Oh - he is right about Macs, isn't he? {incidentally, one of the comments to that article is also spot on: "Dr Who would use a BBC Micro B. That is all." Marvellous.

The Mac article is brilliant. Upon seeing the M & W ads at the cinema the other day (Rocky Balboa!) it's the first time I've actually wanted to hit them. Not that they aren't funny but...ffs.

I wish I was going to that TedStock gig. Does anyone else find the descriptions of the line up pretty funny, like 'Kevin Eldon (Hyperdrive)' I can instantly think of ten things he's been in that are infinitely better than that pos (does anyone remember World Of Pub? He was in that with Phil Cornwell, I wish I could see that again because even though it wasn't the best thing to grace our screens it gave me a lot of laughs)

A program on TV where someone vents his spleen about TV culture.

Irony, there.

And why the fuck are the BBC now linking to people's blogs in order to advertise their programming? Blogs which probably aren't guaranteed to talk much about the programme in question, and could just be mentioning it in passing?

... and he pointed out that television was trying its damnedest to keep up with the internet

More irony there, clearly. The BBC using a blog to promote a programme about TV. And that blog entry talks about how TV is now trying to integrate more internet stuff in order to garner more attention. And failing.

Also: You have failed to convince me to watch this programme tonight (Unless I am particularly bored). However, you have 2 lives remaining, if you feel like making another attempt.

If you don't already know why Charlie Brooker is the best person in the world and is right about everything (except Love & Monsters and Lost), then there's not much point in trying to persuade you. It's you that's missing out, after all.

But you can't really claim to have any sort of interest in television if you don't want to watch the best show about it that's been on in recent memory (certainly since TV Offal, and longer than that if you're not a VLS fan).

Also, most of Screen Wipe isn't actually spent spleen-venting. In addition to being very informative at times, Brooker is just as entertaining when he's enthusing wildly about something (new Who, Deadwood, although I wish he'd give it a rest with The Wire already - we get the point).

Simply put, if you don't want to watch the show, you're cutting off your own nose to spite your face. If you watch it and you don't like it, you're an idiot.

the best show about it that's been on in recent memory

What? Better than TV Burp?!?!

Either my friends have been (a) hiding the existence of Screen Wipe from me, or (b) you are a deranged lunatic.

I prefer it to TV Burp, but I love TV Burp as well. They're good in different ways, though. HH's is over the top, silly, fun and focuses on the soaps. Charlie's is more of a review show, and also includes featurettes on how various aspects of TV work. But the bulk of the show is him sitting in his flat (like, actually his flat) watching telly and talking about it.

Also, watch this. And this.

And... oh, alright, I didn't want to bring this one out, but there's a girl who started out working on the show as a runner, and who he's started using onscreen for various random appearances (after originally playing herself, as a runner), and she's FUCKING GORGEOUS. So there.

Jeffrey Lee is a terrible cunt.

> and she's FUCKING GORGEOUS. So there.

Too true. Screen Wipe becomes an extremely apt title when she's around!

I was particularly pleased with this episode as he did a Battlestar Galactica feature. It was one of those moments where I was just praying he wouldn't slag it off and at every turn I thought he would but he DIDN'T! Smart guy. The Baltar/Withnail comparison was funny as was the Six/Baltar pisstake.

Here is a short message form those living in areas unable to access digital TV:

Fuck off.

Right, I've been trying to avoid this, but I've got to say it - whatever your opinions on the Mac ads, Charlie Brooker is *not* right about Macs, or the majority of Mac-users I've met, in that article. There's other possible reasons for enjoying the piece, if you think he's being amusing - but that doesn't make his point right...

OK he's not being completely fair to Macs and Mac users but you've got to admit this part is hilarious -

"Cue 10 years of nasal bleating from Mac-likers who profess to like Macs not because they are fashionable, but because "they are just better". Mac owners often sneer that kind of defence back at you when you mock their silly, posturing contraptions, because in doing so, you have inadvertently put your finger on the dark fear haunting their feeble, quivering soul - that in some sense, they are a superficial semi-person assembled from packaging; an infinitely sad, second-rate replicant who doesn't really know what they are doing here, but feels vaguely significant and creative each time they gaze at their sleek designer machine. And the more deftly constructed and wittily argued their defence, the more terrified and wounded they secretly are."

Also

"If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that "says something" about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality. A mental illness, maybe - but not a personality."

Reading it I did that thing where you laugh a little too loudly at a PC (yes, PC) workstation and everyone else looks across at you in disgust.

Are you sure they weren't just looking at you in digust before you started laughing?