JABbering Stooge

Well, she hasn’t been fired yet, so far as I can tell. And as Martha Stewart would say, that’s a good thing. Some thoughts on Momma’s first day on MSRNC:

• Jim Ward is considerably heftier than his headshot on the show’s website would indicate, even accounting for the “camera adds 10 pounds effect” - and I say that as someone with man-boobs myself.

• Though Jim has yet to bust out the Kim Jong Il and “Squeezy McFeelpants” impersonations (at least, not officially in the latter case - he did use Squeezy’s opening porno-esque “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!” at one point in the third hour) the impressions were made reference to at several points during the show.

• I wish I had been able to get a screen capture of this, but at one point in the third hour, as Jim Ward was doing one of his impressions, the chiron identified him as “Jim Ward - Voice Monkey.” I almost died laughing.

• MSNBC came up with some interesting graphics for the regular segments of the show. “Right Wing World” features a photo montage of Bill-O, Hannity, Pillz-E and Coulter, while “Standup News” uses a blue-tinted picture of Stephanie and “Tinsel Talk” includes the Hollywood sign.

• Every time Stephanie mentioned Keith Olbermann in a lustful way, MSNBC’s graphics crew put Olbermann’s picture on display.

• Thanks to Steph’s Dr. Wolfgang Pauli-esque “affinity” for computers (and, well, pretty much any technology more advanced than a lightbulb), we learned a bit about MSNBC’s computerized radio phone call-handling system - F4 apparently “picks up” a line for broadcast, and Ctrl-D (for “disconnect,” I guess) “hangs up.”

Sidebar: I first heard the Pauli Effect referred to in the third Babylon 5 TV movie “The River of Souls.”

That about covers it for the first day of Steph filling Imus’ cowboy hat boots.

Sidebar: Would it be kosher for me to come up with my own “Future Wives” list in the same spirit as Stephanie’s “Future Husbands” list? If it is, Stephanie and Randi Rhodes would definitely be on it. However, I’ll leave judgement on the appropriateness of such a list to the fine folks at Pandagon, Feministing, Feministe and other feminist blogs.