The Growing Divide

So I was at NBC.com to see if you can still watch video clips from Conan O’Brien, which you can.* I found this out after the site, which oddly still has a winter wonderland theme, finally loaded. I was doing this after talking to my mom on the phone. She said that Conan was not funny at all, and that NBC could have saved a lot of trouble if they just called her first. She described him basically the way everyone else except P.J. O’rourke describes Jay Leno. “He’s not funny,” simple, self-evident, how can you argue?

I was laughing hysterically. This was because she said, "I think it's generational. People like me, or even younger than me, don't find him funny. And I'm pretty sure that I would be very offended if I knew what all those hand gestures and codes were supposed to mean."
"What? You mean when he dances around and makes funny noises?"
"You know, he makes gestures with his hands. And he licks himself."

I told her the best thing young people have done is make older people so paranoid that they think that everything means something obscene. She said he acts like someone who should be in an adult Special Ed class to learn how to act in public. I told her he was a master of his craft.

Then I went to NBC.com and was asked to fill out a survey. The worst thing was, I was instinctively inclined to say I didn't hate a lot of stuff I do hate because I was afraid everyone would say that. NBC and the internet would be forced to admit that no one likes shitty ads or exciting content on websites and no one buys anything because of a dumb commercial forcibly interrupting the videos they are watching. If anything it turns us against said product. It is something we deal with because it could be worse. They could realize how useless it is and they could make us pay for content. I love the internet, but nowhere near the amount required to willingly and directly pay for content. I don’t know if you look at content on the internet. You are right now. It’s not that great and there’s a ton of it.

Here are some highlights from the survey:

Which of the following have you ever done at the same time?

Visited NBC.com on a computer and on a mobile device
Watched NBC TV and visited NBC.com on a computer and on a mobile device
Watched NBC TV and visited NBC.com on a mobile device
Watched NBC TV and visited NBC.com on a computer
Watched NBC on TV and read texts/emails from NBC or sent texts/emails to NBC
Watched a channel other than NBC on TV and visited NBC.com on a computer

Why do you do these activities at the same time?
My answer: Well, my friend was sending me links of Jimmy Kimmel completely owning Jay Leno and taking him off guard on Jay’s video questionnaire skit "10 at 10." You know, the one where Jimmy says, "C'mon Jay, Conan and I have kids, you only have to take care of cars."
> 10 at 10
> Jay Sylvester Clinton

Then she sent me the link to the Jimmy Kimmel episode of him doing the entire show in a spot-on imitation of Jay Leno, and a little Bill Clinton and Sylvester the Cat. Then it turned out they were re-airing that show on CBS or ABC. So I changed to that channel and watched clips of the times Conan O’Brien had skits with Jordan Schlansky on your website.
[Which I highly recommend you check out]

And finally
How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about surveys on NBC.com?
NBC.com has more surveys than other sites
Surveys on NBC.com are annoying
Surveys on NBC.com make me visit the site less often
Surveys on NBC.com are entertaining
Obviously, I strongly agreed with the final statement

* Oddly no one has updated the site. So it claims tonight we had Eddie Murphy, Angela Kinsey & Bonnie Raitt. Tomorrow Zach Braff, Bear Grylls and Tony Bennett.
> Conan Clips
> Most Expensive Sketch (Involving a Picasso)
> Most Cherished Moments