Audio link is broken.

"A sort of 'English' attempt at "A Daily Show.""

Umm, not really. It's an English 'attempt' at an English topical, satirical, comedy talk show - we've been doing them for rather longer than The Daily Show has been running. ;)

Um... Norm? You may wanna put a filename in front of that ".mov."

:)

Here is the correct link:

This file is available for download here.

Right click to Save As, yada yada.

Hi, I absolutely love this blog site that you provide to us. Reading this is about the only thing in my life that I do every day.

Just one thing - you may not have intended the imputation that the word 'attempt' carries in the notes for this link. To the non-American it really smacks of American cultural superiority. To borrow a term from evolutionary theory, maybe it's better to think of this as a case of convergence - two species independently developing similar characteristics to fit the same niche in different geographies.

Mind you, "All In The Family" was an American attempt at doing a sort of "Till Death Us Do Part", "Sanford and Son" was an attempt at a sort of "Steptoe and Son", "Three's Company" was an attempt at "Three's Company", "Three's A Crowd" was an attempt at "Robyn's Nest", "The Ropers" was an attempt at "George and Mildred", "The Office" was an attempt at "The Office", "Queer As Folk" was an attempt at "Queer As Folk", "Coupling" at "Coupling", and of course "Men Behaving Badly" was an attempt at "Men Behaving Badly".

:)

Just one thing - you may not have intended the imputation that the word 'attempt' carries in the notes for this link. To the non-American it really smacks of American cultural superiority.

I certainly didn't intend any such thing. Actually the description is one of a Brit who described it to me thus. I'm very fond of British comedy. I love the dry understated humor so common to the Isles.

LOL! First it's "America Hater" (according to calligraph) and now it's "Arrogant American". People are just never satisfied are they.

With genuine respect to Erick, I didn't accuse the host of this blog of arrogance. I pointed out that the wording, to non-American ears, would smack of an arrogance that was probably not intended. I then playfully fired back with a salvo which probably seems to be friendly fire.

American self-love is a wonderful thing within the USA but a tad annoying everywhere else. Australian self-love is becoming as rampant here as American self-love is over there, and to be even-handed I find our own brand annoying too. But we don't push ours into other countries as much or as loudly as America does, and when we do we have a slightly greater awareness that we're not the whole world, so we moderate our message a little bit. We tell ourselves that we're the greatest country and the greatest people on earth every day, but we try not to tell everyone else that :) If I inadvertantly seemed to do so, I'd welcome the feedback and clarify my position just as Norm has.

For a rare, insightful, American view of all this, check out these two speeches by the CEO of DDB Global Advertising, who set out to find out what non-Americans think of the American brand.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders/2006/talk/keithreinhard/000239.html http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders/2006/talk/keithreinhard/000255.html

With respect to the America-hater charge, I would tenaciuosly defend the patriotism of anyone who questioned their country, their government, and their dominant culture. To recognise the wrongs and to seek to right them is true patriotism; the rest is mere jingoism.

Cheers from the greatest land this world has ever known (woops),

Peter

I will be attending the Huckabee lunch on Friday at the Commonwealth Club here in San Francisco. It will be the first Republican candidate that I will catch live.

As an Edwards supporter, it will be interesting to hear how Huckabee's populist message squares with Edwards' message. If you have any questions that you think that I should ask Huckabee, please feel free to contribute them. I will post on OneGoodMove thereafter.

Charles Lemos

San Francisco, CA

Hi everyone - pedantareus (for it is I) made the comment 'It seems to me to be a rather 'English' attempt at "The Daily Show"' when I wrote to Norm because that's exactly what it appeared to me when I first saw it. I have been watching and listening to British Satire for over 50 years and I feel my opinion is as valid as anyone else's.

My apologies to Norm who may have taken some flak, but that's the way some of my compatriots are, some of the time.