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Stephen Colbert joins the gene pool at TR's Operation Immortality
Professional athletes, writers, musicians and entrepreneurs have nothing on Operation Immortality's latest DNA recipient: Stephen Colbert. The star of the hit Comedy Central show The Colbert Report will have his DNA digitized and sent to the International Space Station with Richard Garriott for the wildly-popular Tabula Rasa promotion Operation Immortality."I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my life-long dream of being the baby at the end of 2001," said Colbert. Garriott comments on the decision to add Colbert to the growing list of popular celebrities joining the project, "Is there a better person for us to turn to for this high-level responsibility?"
Colbert none too pleased about loss to Miyamoto
Everyone knows that Time's online Person Of The Year poll (which was topped by Shigeru Miyamoto, Korean pop sensation Rain and Stephen Colbert, respectively) was kind of joke. ... Well, everyone, that is, except Colbert himself, who took his loss to Shiggy none too well as you can see in the first video after the break.But even as he scoffed at Miyamoto's contribution to the world, Colbert used a video game to settle his long-standing beef with Rain. The brave among you can watch the fateful Dance Dance Revolution competition we've also safely embedded after the break.
[1.Local]: This week in WoW Insider comments
WoW Insider serves up a smattering of reader comments from the past week, from the sublime to the ridiculous.PvP was very much on readers' minds this week: Blizzard's balance of focus on PvP vs. PvE content, new Arena gear requirements, the e-sport aspirations of WoW's PvP system ... We bring you a sampling of those, as well as plenty of other tidbits that readers poked at over the last week: meanie players who kill ogres, loot drama, even roleplaying coverage.As always, be sure to dive into the comments area and add your own thoughts – unlike your mama, we like us some hot, fresh backtalk.
WoW Insider responds to Comedy Central for their response to our post about their post
Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 blog is feeling froggy -- after we posted about their failed attempt at World of Warcraft humor, they got the original writer of their article, who is apparently an old school D&D gamer, to respond to our allegations that the piece wasn't funny. He calls us WoW players "Lancelot-come-latelies," and says that before we ever rolled our first Night Elf, he was rolling d20s in his friend's parents' basement.Which may be true. But he's wrong about one thing: we WoW players are funny. Just look at our memes, our injokes, and our heroes, from Steve to Leeroy Jenkins. We know funny. Tony DiGerolamo probably hasn't even ever tricked somebody into /gquitting -- he wouldn't know funny if it was an epic drop off of Saurfang himself! And he wants to play the nerd card by claiming he's nerdier than us? Listen, Tony, you may have been hanging out with your friends in basements, but we're hanging out in basements alone!Wait...At any rate, we hope the excellent Indecision 2008 blog has learned something from this experience: leave the Warcraft humor to those who've powerleveled it up to a 375 skill, and stick to the political jokes. Seriously, though, is Lewis Black hiring? Because I've got some jokes about Warlocks that are comedy gold!
Comedy Central looks at campaigning in the World of Warcraft
Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 blog (humor about the upcoming US elections) has a... well, OK, it's not all that funny, but it's a post offering the three major candidates (Obama, Clinton, and McCain) tips in their strategies to appeal to World of Warcraft players. That's right, we vote, too!Unfortunately, it would probably have been a lot better if they'd gotten someone who actually plays WoW to write it -- there are some OK references in there, but nothing really insightful into the world of Azeroth (and a few just don't make any sense). And none of the candidates are portrayed as Horde (Barack's an NE Druid, Hillary looks like a Dwarf Female Paladin, and Johnny Mac is a Gnome caster of some kind), especially since being Horde has already been proven to be politically popular. Throw in the fact that they missed out on four classes (what am I supposed to know as a Shaman?), and this turns out to be a pretty poor attempt by Comedy Central for a little Warcraft humor. Too bad.[Via Massively]
Is Azeroth a red state or a blue state?
We knew there were geeks in the writer's stable at Comedy Central, but now it's confirmed: there are gamers, too. For their Indecision 2008 site, Comedy Central has put together a handy one-sheet of the three major candidates, and what they will need to focus on to win the votes of various classes in World of Warcraft.Anyone with general knowledge could have put this together, but there's one particular bit that makes us think at least one writer is a WoW player: For the Druid vote, Hilary Clinton needs to understand that they dislike that "Her dominant stance disrupts Feral Combat spells." Look over the list and see if you can find the candidate who best represents your character![Via TenTonHammer]
Video: 360 cameo in new season of South Park
Crazy obsessed South Park fanboys (like us) have no doubt already noticed that last night's thirteenth twelfth season premier featured a brief cameo of our lil white and oh so culturally hip Xbox 360. You can watch the Xbox 360 death threat cameo from last night's "Tonsil Trouble" episode after the break in the embedded video at about 1:45. And even though this isn't the first time we've seen video game culture transcend into the South Park world, we must say that this has to be one of the funniest 360 cameos to date. Hilarious! Oh South Park ... how we love thee.
The life and death of Stefen Colbear
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/The_life_and_death_of_Stefen_Colbear'; He's a man of myth, legend, and internet memes -- a Paladin crusader for Truthiness, justice, and the Alliance way. His name is Stefen Colbear, and he's putting the Horde on notice. That's how it would have been anyway, but sadly, this hero never came to be. Upper Deck hired artist Todd Lockwood to produce the above image for a special WoW TCG card inspired by The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert -- a known video-gaming and role-playing enthusiast. Lockwood's finished product depicts a microphone-sword wielding Human Paladin named Stefen Colbear, who exudes the very essence of Truthiness.Unfortunately, Colbert's agent nipped the idea in the bud. According to Lockwood, he didn't even show the artwork to his client. Blizzard and Upper Deck presumably had hoped Colbert would feature the card on his show, giving them mega-publicity. An unknown individual leaked the image onto the net a few weeks ago, and WoW and Colbert fans excitedly spread it around in both card and wallpaper forms. Even though Colbear never saw the light of day, his legend nevertheless strikes fear in the hearts of those who would threaten the Colbear Nation. So watch out Kael'Thas, watch out Archimonde! But most of all: watch out, bears.
Xbox Live queues up more HD movies & TV for March
Xbox Live Marketplace has been busy adding videos all year and it looks like March will be the same way, with Afro Samurai hitting the service in HD only next month. More South Park is coming too, starting March 10, along with a free episode of Lewis Black's new show and Robot: Chicken: Star Wars. No word on if the latter two are available in HD, but check after the break for some of the movies showing up for rent next month.
Assassins commercial overload during South Park
If you watched last night's Guitar Hero South Park then you know the amount of commercial product pushing that went on. After getting through only half of our (deeply loved) South Park we could only think one thing ... holy Assassin's Creed commercial abuse Batman! Seriously, there must have been a solid ten minutes of Assassins commercials that aired during the 30 minute episode, so much so we don't think there were any other commercials played besides Comedy Central's own. So many commercials, we were starting to wonder if Ubisoft bought a stake of Comedy Central or lined Matt and Trey's pockets with the other half of Assassins' marketing budget. But after the episode concluded and our commercial intake ended, we couldn't complain. We'd be lying to say that we didn't enjoy all ten minutes of the Assassins footage. We'd also be lying if we didn't tell you that later we hopped into our car, headed to our local retailer and picked up a copy of Heroin Hero. It was an interesting night.
Daily Show tackles iPhone fever
Nothing's funnier than geek humor, I suppose. Tonight's episode of The Daily Show featured a segment with correspondent Rob Riggle on a mission to get himself an iPhone. When he discovered that the onsale date was tomorrow, he interviewed (and came close to beating up) Gizmodo's Brian Lam (of the Cisco iPhone fracas) to try and get a piece of the action. Riggle eventually admitted to Jon Stewart that he'd been out selling his body, working to earn the scratch for his iPhone fix. Classy.
Pricey Daily Show, Colbert Report now on XBLM
Xbox Live owners looking to download some Tek Jansen goodness today might be pleasantly surprised to see last night's Daily Show and Colbert Report available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The Comedy Central favorites cost 160 MS points ($2) per episode and will be made regularly available "within 24 hours of each original airing" according to a notice from Microsoft.While we're happy to see some more quality video content available for our Xboxen, we think the pricing might be off for such a short, topical show. At $2 an episode, buying both shows four days a week costs $64 per month. For that kind of money, you could probably swing a complete basic cable package, with a little left over to put towards a Tivo subscription. Considering iTunes users can get the same double dose of direct download comedy goodness for about $20 a month, we've got to wonder why Microsoft thinks their system is worth the extra money.
South Park in HD for everyone (including Europe)
As mentioned earlier, the free South Park episode in full HD glory was released to the XBLM today. But we have a little surprise for our European friends overseas. Major Nelson took it upon himself to send the marketing team your complaints about the free episode not being available to all of Europe. And they listened. AceyBongo posted a blog to tell everyone that not only Belgium and the Netherlands will receive it, but ALL of Europe! Yup, your complaining paid off. As it stands, the US, Canada, all of Europe, and a few Asian territories will get the free download. Be sure to note that some countries in Europe may not be able to download the episode right away due to the change in plans, but be assured it is coming. So, enjoy your free episode of South Park ... you European folks earned it.[Via Major Nelson]
First ever HD South Park episode for free on Xbox Live Marketplace
This coming Tuesday is a big day for people that are both fans of South Park and Xbox 360 owners. Comedy Central is releasing the first ever high definition episode of South Park on the Xbox Live Marketplace to all members (we're assuming this means Silver and Gold) for free. That's right, everyone's favorite word -- free. It will be on Marketplace at that low, low, price of free for two weeks, and will also be available as a free HD-DVD to people buying a new Xbox 360 console or the HD-DVD add-on drive at Best Buy from March 20th through April 3rd.The episode is a couple of years old, but it is definitely a fan fave. It's 'Good Times With Weapons' from the 2004 season ... better known as the "South Park Ninjas episode. The style changes from the traditional cutout look into anime style pictured above, and it will look, er ... extra-animated in HD. Couple this with the fact that South Park's new season starts this Wednesday, and new episodes will be on XBLM each following week, the fanboys and fangirls should be fairly happy.Still, for the price, who can complain? Let's hope this trend continues. Give us some free HD Battlestar Galactica episodes already. The timing on this is pretty interesting as well ... right after the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. Does this mean Microsoft might be finally releasing the rumored Xbox 360 v2 with HDMI?
eBay alert: Wii-style Scion xB
We watched Comedy Central for, like, a whole weekend to try to win a Wii back in November, but to no avail. We weren't specifically trying to win this car, which was the actual grand prize, but we would have happily taken it.... and put it on eBay, which is what the actual winner of the Thanxgiveaway Wiikend has done. Now, we love the Wii, and we love to let everyone around us know it, but having a car with the logo of a popular electronic device painted on the side in giant letters is like extending an invitation to any rogue or highwayman to come on in and help themselves to our Devo CD's. At least, that was the reasoning we came up with when we were daydreaming about how awesome it would be to win that contest. We might have felt different if we had been presented with our own Wiimobile. Want to (kind of) know what it feels like to win a major award? Bidding is up to $14,100![Via Game|Life]
Verizon's V CAST Mobile TV going live March 1st
Nah, Verizon Wireless isn't snapping up Alltel just yet or anything, but the carrier is formally announcing its plans to launch its much-anticipated V CAST Mobile TV service right on schedule. The March 1st date that's been floating around is purportedly true, meaning there won't be any unforeseen delays in enjoying the mobile TV abilities of your forthcoming SCH-U620 or VX9400 -- if you're in a launch market, that is. Currently, the exact whereabouts of launch capabilities is a bit ambiguous, and curiously omitted are major markets such as "New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego and Las Vegas," but the provider reportedly plans to have a good deal of these "major markets" covered by the "end of Q1," or March 31st. The service will utilize Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile TV network, which AT&T also plans on eventually using, and will offer up programming from CBS, Comedy Central, Fox, MTV, NBC News, NBC Entertainment, and Nickelodeon. Unfortunately, we're still in the dark in regard to an official pricing structure, but with only T-minus two days 'til kickoff, the remaining minutiae should surface soon enough.
Bill Gates headed for Daily Show on Monday
Just in time for the launch of Microsoft's new game enabled operating system, Windows Vista, Bill Gates will be on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday. We imagine Billy boy will take a little time to tout the success of the Xbox 360 as well. Who knows, if we're lucky, we might even get to hear a little corporate mudslinging. That's always fun. We have to wonder if Bill will have a few choice words for John Hodgman though.Check out the show (or set your TiVo) Monday 11:00/10:00 Central on Comedy Central.[Via Digg]
Comedy Central features Wii in "Thanxgiveaway"
Sure, you could be grateful for your home and your family and all that other mushy garbage, but we know what you really want ... and so does Comedy Central. Nothing makes you scream thanks to the deity of your choice like a free Nintendo Wii -- and that's why the Wii is a featured prize for the comedy network's Thanksgiving promotion. During 48 hours of programming between Thursday and Sunday, Comedy Central will give away a Wii every hour, so grab a plate of leftovers and settle in. After all, cold mashed potatoes taste so much better when there's a chance at a free console.
Xbox 360 spotted on South Park ... with 4 wired controllers?
Microsoft's Xbox 360 made its South Park debut last night. In one scene (seen here), Stan, Kyle, Butters, and Kenny are all using wired controllers. What up with that?Could this be a hint? Is Microsoft planning a major Xbox 360 announcement at E3? A revelation that would trump anything that Nintendo or Sony could whip out? A new Xbox 360 model with four — yes, four! — USB ports?Consider this ... what if Microsoft has already played out wireless? Heck, for that matter, what if the next-gen forerunner has already played out the entire HD era (notice the standard def hookup)? Is the next turn for Microsoft ... the retro era? A mess of tangled wires ... a pile of dusty cartridges ... 2D-pixelated Halo? C'mon, admit it, that would better than any of this Wiimote propaganda or those fourth dimension rumors we've been hearing from the other guys.... Okay, we're just being silly — we'll stop. So did anyone else catch the South Park episode last night?
New video content in iTunes
Plug in your iPods, folks, there's new content in the iTunes Music Store. Comedy Central has added David Spade's The Showbiz Show [iTunes Link] and Disney has added Hannah Montana (which is up to 143 reviews already. Wow.), which features one episode and one music video [iTunes link]. New episodes of That's So Raven have also made their way into the store [iTunes link], and rumor has it that the current season of South Park, season 10, will be made available soon.Update: Even more changes! A free episode of Sci Fi's Ghost Hunters is available [iTunes link], as are video highlights from NYC's fashion week [iTunes link]. Plus, season passes are now available for Desperate Housewives and Lost.
