John Hodgman at the 2009 Radio & TV Correspondents' Dinner

"A referendum on reality"

On Tuesday John Hodgman's new book More Information Than You Require was released. It's a follow-up (the second in a trilogy) to his hilarious 2005 book The Areas Of My Expertise. Over the last week he's been doing some publicity for the book and so far it's been highly entertaining.

In a fascinating interview posted yesterday at The A.V. Club, he laments that it was Stephen Colbert and not himself who coined the word 'truthiness'. Well, he should feel better since during his recent appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show he perfectly summed up this year's presidential election in 4 words: "A referendum on reality." Video of the interview:



After almost 4 months since his last appearance on The Daily Show as the resident expert, he appeared on the show Monday to promote his book and also deconstruct the guest promoting a book interview. Video:



While this segment was my favorite part of Monday's episode of The Daily Show, the entire episode was stellar. Here's a streaming version of the entire episode.

I got my copy of the book today, but I haven't yet started it. If it's half as entertaining and interesting as the publicity he's doing for it, it will easily be one of the best books of the year.

ONN / Hodgmania

While it's been around for almost 115 years, it seems like the Onion News Network (ONN) has only started to get the accolades it's deserved for such a long time over the last few months. Their newest report, on Alzheimer's, represents journalism at its finest. Here is the video clip:


Study: Alzheimer's Patients Say They Do Not Have Alzheimer's

Similarly, John Hogdman's "Resident Expert" segments on The Daily Show have been one of the most consistently hilarious things on the show since they began over a year ago. In the newest installment, which aired on Monday, June 11, Hodgman covers Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Here's the video clip.



More video clips of Hodgman on The Daily Show can be found here.