Almost Emo

The comments on God, Inc. have been so much fun to read. With almost 800,000 views for the first episode alone, it's hard to keep up with them.

There have been many great disses:

"how dare you dishonor our holy god with this video. he is always watching, and will take this nonsense as a direct mocking of his emplacement. your all going to hell bottom line"

"this shit is gay and u guys should NOT make anothere"

"whoa! this is considered comedy. that was one of the more boring videos I've seen. Youtube should have a Boring category. This show would shoot right to the top there."

and the concise:

"weiners"

...But there have been far more compliments. Here are a few of the funniest:

"Soooooooo goood, funnier than just about everything on TV and definitely everything I've seen on YouTube. Being so good, though, you'll have to be destroyed. I'm sorry."

"u need a goddamn tripod!!! other then that! this kicks ass!"

"very clever and not too over the top like you americans are most of the time."

"To all you christians who hate this: forgive them ;)"

"Thoroughly depressing. Keep up the excellent work!"

"Nicely done! It could have used better lighting, but everything on YouTube could use better lighting..."

These are my two favorite personal compliments:

"Awesome! Love the Miracle Department guy, the Eeyore of Heaven."

and

"I like the Mr. Miracles.
He's almost emo.

(: LOL"


In other news, I spent the day in Westwood at FBI headquarters. No, I'm not being investigated for anything -- at least nothing I know about. Rather, I was asked to partcipate in a seminar focused on teaching the inner-workings of the FBI to Hollywood writers. It's very important to them to be portrayed accurately, and they have thus made a big effort to be more transparent with their goings-on. It was a fascinating 4 hours, during which I ate Quiznos, took more notes than I have since college, saw the horrible abuse of PowerPoint during an Enya-fueled tribute to 9/11, learned that the agents get testy when questioned about their post-9/11 relationship with the CIA, learned that the FBI "never" employs assassins but that I should "go ask Langley," (hint hint), wondered why Amy Brenneman was there, resisted asking director Brad Silberling for my 9 dollars back for sitting through "10 Items Or Less," and gained a real appreciation for the work the FBI does with such obvious limited resources.

Basically, the organization has been asked to completely change their focus from being an agency who tracked down bank robbers, white collar criminals, and mobsters, to keeping an entire country safe from terrorists bent on destroying our way of life, and with little more, or in some cases, fewer resources.

I'll tell you, though. The oddest part of the day was having these G Men who could all clearly break my neck with a twist of their arm, treat me with deference. Clearly-undeserved respect rules!

Plus, there were cookies.