Remote Ctrl-Alt-Del

Today in the report, we commemorate the recent passing of Eugene Polley, the engineer for Zenith Electronics who is best known for inventing the first wireless remote control for television.  Polley's work, then, may be seen as tangentially responsible for decreasing viewer attention spans, with quick channel changing serving as a preview for the rapid YouTube clicking and tab-changing during Hulu commercials characteristic of contemporary content consumers.  (How's that for alliteration?!)  It is also sort of his fault that a bunch of people went to have a good, mindless time watching Adam Sandler be mindless and left theaters crying like babies, contemplating mortality, and carpe-ing their diems as if they'd just seen Robin Williams climb on a desk.

Perhaps humans could learn something from the more focused television viewing habits of the animal TV enthusiasts of the world.  Even seated next to the remote, the bulldog resists the urge to change away from Family Guy.  And that turtle is incredibly focused... Or maybe it's just taking him a while to process the signed interpretation being provided in the foreground.  Perhaps this turtle would make more use of the remote... Or just argue with itself about what it wants to watch.

And finally, one of my greatest television-related finds of all time.  IFC put together this list of the top 50 comedy sketches of all time.  Of course, the list is a few years old... Otherwise I think we might see a clip from SNL's Lawrence Welk show or travel tips from Steffon.  But that list is still full of gems, and starts off strong.  Gerald Ford is Dead Today will always be a personal favorite.

So thank you, Mr. Polley, for making us shift around innatentively.  By allowing us easy access to different channels, you paved the way for more channels, which paved the way for us to click through so-many-things-but-nothing-to-

watch for hours on end.

Things like that show where the points don't matter.  That's right, the points are just like Drew Carey on "Whose Line Is It Anyway."  (And a very Happy Birthday to Drew...)

Enjoy the rest of World Turtle Day!