Predator 2: Still Predatorin'

After "30 Rock" and "Studio 60" (along with everyone else ever) have both made jokes about Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" series, I'm proud to announce that "To Catch a Predator" jokes are...officially no longer funny. In fact, I'm pleased to announce that "To Catch a Predator" jokes are the inaugural recipients of the brand new Channel Surfing Dane Cook No Longer Funny Award!


Don't worry, maybe they'll make a comeback in a few years, like OJ jokes.

Almost almost famous

Oh boy - as an alleged journalist, this reality show has some degree of interest to me - even though I don't really have any ambitions to write for Rolling Stone (or any ambitions at all, really, but that's my own deal). I briefly considered entering the contestant pool, but seeing that picture and the blonde chick's legs on display makes me think I might not have had what they were looking for (my legs are much nicer).

Upon checking out the individual bios, it's fun to see what books these people are pretending to have read, and I especially enjoy Colin Stutz, who says that in high school he was, "the dick of all dicks." They even have their own Taylor Hicks in Russell Morse, a purported 26-year-old that looks around 40.

Double 'fficed

Not as good as last year's Christmas episode, but still really funny - all the stuff with the waitresses was weird, as it stretches the loseriffic credibility of Michael Scott that he'd be delusional enough to think they were into him, and it was a little more dark than this show's tone usually is (hitting on possibly underaged women, subtle racism, stealing bikes), but it didn't detract too much.

I love Michael and Andy's fist explosion.

It seems that they're already telegraphing the Jim/Karen break-up, which is annoying, since we haven't even really gotten a chance at all to see them as a couple (other than seeing them exchange "Bridget Jones and the Edge of Reason." that really IS a bad movie, I saw it in the theater for some reason). There's star-crossed lovers and then there's a point where you can't really root for characters who clearly could have acted a little more adult with their feelings for each other and now can't move past it when they have compelling reasons to do so. The apparent determination of turning Jim/Pam into the Rosschel of the 21st century is getting old. I just don't want to see Karen go the way of the purse girl, darn it.

Dwangela continues to be the real sweetest couple on TV; who her "Little Drummer Boy" rivaled Kevin's "You Oughta Know." It helps that she was on "Conan" about a week ago and seemed really charming in her real life persona (also named Angela, which is somewhat confusing). Angela...double fudge.

"Too soon."

I really liked the water balloon bit on "Scrubs." "30 Rock" really does seem to get better each episode, and I hope this isn't it for Dean Winters, since he's always a treat, and he got shot to death on his other show.

Toby really wanted that robe.

What's golden?

Golden Globe nominations. Yawn. I hope Borat, either the movie or the fictional character, win. Go Hugh Laurie, although I am dubious as to Alec Baldwin's status as a lead on "30 Rock" (not, though, on his status as being award-worthy).

Game face

Notes for future editions of the Spike TV Video Game Awards:

LESS musical performances from girly man-fronted pop-punk band AFI and presentations from Joe Rogan-level celebs (including, but not limited to, Joe Rogan).

MORE nerdy video game designers accepting awards in "hip" clothes.

Sarah Silverman's bit was expectedly hilarious. "You guys should kill yourselves."

It's cool that Samuel L. Jackson is hosting this since he's like 60.

Boyle over

Now I feel bad for hating "Everybody Loves Raymond."

R.I.P.

DAD FROM RAYMOND
1935-2006

Blog it out

Rosie O'Donnell has finally apologized for making fun of Asians. Kind of. It was on her famously incomprehensible blog:

Ben writes:

You say how you dont understand what the fuss is about, but its hard 2 understand w/o having grown up Asian. Imagine a derogatory gay joke. If YOU got bent outta shape about it, I WOULD understand…

ben
i am sorry it hurt u
i didnt think of it the way it was taken
i will b more sensitive
promise

Allow me to offer up Channel Surfing's official retort:

rosie
u said my last name a lot during that bit
it wasnt very funny
but i liked u in league of their own
that was a while ago

The whole thing has made me think about how us "model minority" Asians aren't actually the only minority group left that it's OK to make fun. That's still handicapped people.

In case you missed it somehow:

Thinly spread

Good news, nerds! "Battlestar Galactica" vixen Tricia Helfer will appear in next month's Playboy, which is apparently still being published despite the ease of finding naked pictures of anyone that appears in it through many Internet souces. Here's their oh-so clever text about the pix:

"Tricia Helfer -- On Battlestar Galactica she's known as Number Six, but we can't think of her as anything less than a 10. The leggy former top fashion model makes love to our camera in quite the spread."

Prepare your Google image searches!

I've recently heard people saying that Helfer looks like David Bowie. If you're a female that's going to be compared to any male, I guess Bowie is a good one, but come on - she looks a man...if he were a woman.

Tuck Everlasting

I've heard some mixed things about last night's season finale of "Nip/Tuck" - actually, pretty much all negative things. Mainly that "not enough happened." That's natural, because a lot of things actually got wrapped up last week when creepy Jacqueline Bisset offed herself - the Escobar stuff was kind of tacked-on at the last minute, and by that nature it had to be resolved fairly quickly and tidily.

In a larger sense, it's sort of perturbing that "stuff has to happen" for a show to be good - big, sweeping events instead of just important character moments - and also, how was this not a lot of "stuff" happening? Liz finally confronting Escobar and getting some sort of closure with being shot and having her kidney stolen, Escobar gone, the Michelle situation dealt with (albeit off-camera), a nice Sean/Matt scene and biggest of all, a new status quo in LA (I'm not sure, though, what happened with Wilbur). Seems pretty packed to me. It's not a spooky guy in a mask chopping off fingers, but that's probably best.

It did seem, though, that this would be a nifty series finale - all the ongoing storylines wrapped-up and a new beginning and happy ending for Christian and Sean - but that apparently isn't the case.

The big question in my mind is will "Brighter Disconnect" by the Submarines (the tune lip-synced in the over-extended musical sequence) be the next "Breathe Me" by Sia?

List off

Looks like you better stick to watching movies, American Film Institute. The AFI, not to be confused with girly man-fronted pop-punk band AFI, released their top 10 TV shows of the year, effectively sticking their snooty, elitists noses in our heretofore-unpretentious tube watching. Let's take a look at the pics, in alphabetical order (notice how they're too cowardly to do proper rankings):

Battlestar Galactica
Dexter
Elizabeth I
Friday Night Lights
Heroes
The Office
South Park
24
The West Wing
The Wire

Alright, movie boys, let's see where you went wrong. "Elizabeth I," huh? Oh man, I just couldn't wait each week to see the next crazy, wacky, unpredictable turn or how that wily Elizabeth I would get out of her next jam, and who doesn't remember that action-packed season finale - oh wait, that's a lie. Because "Elizabeth I" wasn't a series, it was a two-part mini-series! And not only that, it's not even American! You might as well have put one of PBS's airings of 15-year-old Britcom "Keeping Up Appearances." Plus, look at the picture - any production that makes up Helen Mirren into something from Boner Stopper Magazine is hardly the "best" anything.

Including "Dexter" when clearly the Showtime series catching buzz this year is "Weeds" is also weird. It's no "Dexter's Laboratory," that's for sure. "South Park" has indeed been on point this season, but where's "The Colbert Report," the most culturally-influential show on TV this year by a good mile?

"24," "BSG," "The Wire" and "The Office" are fine and sort of required picks if you want to sound smart like a smart guy. Putting "The West Wing" on there seems like wanting to suck up to Aaron Sorkin but not quite being to muster the courage required in saying that "Studio 60" is any good. "Friday Night Lights" and "Heroes" are two shows that seem to be good just because everyone has universally agreed on saying that they're good - even though I do enjoy the latter (although it kind of is "Lost" for dumb people at this point).

To help you get the taste of this so-called "list" out of your mouth, I'll be presenting the Channel Surfing "Surfies" for the past year or so in the near future - be glued to your desktop, laptop, PDA, phone or PSP folks. Or for my homeless fans, check it out at your local library.

Extra, Extra, Extra

This is fairly exciting - although weird that he would seemingly change his mind so quickly on the matter (Gervais has been pretty consistently adamant about no more than two series...es of "Extras").

I'm actually pretty chuffed about the idea; sure it's admirable that Ricky G. wants to preserve artistry and all that, but I'm pretty sure there's more than six hours (even "The Office" got the Christmas special) of funniness that can be squeezed out of movie stars playing really dumb versions of themselves. It just doesn't make sense that we get fifteen or so seasons of "Arli$$" and only two "Extras."

And oh yeah, for those of you who haven't obtained it through legally questionable means, series 2 begins on HBO on January 14.

I can't stand it

I know you've been wondering, feverishly, where I've been - here I am. There's just not much to say these days. "House" and the "Nip/Tuck" season finale tonight should be good. Last night's "How I Met Your Mother" (now officially abbreviated "HIMYM," which I pronounce "him-yim") was alright but (and believe it) not nearly as funny as the Wayne Brady episode.

If you haven't seen this yet, here it is. It's pretty nifty - I'm having trouble deciding if it's just a lot more dirty than normal "Scrubs" humor of if it just seems more dirty since it's coming out of the mouths of "Peanuts" characters.

I don't want no Scrubs (but actually I do)

If you're going to accidentally impregnate someone, Elizabeth Banks is certainly as good of a choice as any. Really. I've always liked her since she seems to turn up only in cool things ("Scrubs," "The 40-Year Old Virgin," "Slither," as Betty Brant in the Spider-Man movies, "The Baxter"). The fact that I certainly wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers is (mostly) secondary.

All in all, great to see "Scrubs" back, even if Dr. Cox's hair for most of the episode looked like sort of like the clown from "It." The promos about Carla being pregnant for 17 months are funny. And true.

"30 Rock" was its usually quasi-amusing self. More Tracy Morgan, less Jane Krakowski, please. That's actually a funny thing to want because it's what Alex Baldwin's character wanted in the beginning of the series. It's fairly ironic to see Tracy as the crazy, unbalanced star in a comedy given what's happening in real life.

I watched my usual 12 minutes or so of "Earl." Seemed fine enough.

The real main event was "The Office" written by my main men Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant - great stuff. Jesus. Apollo Creed. Another Stamford guy quits, makes sense given that it'd be a little overcrowded after a while with all those folks. Andy's 'horny" conversation with Jim was worth the price of admission (which is, to say, free. but still great).