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What better way to honor Dr. King than to stage peaceful protests outside NBC headquarters in various cities about the horrible mistreatment of Conan O’Brien.

Seriously. What the fuck?

As a parlor game/discussion topic, the Conan/Leno thing is, at best, a diversion. People didn’t watch either show. NBC is in the business of selling advertising. They’re trying to cut their losses from making two bad decisions. Leno was not as good as Carson. Conan was not as good as Letterman.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have shown that there is a (tiny, cable-sized) market demographic that likes smart humor instead of pandering humor. That’s a tiny market, unfortunately.

There is a (possibly apocryphal) story about Adlai Stevenson. When, during a campaign event, someone shouted to him. “Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!”, he is purported to have said, “That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority!”

Or, in current, pop-culture comedy terms, “According to Jim” aired 184 episodes. “Arrested Development” aired 53.