TVSquad

I cannot remember the last time The Daily Show had such a completely random plug for an irrelevant product. Don't get me wrong, I'm more than cool with the B-52s, but having Fred Schneider come in to jazz up Scott McClellan's audio book was strange. Did the writers come up with this joke and then ask, "Wouldn't it be awesome if we got James Earl Jones to read this? And if not him, the B-52s guy?" or did they have to work around some way to have a B-52s plug in there? Curious. They could have just used their fake R. Kelly to sing it, since that is already a running joke. Also, when Jon Stewart called out for "Schneider", I was expecting Rob Schneider. An appearance from him may have made a little more sense, as he doesn't seem to have anything better to do when he's not doing bit roles for Adam Sandler, anyway.

Adding fuel to the fire about FOX Newschannel's political affiliations, FOX personality Tony Snow has reportedly accepted the Press Secretary position at the White House. The rumblings of this possibility started last week. His appointment to replace Scott McClellan is supposed to be made official Wednesday morning. I fully expect the rest of the press to essentially freak out and suggest that Snow's appointment will mean more exclusives and tips for FOX News. A valid concern, really.

Snow is less of a news anchor and more of a talking head and political analyst. He was a speech writer for the first President Bush in 1991, and a nationally syndicated columnist for The Detroit News and USA Today. It's also worth noting that Snow is currently battling colon cancer.

Putting this guy in the hot seat should be interesting, to say the least. He's used to pontificating in front of cameras and probably doesn't mind getting in the faces of reporters. He's bound to be more animated than McClellan, the White House robot whose only directive is to 'stay on message'.

Wow, Dick Cheney really did the late-night shows a favor, didn't he? After the Vice President accidentally shot his friend Harry Whittington in the face while they were "hunting" quail, comedy writers all over the country leapt into action, penning joke after joke that linked the incident to wiretapping, weapons of mass distruction, Cheney's heart problems, and global warming (well, I don't know about that one for sure, but I'm sure someone wrote something warming-related).

This article gives a nice summary of the funnier Cheney lines from Leno, Letterman,  and The Daily Show. It also throws in lines from Jeb Bush, Senator Patrick Leahy, and White House spokesman Scott McClellan.  They're not quite as funny (though I like Leahy's line), but then again most politicians are only funny when they don't mean to be, anyway.

(Here's another summary that includes quotes from Craig Ferguson.)

"This is Wire Tap" (I guess this joke will be sticking around for a while): The New York Times recently reported that since 9/11, the NSA has flooded the FBI with thousands of names, e-mails, etc. of people who are possible links to terrorist organizations. Virtually of these have led to dead ends. Brilliant. Our safety measures since 2001 have grown to listening to people's boring-ass phone calls and having old people take their shoes off at the airport.