Hodgman, with his Yale-bred propriety and affected arrogance, is the perfect vehicle for a bit that deftly satirizes both the government's coddling of incompetent executives, and the out-sized populist anger it's sparked.

Bonus points to Hogdman for giving a nod (I think) to the Nicholas Cage Wickerman Internet thing that took the meme-dom by storm a while ago. (Hodgman, he of the hyperactive twitter feed and Apple advertisment-based fame, can always be counted on to bring the nerd to "TDS".)

Hodgman hit the "Tweet to everyone button" when he meant to hit the "direct message to just this one person" button on a note that included his phone number. He took it down fairly quickly, but not before a handful of folks "re-Tweeted" it, meaning the number will likely be public forever. And of course, you can never really take anything down from Twitter—the search function archives it all:

Hodgman, a sometimes Daily Show correspondent, author, and former literary agent, absolutely killed it last night at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner.

The entire thing is about fourteen minutes, all of which is priceless (and Hodgman, not a professional comedian, makes Wanda Sykes' performance of a few weeks ago look completely bush league). Watch and learn, future Obama funnypeople. This is how it's done.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Nice work by Hodgman, who's clearly still in a little bit of shock himself.

Preternaturally hunky Curbed editor Ben Leventhal, ordered by ex-girlfriend Julia Allison to suggest a dinner spot, told her to Google the keywords "sugar daddy restaurants."


ABC newsman George Stephanopoulos felt compelled to clarify after reporting that his White House lunch with the president included "leeks and pot."

Spy cofounder Kurt Andersen's job was amazing today and yours wasn't.

New Yorker writer Susan Orlean caught the flu.

Funnyman John Hodgman announced his hate of the word "meh," and stirred up a fuss among the obstinantly nonchalant.

"I'm a PC" Apple spokesvillain John Hodgman couldn't decide which brand of speaker wire to buy.

Former Star editor Bonnie Fuller was sorry she wasn't single while hitting the slopes.

AP reporter Phil Elliott wished he'd paid more attention to Tennyson in college.

Wired editor Chris Anderson was mad at himself for hiring the bunch of smartasses who ran a chart just to mock his "Long Tail" theory.

CNET News's Caroline McCarthy wished she hadn't said anything at all.

Anyone else's tweets we should keep an eye on? Send us their username.

Hello! I’m a PC – and I can’t answer your email right now. I’d like to say that I’m out climbing Mt. Rainier or biking across Europe with the Swedish Beach Volleyball Team, but in fact I’m probably just chained to a desk somewhere in the depths of Redmond pounding out product specifications.

Now that I have been in a commercial, Microsoft has given me access to super-secret “BillyG” level of executive resources. That’s right – I have my own email auto-responder!

This, as you have probably surmised, is my pre-prepared auto-response (All natural, no filler. No animals were harmed in the making of this response. Except for a ferret.) I really would like to have answered you myself, but if I did, (a) I’d probably get no work done, and (b) then I’d get fired, and (c) then I’d have no chance of doing any more of those really awesome commercials.

So let me try to prognosticate a few of your questions and answer a few of them.

Why did they put you on TV?

I think it’s my devastating good-looks and animal magnetism. No, really – there’s a ferret stuck to my leg right now.

But really – you aren’t even an actor!

No I’m not. But I play one on TV. I really am a Microsoft Program Manager. I work on IPv6, and other things that you haven’t heard of.

How did you get selected?

I auditioned along with a couple of hundred others. I guess I looked very Engineery. And the ferret probably helped.

Are you interested in more acting?

Oh no, I think that Engineering is MUCH more fun.

What’s with Windows Vista?

You’ve been watching those commercials again, haven’t you? Windows Vista rocks. Listen to real users, not actors.

-The Real PC, Sean Siler

[via crunchgear]

Experts told the New York Times the campaign reminds them of how rental car company Hertz finally responded to Avis's slogan "We’re No. 2. We try harder," with a campaign that declared: “For years, Avis has been telling you Hertz is No. 1. Now we’re going to tell you why.” But for me, it just brings to mind that old clip of an angry Larry Ellison responding to a reporter asks him "what's new about what Microsoft's doing." "What's new is nothing's new," Ellison says.

(Photo by AP/Pizzello)

Playing on an early meme about home computers, Alan Alda shows how an Atari will make your kid a better typist than you. Oh, and it plays games too.

Apple flaunts its Y2K-proof products with a sad monologue from 2001's HAL 9000.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion teaches you how to get the color you want from your I-can't-decide girlfriend. Sexist? Not as much as the talk about Sarah Palin at Whole Foods this morning.

A clever Web page ad for Apple that ties two ad spots on the page together. John Hodgman's PC guy undermines the ads a bit by making me feel sympathetic for him.

Seinfeld's pointless but funny Superman ad for American Express's product warranty feature was probably what convinced Microsoft he could do the same for Windows. If the writers of the Microsoft/Seinfeld ad had created a similarly out-of-character character for Bill Gates, it might've worked.

Instead of Corey Feldman, try Corey Haim: At the time of Drew’s fling with Feldman, picking between the two Coreys was a matter of Eeny Meeny Miney Mo, Catch A Cokehead By The Toe. Judging by their subsequent trajectories, Drew may have made the wiser choice. But it’s the other Corey, sent to the bottom of his pill bag by Defamer commenters, who currently needs all the help Drew’s strawberry-scented guffaws can bring.

Instead of Luke Wilson, try Owen Wilson: Maybe back in the late 90s Luke seemed like the more intriguing Wilson. His nose wasn’t quite as broken as his brother’s, Owen hadn’t bewitched us all with his Hans in Zoolander, and Luke had yet to permanently banish himself from crush lists by actually sharing screen time with Jessica Simpson. But if Drew goes back to the Wilson well, Owen is clearly the front-runner these days.

Instead of Tom Green, try Dane Cook: Because the barren landscape of horrendously unfunny comedians has a new mascot, and Drew’s fondness of sticking her tongue down her boyfriend’s throat might be the only way to shut this one up.

Instead of Justin Long, try PC Guy: Because John Hodgman is a treasure and deserves some action. Bonus points for Drew if she agrees to film a cameo in the next Apple commercial, makes Justin cry, short-circuit whatever totally awesome new Mac he’s holding, and permanently erase that smirk from his face.

[Photo credits: Wireimage, Getty]

• STAR EXCLUSIVE! DREW BARRYMORE AND JUSTIN LONG: IT'S OVER! [Star]

[via OhNoTheyDidn't]

BEGIN QUOTED TEXT On February 22 I'll be doing a show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. I'll be accompanied by a crew of video production people who will capture whatever magic happens there, and later, re-assemble it on a DVD that hopefully the entire world will purchase. With any luck, this will also lead to a proper live CD. I'm telling you all this because it's important that the show be fun and special and generally awesome. If you live in San Francisco, I insist you come to this show. If you don't I hope you'll tell your San Francisco friends about it so they come instead. END QUOTED TEXT

"All of us here are in the book business," announced 'Eat, Pray, Love' author Elizabeth Gilbert in her remarks to the crowd. She wore a cardigan and the kind of glowing, beamy expression often seen on people who have either found enlightenment or sold several hundred thousand copies of a book about doing so. "From editors to agents to publishers to critics—"

"Booksellers!" someone in the audience yelled.

You'd think she'd remember them! But the material world is not her specialty. Then she made a joke about "people who ask authors in creepy ways for their signatures" and no one laughed.

"But we here all realized at some point the power of books to heal us, teach us, and to elevate us, and the special thing about Housing Works is that here, that metaphor of books as medicine becomes literal," Elizabeth said.

It was exactly the kind of new-agey koan that made 'Eat, Pray, Love' so successful, and like those deep thots, it was true (Housing Works helps the homeless AIDS people). Then John Hodgman, who in spite of his bestselling and funny book of esoterica will always be best known as "the PC guy," lightened the mood by pointing out that another way Housing Works is different from other bookstores is "because the authors whose books are sold here don't get royalties."

The crowd was full of men with dark hair and glasses and, in many instances, actual corduroy blazers. They chatted loudly to more glamorously dressed women, including founding Gawker editor Elizabeth Spiers in a sequined minidress, and her agent Kate Lee, who refused to remove her coat, saying she was on her way out. Debut novelist Porochista Khakpour, babyfaced new Knopf editor Andrew Miller, and a slew of agents and scouts ate slivers of cantaloupe that looked and, oddly, tasted like cheese.

In the balcony, a duo of DJs played what they described as "quiet, bookish" music: remixes of "folk music" by "Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen." They introduced themselves at first as Cole and Scooby, but later clarified that their professional names were "Cousin Cole and Pocketknife."

As the evening wound down, most of the party could be found smoking on the sidewalk outside the party. The man who'd been trying to buy a book earlier in the evening chatted with the smokers, and it began to seem that he was more in the "people who Housing Works is trying to help" rather than the "people who are trying to help Housing Works" demographic. No one would give him a cigarette.

Are you bugged by the Apple commercial where John Hodgman is the PC, and he has to undergo surgery to get Vista?
I've never seen it. I don't think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are.
How about the implication that you need surgery to upgrade?
Well, certainly we've done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade. And I don't know why [Apple is] acting like it's superior. I don't even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There's not even the slightest shred of truth to it.

Finally, Vista Makes Its Debut. Now What? [Newsweek]

• What do all these kids have in common? They're being exploited by a Murdoch-owned paper to boost sales in the wake of that whole racist "Big Brother" episode. [Guardian]
  
• Yet another editor leaves Louise McBain's LTB Media. [WWD]
  
• Jack Shafer wants to know why the Journal won't say that Todd Thomson did it to Maria Bartiromo. [Slate]
  
• Meanwhile, Maria's planning a "Charlie Rose style" Q&A show. We can think of a couple of questions already. [NYP]
  
• Here's how the Warren St. John soccer story sold. [WSJ]

• Mark Green's brother buys Air America; Al Franken departs. [NYT]
  
• Demetri Martin, John Hodgman: the latest in geek chic. [NYT
  
• Someone really hurt Gary Kamiya's feelings. [Salon]
  
• David Puttnam, who produced our all-time favorite movie, may become the new chairman of the BBC. [Independent]