I don’t know if you saw The Daily Show the other day, but I’ve got to share this funny bit. They had that dirtbag Scott McClellan on to hawk that too-little-too-late book where he has the balls to claim that the Bush administration was (gasp) dishonest. And expects us to believe that he was merely an innocent bystander and not part of the problem.

Rants aside, Jon had Fred Schneider from the B-52s come on in conjunction with the appearance. See for yourself what happened.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t had a chance to hear the B-52s new song Funplex, you really should. Even though it’s a song about going to the mall. Who knew gay music could be so enjoyable if you added a chugging guitar riff.

The other night I watched the season premiere of The Mole, which wasn’t really a season premiere as it was a relaunch. The first couple seasons aired long enough go that then-host Anderson Cooper hadn’t yet made a name for himself as a sexy news anchor.
Despite that it is a network reality show, I really think The Mole is worth your time. Or maybe I’m unreliable in this case since elimination-style reality shows are my critical Achilles Heel. However, the interactive nature of the show — having to guess who the mole is along with the contestants — makes it a fun watch. More so, certainly, than the guess-which-aspiring-handbag-designer-will-have-a-short-lived-engagement-to-a-chiseled-
but-vapid-eligible-bachelor-style reality show.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, here’s the premise: the show has twelve contestants, one of whom is The Mole. As the players go through “tests” (in the first episode it involved grabbing bags of money while jumping off a waterfall) they accrue money that goes into a pot. The Mole will try to sabotage the players and prevent money from going into the pot. Every episode, the players take a quiz to test their knowledge on who The Mole is. The lowest-scoring player is “executed” (their word, not mine — that part has always given me the creeps).

This season, obviously, doesn’t feature Anderson Cooper as the emcee anymore (Mama’s gone big-time! CNN! 360!). Instead, they’ve gotten this guy named Jon Kelley from the celebratainment show Extra who seems nice enough. He does, weirdly, resemble a black Anderson Cooper — they’ve both got the grey-ish bird-like thing going on. Does anyone see this but me? Can we at least say they have a similar je ne sais quoi?

Generally speaking, the cast for The Mole is a little swifter than that of your average Big Brother or Farmer Wants a Wife (yes, that is a show). There are neuroscientists, doctors, attorneys, etc. Let’s meet some of them…

Nicole, seen at the right, is a beautiful doctor. She’s also annoying as all hell and unanimously hated by the cast, having been voted as the biggest whiner in the show’s second test. She’s far too strong a personality to be The Mole.

There’s also Paul, the requisite blue collar utility worker who, if he wins, they can say was a triumph of “street smarts” over “book smarts.” In any case, he seems to enjoy being smug and yelling a lot based on the previews for the next episode.

There’s also the “old lady,” the jolly/roly poly graphic designer no one can get mad at, the gay guy (who can’t seem to run), the model, and the second-place-is-first-loser-style high school teacher/soccer coach.

The Mole is quite enjoyable, I find — especially the sadistic elimination ceremony. As long as you don’t put too much stock in who you think The Mole is (you’ll always be wrong), watching everyone scramble to create hair-brained schemes to figure it out can be fun to watch.

However, given the fact that the premiere netted some paltry numbers, I wouldn’t be surprised if the show gets prematurely dumped.

Unsurprisingly, Spike got kicked off. I fucking love that the producers snuck frozen scallops into the kitchen, it’s brilliant and extremely dick. Otherwise it looks like Richard and Stephanie are now tied point-wise with Antonia trailing slightly. I’m fully expecting Lisa to get canned in tonight’s episode. Once she’s gone I think it’s going to be an interesting finale.

Rank based on scoring: 2 points for a win, 1 point for a Quickfire win or appearance in top, -1 point for appearance in bottom

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