Conan for President

TV is a wacky medium. Take a couple of weird, and I mean truly weird, stories as examples.

First, there's the case of Conan O'Brien "unduly" influencing elections in Finland. Or as one publication chose to describe it, "Creepy American perv applies to inspect women's saunas" (ok, so that's from the Sault St. Marie online news--not really prime time reporting--but wow, what a headline).

For those who don't watch Conan, or have missed how Conan has emerged as a Finnish legend, a quick summary. Finland's president, Tarja Halonen (the "Conan" on the right of the picture above), was recently re-elected. Apparently, this was no big shocker. But some delusional observers are crediting her success to a series of night spoof campaign ads used by Conan on his late night show to support a woman he says has a "dynamic personality ... quick mind, and most importantly — my good looks."

Almost as ridiculous as that story is the news of Al Michaels, Monday Night Football's legendary announcer, being traded to NBC Sports (note: that link is from the North Korea Times. Yes, North Korea. I guess Al is just as big in red Korea as Conan is in Finland. Who knew?). Details of the trade were not released. Oh, wait, they were (remind me not to read North Korean news if I want to get the full story on things. Once again, who knew?). Let's break out the score card.

Going to NBC is: Al Michaels.

Going to ABC/ESPN is: Monday Night Football promos will run on NBC Sunday night games for the next five years; ESPN gets live rights to four Ryder Cups and Olympic highlights; and, finally--I can't make this up--ABC/Disney regains the rights to Disney's pre-Mickey Mouse cartoon Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, for some reason owned by NBC for quite some time. My in-depth archival research (i.e., none) revealed that Oswald's departure from Disney was the result of his disappointment in seeing Mickey get a hot braud like Minnie to spend time with, while Jessica Rabbit, the "fox", if you will, of the rabbit world was never actively recruited by Disney management. Unfortunately, Oswald was unavailable for comment when I tried to contact him (tip: don't call Disney headquarters trying to speak with fictional characters...they're not big on that).

posted by G E @ 2:55 p.m.