Via Swans On Tea, I see that Comedy Central has put up the video of George Johnson's appearance on the Colbert Report. Or, I should say, they claim to have put it up-- their video player didn't work worth a damn on my computer.
I saw this on the day-late rerun, and it was hilarious. Not because Johnson is at all witty or amusing-- he's not. But toward the end it turns into an xkcd comic, and achieves a sort of accidental brilliance.
Check it out, if you can get it to play.
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Wow, that was so worth it for those last 20 seconds. I almost spit out my cold pizza breakfast.
http://xkcd.com/242/
There are four final paths. A generic menality learns not to touch the boojum. A religious sot does it regularly and prays for a more benign outcome - test of faith! Enviro-whiners petition to demand more boxes, financed by taxing mandatory touching of this one, lest the phenomenon go extinct. A scientist looks inside the box then builds a better one.
I had trouble with the player, too.
I found another link http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/105782/detail/ which worked a little better for me.
Saw it live (well, the first time they rolled the tape) and we were just howling through most of it, but especially at the end. I think I need to do that demo next year!
It helps even more that my wife and I both know George.
Let his appearance there be a lesson to anyone who wants to go on those shows: If it takes you a day to hone a nice thought on a subject, Colbert will eat you alive unless you prepare for all possible interpretations of what you are doing.
Like when you demonstrate the Faraday effect by moving a magnet inside of a coil, about 3:30 into that clip. "I've done that."
I also noticed that George never learned to play the camera like the politicians do. He keeps moving between the live audience and Colbert, ignoring the home audience.
I laughed so hard I probably woke my roommate.