Here’s a real treat if you’re a John Hodgman enthusiast like me. The renowned writer-actor-Colonial surgeon was the entertainment headliner at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner the other night. He roasted the president for being a nerd (geek), a jock or possibly both, referencing his place in popular culture and passion for comics and science fiction.
And here’s the Kwisatz Haderach’s performance at the same event.
A delightful conversation between two of my favourite people…
Funnily enough, within the space of just a few short minutes (and with almost no effort whatsoever) Hodgman manages to casually toss off a whole series of memorable expressions and clever insights about the presidential election.
Filed under 2008 US Election, Humour
Fed up with politics? Me too.
From a TED lecture, John Hodgman rambles hilariously through a nonsensical tale about aliens, physics, lost time, space, sex pyramids, sandworms and how all of these disparate things “somehow contribute to a sweet, perfect memory of falling in love.”
Filed under Humour
I know it was a great gesture of unity and all, but I was so disappointed when they stopped the Roll Call at the great state of New York, the Empire State!
It would have been especially entertaining if they’d departed from the usual script and used instead the state nicknames and mottoes set out by John Hodgman in his book The Areas of My Expertise. Using Hodgman’s almanac as a reference, New York’s nickname, for example, would have been: “The Affiliated Businesses of 9/11-Related Tourism State” and its motto: “9/11 Changed Everything, Even Our Motto, Which Had Been EXCELSIOR!”
Update: Poor Jonathan Strong simply couldn’t figure out why the California delegation passed during the roll call. “I don’t know of any precedent for such a move by a state delegation, but something seems fishy,” he said, donning his little foil hat. Evidently, it never occurred to him that the move was simply orchestrated so that Obama wouldn’t reach the magic number too soon, preventing another state — like say, New York — from having its say.
No sir, not in the crackpot world of the “Strong Conservative” where it’s assumed that “…the good people of California might have a problem being disenfranchised from their party’s nomination process for the Democratic presidential candidate.” Urgh. Idiots.
Filed under 2008 US Election, Democrats
An adaptation from the audiobook version of The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman, with accompaniment by Jonathan Coulton.
From the video description:
John Hodgman’s PBS documentary, Hobo Matters. If not the most celebrated episode of The American Experience, certainly the most astounding, not only for the number of facts packed into this short episode, but also for the fact that PBS actually produced and dared to air it.
Unfortunately, this chronicle of the Great Depression and the Hobo Wars was quickly erased from history by the powerful Hobo Queen for it revealed too many secrets about the hobo world.
More on “Hobo Matters” here and a reading (mp3 format) of “700 Hobo Names” from the paperback version of the book, described by the publisher as “a lavish compendium of handy reference tables, fascinating trivia, and sage wisdom – all of it completely unresearched, completely undocumented and (presumably) completely untrue, fabricated by the illuminating, prodigious imagination of John Hodgman, certifiable genius.”
Filed under Humour
