John Hodgman's public lambasting of the BBC for not bringing QI to America didn't explain the network's reason for their decision, other than Dumb Ol' America is so dumb (how dumb are we?) that when we go to a sperm bank, we ask the teller for a BLANK.

Thankfully, Hodgman isn't the only man coming to the U.S.A.'s defense. John Lloyd, the show's executive producer, feels the same way so much so that he was willing to interrupt his vacation in Turkey to chat with me about it.

"Garth Ancier (BBC America chief) is convinced that Americans 'won't get it'," Lloyd said in an email. "We disagree (of course!)."

Back in January, I mentioned that actor/writer Adam De La Pena (I'm with Busey, Crank Yankers, Minoriteam) was creating an animated series for G4 called Code Monkeys. Well, the series will debut July 11, and based on the seconds-long promos I've been seeing, it looks pretty cool.

The series is animated in the 8-bit style of retro video games, with blocky backgrounds and characters who move as if being controlled by some unseen entity with a magical joystick. The main characters, Dave and Jerry, are game coders who occupy this bizarre pixel-y world.

I love the idea, but I also played a lot of video games in the '80s and '90s, so I'm excited to see how many of the show's inside jokes I'll comprehend. My only worry is that the series might be too much of a "niche show," much like Minoriteam was, and it won't attract a wide audience.

Note: the theme song is "Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton (used with permission). Thanks to our own Annie Wu for telling me 'bout that.

Last night on American Idol, we all said "Bye Bye Curly." Did curly-haired Chris Sligh deserve to go home so soon? Or was there some vast conspiracy to oust Sligh for his on-air shout-out last week to Vote for the Worst?

At the end of last week's performance, Chris reportedly said, "Hi Dave." David Della Terza is the man behind VFTW, a snarky website he founded in 2004. Dave was thrilled by Sligh's on-air acknowledgement. But the Idol producers were not amused. According to Dave, the producers edited out the "Hi Dave" when the show aired in England.

These finales are becoming predictable. They always bring back the last few contestants to either judge or help in the finale's last challenge. This one was a little anti-climatic. I've been rooting for Harold to win for several weeks now. I think his food has been better (ha - funny how us viewers will say one meal is better than another, as if we has Taste-O-Vision on our TVs - but I'm going by the judge's comments), and Tiffani just seems like the type of person I wouldn't get along with in the kitchen. Not that Dave is any better. But he's "over the top" annoying. Tiffani is "slow boil" annoying.

A superficial way to pick a favorite? Maybe, but it's a reality show, edited to show drama and not everything that happens in the competition, so how else can we judge?

I quite enjoy many of the old cartoons from the Fleischer brothers, such as Betty Boop and Popeye, but their Superman cartoons, which aired in the early forties and are now available on DVD, never really turned me on. I think they were well-made, I was just never a big fan of Superman, I felt he lacked the vulnerability that made other heroes so interesting. Vintage Tooncast, one of many animation podcasts I subscribe to, has been showing a ton of these old Superman cartoons, so if you liked them, mosey on over and root through the archive. The other cartoons he has up are all worth checking out, as well.

After a short sabbatical, C.K. and I return for our commentary on last night's episode of Lost:: Dave. Queue up the podcast alongside the show that you've recorded or downloaded, and listen along as C.K. Sample III and I comment on all that is going on on the island. C.K. was playing with his fresh install of Windows XP on his Mac Mini, so there were a couple of technical difficulties, so please bear with us.

You'll find the podcast enclosed in the feed of this post, you can subscribe via our podcast feed (link), and here's a direct link (here) to the 20MB file running exactly 46 minutes. You can also subscribe to our podcast via the iTunes Music Store (link).

Please let us know what you think in the comments.

Another week, another new Lost. Ok, so that doesn't actually happen that often, but we're kind of on a roll here. This week didn't stack up all that well against last week's episode, that's for sure. I would still probably rank it above the Sun and Jin trip down memory lane though. There seems to be this frightening trend emerging with the Lost episodes where one week is awesome, the next, not so awesome. They've always kind of had that roller coaster feel, but it seems much more pronounced the second half of this season. I'm fine with it, I love roller coasters, but I can easily see how some people want to get off this ride. On with the show!

Last week's episode was some seriously good Lost. I think the season has been building to this point, and now it's going to be some crazy out of control roller coaster ride from here on out. Like a katamari snowball that you keep rolling around, it seems like it's never going to grow, then all of a sudden it just gets bigger and bigger with every movement. I think that's where we're at right now -- right on the cusp of that first big hill.

Come back tonight and join me and all of the other Lost fanatics as we watch and discuss the show live. Come right back here, to this very post, at 8pm ET, and that's when I'll unveil the location for the super secret chat room. As with all of our chats, you need to have AIM or a compatible chatting client to join the room. Make sure you stop by our Lost pre-game show before joining us today and sound off about what you think is going to happen tonight. See you at 8!

UPDATE:
Come one, come all; here is the secret location for our Lost Chat! See you inside.

Disclaimer: All or parts of the discussion in this chatroom may be posted in a later column on this site.