I LOVE puns and who could resist not doing a pun-filled report ont he news that French actor Gerard Depardieu couldn’t hold it on a plane so he answered his call of nature for all to see? Anderson Cooper couldn’t. And he reported the news in a pun-filled report that caused to go into a laughing fit. His report (the way it is written) and delivery is now a classic. MUST-VIEWING: h/T: Newser

One of my favorite places on the web has been the Google News Archive, a wonderful storehouse of digitized newspapers, some of them stretching back 150 years or more. It was fascinating to just pick a year and go back and see what life was like. In May Google announced they would no longer be updating the site with new resources but that the search feature would remain for the papers they had stored. Today however...

Thirty four years ago today my parents took my sister and I on our first trip to Disneyland. When we arrived at the hotel there were the banner headlines.. Elvis Dead. At the time, I didn’t really realize what it meant, but my Mom sure did. If anything demonstrates the tragedy of drug addiction, this was it. A once in a generation talent lost in his 40′s. Here is a little of his magic

Where’s Ron Paul in all the Iowa straw poll coverage? You’ll remember he came in a close second. John Stewart asks, “How did libertarian Ron Paul become the [political equivalent of] the 13th floor in a hotel?” Watch… Politico’s Roger Simon agrees Paul got shafted. But Kevin Drum says no, Ron Paul doesn’t deserve any more attention: Ron Paul isn’t getting any...

THIS JUST IN from investigative reporter Andy Borowitz: S & P Downgrades Iowa’s IQ Straw Poll ‘Alarms’ Ratings Agency AMES, IOWA (The Borowitz Report) – Calling the results of today’s Iowa straw poll “alarming,” Standard and Poor’s took the unprecedented action of downgrading Iowa’s IQ. While the effects of such an extraordinary measure are hard to predict, experts say the IQ downgrade...

Parasites are usually smaller than the hosts they feed off but, in this Republican pre-primary season, actual candidates are being afflicted with a giant publicity-sucking organism that attaches itself to their campaigns and draws away attention. After driving her bus tour into New Hampshire to overshadow Mitt Romney when he was making his presidential announcement, Sarah Palin is revving up the engines again...

(Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series to preserve on the Internet the “lost” poetry of Nunihal Singh Layal, the “Tradesman Poet,” who I met in New Delhi in 1974. Some poems contain his original introductions. I have a self-published book of his that is disintegrating and falling apart and over the next year or two I will run and preserve all of his poetry here. Joe Gandelman) How Evil...

The ad parodies the National Organization for Marriage’s “Gathering Storm” ad, which has been ridiculed repeatedly since its 2009 debut. Colbert asks voters to write-in Rick Parry — not a typo, “That’s with an ‘A’ for America and Iowa” — at the Ames straw poll on Saturday. More here. Memeorandum discussion.

No, not “mad” as in Tea Party anger. Instead, we’re talking “mad” as in A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness. Stephen Colbert did an excellent interview with its author, Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, professor of psychiatry and director of the Mood Disorders program at Tufts University Medical Center. Ghaemi says strong conviction, enormous creativity...

In celebrating the 100th birthday of one of the funniest women who ever lived — and who left a huge legacy on film — it’s worth looking back and celebrating the incredible Lucille Ball: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy SOME HIGHTLIGHTS FROM HER CAREER: The famous, hilarious candy wrapping scene: Stomping grapes. The big Italian lady in the scene...

As my Maine vacation winds down, a friend from sweltering Georgia sent me this wonderful stop-motion animation… It was shot on a beach in South Wales using 3 Nokia N8s mounted on a 118 ft crane to showcase the camera’s 12 megapixel sensor and Carl Zeiss lens. Everything in it is life-size. The making of…

NYILFF Campaign: Villain's Accuracy Against The Hero In A Movie The New York International Latino Film Festival, which shines in two weeks, has launched an audacious advertising campaign poking fun at Hollywood stereotypes. Speaking to the New York Times, Elizabeth Gardner, an executive director of the festival, said, “It was really intended to poke fun, but underneath there’s some truth to [the ads].”...

(Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series to preserve on the Internet the “lost” poetry of Nunihal Singh Layal, the “Tradesman Poet,” who I met in New Delhi in 1974. Some poems contain his original introductions. I have a self-published book of his that is disintegrating and falling apart and over the next year or two I will run and preserve all of his poetry here. Joe Gandelman) H-Bomb by...

Taiwanese animation from Next Media Animation on the debt ceiling limit deal:

You have to bring back Groucho to explain this one. In a classic scene, he and Chico negotiate a contract by tearing off items from long sheets of paper until they are down to a sliver each. “If any of the parties to this agreement,” Groucho reads, “have been shown not to be in their right mind, this contract is automatically nullified. That’s in every contract—-it’s called a sanity clause. “You...

In Washington, they are reenacting a famous magazine cover, the National Lampoon of January 1973 with a gun pointed at a dog’s head and the caption, “If You Don’t Buy This Magazine, We’ll Kill This Dog.” The dog is the American economy, and Sarah Palin is urging her Tea Party friends to pull the trigger, with a Facebook post to “remember us ‘little people’ who believed in them, donated to their...

For Such A Time As This, my documentary profile of the openly lesbian rural Georgia Baptist preacher, Genie Hargrove, premieres tonight at 9 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. My partner, Doug Keith, and I interviewed Genie for StoryCorps last February. That interview (scroll down) became the basis for the video profile. In it, Genie tells the story of her 2004 ordination as the minister of her Southern...

The raise the debt ceiling rap. Quite good. Send a copy of this to your Congressman or Congresswoman: On the other hand, it may have no impact on politicians They’re giving the American public and markets a song and dance on the debt ceiling right now. (Read this column.)

(Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series to preserve on the Internet the “lost” poetry of Nunihal Singh Layal, the “Tradesman Poet,” who I met in New Delhi in 1974. Some poems contain his original introductions. I have a self-published book of his that is disintegrating and falling apart and over the next year or two I will run and preserve all of his poetry here. Joe Gandelman) Birth of...

Glenn Beck has been laughing all the way to the bank for years as he knowingly and cement-headedly stirs up ratings garnering controversies. Fox News’ Roger Ailes must be down on his knees now thanking God that he parted ways with Beck given this one: Controversial talk show host Glenn Beck has sparked outrage by comparing the 68 young victims of the horrific shooting on the Norwegian island of Utoya...

So what was the real reason MSNBC replaced Cenk Uygur with Al Sharpton? THIS most assuredly makes sense. Key quotes (read it all): For many, to know him is to loathe him. He’s enraging, he’s nutty — and worse, he’s blow-dried, dandified and politicized. He’s also very funny. In other words he is all the things that make the right-wing phenoms of talk TV so popular. Sharpton’s...

Despite some proclamations that the documentary about Sarah Palin was really a huge success in the face of some early reports that it was not pulling in a huge audience, it now turns out that it has fizzled rather than sizzled and is going to Pay Per View. Another Harry Potter or Captain America it wasn’t. With its Sarah Palin documentary “The Undefeated” increasing its playdates by 40 percent...

As someone who dabbles in show biz at an admittedly different level, I have had a lifelong passion for comedy. And I mean comedy dating back to the silents, to the great comedy teams, vaudeville comedy, burlesque, early TV comedy and stand up. But there is one comedian today who I increasingly feel is not fully appreciated for the genius he is and his ability to keep getting laughs the old fashioned way (by...

Book Lover’s Lament: Closing The Wrong Borders Tyrades! By Danny Tyree Sometimes coincidences can really dampen your spirits. This week I was driving around with a CD that features Johnny Cash lamenting “I don’t like it, but I guess things happen that way.” Then I learned that the Borders bookstore chain will be shutting down completely by the end of September. One of the highlights...

By now you must have heard that Cenk Uygur is out at MSNBC and Al Sharpton is in. And by now you must smell the smoke — as Uygur systematically burns his MSNBC bridges behind him. Hey, kiddies, if you lose your job, don’t try this at home as you exit your old workplace. The New York Times: Mr. Uygur, who by most accounts was well liked within MSNBC, said in an interview that he turned down the new...