Horror. My thoughtfulness was acknowledged the next day when I was late to class and Prof. Shannon stopped his lecture to address my classmates: "I would like to thank Mr. Gagne for lending me what is very possibly the worst film I have ever seen."

Years later, when I first read the plot description for the 2005 film The Island, I was sure it was a remake of Clonus (which is a pretty bad idea for a movie; shouldn't you rip off the greats, not the awfuls?). A few months later, I wasn't the only one to think so: the producer of Clonus (interviewed for a bonus feature on the above DVD set) filed a lawsuit against The Island's producers, claiming copyright infringement. The case was settled out-of-court a year later for a seven-figure sum.

I'd ask for a RiffTrax version of The Island — but that would just seem redundant.

Klingon culture has invaded our media — news, print, and film:

On Comedy Central, Jon Stewart reported on Representative David Wu's likening of the White House administration to faux Klingons. A couple of guest commentators from the original series provided hilarious lampoons of Wu, themselves, and pop culture. Beyond the obvious humor, though, is Wu to be commended or criticized for speaking the people's language in the House of Representatives? Is he effectively hip to pop culture, or is he dumbing down American politics? More important: would Wu's comparison have been strengthened by substituting Cardassians for Klingons?

Meanwhile, if last week's TRON comic book didn't sate your geek appetite, perhaps this week's TNG comic book will.

Further, the silver screen seems to be sporting a new film about 300 bloodthirsty, aggressive, barbaric Klingons defending Qo'noS against the Hur'q. Doubtless we'll be subjected to bat'leths, mek'leths, and many other pointy sources of violence.

Finally, my favorite Klingon joke:

Why did Worf color his hair?

… Because it was a good day to dye!!

Yes, I know — that's a joke deserving of Hegh'bat…