You know, one of the great/sad things about satire is that sometimes it's almost too close to real life. Take this Onion headline:

CBS To Release Own Version Of NBC's The Office

Funny, yes, but given a television landscape riddled with unoriginal concepts, the idea of one network doing it's own version of another network's show (which, in turn, is based on another show) doesn't seem that unrealistic.

But then, that is the essence of satire, isn't it? Sometimes the best way to point out the ludicrousness of something is to just say it with a straight face. This is my favorite paragraph from the article:

The producers made several other changes to the show in order to promote a greater crossover appeal. The faux-documentary format has been dropped in favor of a traditional three-camera setup, and a laugh track has been added to fill in any painful, awkward pauses in dialogue that might slow down the show.

I guess there's no idea so original that a few executives can't come in and completely ruin it. I'd be laughing a lot harder if I didn't think that somewhere right now some executives are watching The Office and trying to come up with a way to make it "more appealing."

Hopefully, with advances in online video sharing and cheaper video software and equipment, the days of executives deciding what we like or don't like are coming to an end. A guy can dream, anyway.