Saturday, October 01, 2005

Internships On Offer

There's a keen observer of modern culture who writes for www.espn.com named Bill Simmons, AKA The Sports Guy. Under the guise of writing about sports, he sprinkles in the impact the NBA, NFL, and MLB, among others, has on modern culture and sometimes the other way around. How else can one explain the tortuous route he took to find the best quotes of the movie Anchorman and squeeze comparisons about NBA teams and players out of it?

One of the best intern jobs in the history of non White House-related internships, is the Sports Guy’s internship. His job is to scan the internet and look for funny or sometimes odd internet sites. Here’s a sample of a few sites:

http://saabbumper.blogspot.com/ (read from the bottom up.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/links/050901

The Sports Guy’s favorite is unintentional humor, which can best be described as someone acting as they normally do (usually a celebrity) and being funny. Unintentionally. Does that make sense? Better still, here’s a good example: A few days ago I read a story about Cindy Sheehan and rather than the story quoting her, it’s quoted her spokesperson. The unintended humor of this is that she started out as a lone voice in the wilderness carrying the “absolute moral authority,” as per Maureen Dowd, of a mother who lost a son in battle, and now she has a PR team to help her convey her simple story in a more complicated way. That’s funny. And unintentionally so.

So I have a job offer for anyone out there other than Skip (who has too much on his plate – Sorry Skip, but you need to give full effort to your family and other projects). Lazlo’s Lament is looking for an intern to supply this site with funny and weird websites that may classify as unintentional humor. Now’s the chance to break into Big Time journalism – or at least have an excuse to search the internet instead of doing your homework. Applicants will be screened on their dedication and family lineage.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Sladed said...

Thanks a lot for the non-offer to finally get a GOOD job! You are right, however: although I have eaten everything off my plate, someone keeps serving me more. Isn't that the way life is though?


Sindy Sheehan and a PR team...great example!