In the spirit of today’s theme–namely, that corporate America is all about getting the customers to do the work for you–let’s turn it over the mic to commenter C. Brown:

James, how much tv do you watch in a day? I’m just curious is all.

Because I think my job is just so tremendously fascinating, I’m devoting a post to this. I get …

Of all the things David Letterman has given us–the Top Ten list, Stupid Pet Tricks, the Alka-Seltzer suit–maybe the most influential is the mainstreaming of absurdist humor. Back when Letterman was working as a local weatherman in Indiana, it was a truly weird thing for a weathercaster to talk about “hailstones the size of canned …

Speaking of Super Bowl ads, a few days ago in a post about big advertisers sitting the game out, a reader commented that the commercials have been less effective because the games are less interesting:

Coaches challenges suck the life right out of a series. Players can’t celebrate naturally whenever they make a good play without getting

…

It’s appropriate that I’ve spent the past couple days writing about a nontraditional form of advertising; this week in my Culture Complex column, I look at what’s been happening to a traditional form of advertising, the TV commercial.

In the days of product placement, guerilla ads and TiVo, TV spots don’t have the pop-culture reach they …

…is The Sarah Silverman Program, because I’ve already seen it. You should, though, and I want to hear what you think, because as I wrote (and have heard), it’s a polarizing show. But mostly because I’d love to see what the Venn diagram of Comedy Central watchers + time.com readers is.

Tonight Tuned In hopscotches the NBC Must-See Comedy lineup: The Office and 30 Rock si, Scrubs no, My Name Is Earl… mmmmmmaybe. To fill the gaps I may watch another episode or two of the very promising midseason Andy Richter sitcom NBC sent. Ugly Betty goes into the TiVo freezer for later, as does Letterman’s 25th anniversary on-air. …

OK, let’s take a hypothetical. You’ve just devoted the resources of a major city to shutting down roads and rails in order to keep the people of your good metropolis safe from a plague of homemade lite brites, one that somehow managed to infest nine other cities without mass panic. Do you (a) swallow hard, blush and hope the …

First they took Boston. Now they’re attacking our bars.

All you armchair quarterbacks who said the Homeland Security budget should be focused on trivia like securing ex-Soviet nuke material, atomic-power plants and major urban subway systems–you’re not laughing now, are you?

OK, let’s be clear about this. I love Ricky Gervais. Hell, everybody loves Ricky Gervais. Funny podcast. The Office, a modern classic. He even helped us believe Ben Stiller is a credible kids’ movie star when not playing a cartoon zoo animal. I am not worthy, I am not worthy, etc., etc.

But–and tell me if it’s just me here–is there …

It gets better. This afternoon’s Mooninite invasion of Boston, it is now being reported, consisted of “magnetic lights that were part of an outdoor marketing campaign for an adult cartoon” (that being Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force).

According to an apology from Turner Broadcasting, posted at boston.com, “[The lights] have been in …

Let me say this first: Kids, terror hoaxes are not funny. They cost money and disrupt lives. Terrorism kills. Stay in school.

So it is with great, great seriousness and gravity that I must report the Aqua Teen Hunger Force angle to today’s bomb hoax in Boston, the subject of wall-to-wall non-coverage of a non-threat by the cable …