deer

We told you the other day about Matt Lauer being attacked by a deer while riding his bike. Now come the inevitable jokes.

Lauer returned to Today this morning, arm and shoulder in a giant sling, and you knew the wisecracks were going to come. But where the humor came from was a bit of a surprise. A producer from rival morning show Good Morning, America brought a present for Lauer. He also read a funny note from ABC's president, who suggested that Lauer take some time off.

Brian Williams also sends a funny video message to Lauer, which is worth seeing just for hearing Williams use the phrase "gooned up on Percocets." There's also footage of Jay Leno joking about the incident. The funniest part of the video for me are the Today fans in the background, all wearing antlers.

If you tuned in to Today this morning expecting to see Matt Lauer, you were disappointed. But Matt wasn't off on another world wind tour of Asia or South America or the Baja Peninsula.

No, the intrepid NBC host had a serious bike accident which sent him flying over the handlebars. According to co-host Meredith Vieira, Matt was biking at his Long Island home over the weekend when he had a run-in with a deer!

(S02E10) One of the things that has made this season of Tom Goes to the Mayor so great is the guest stars. They haven't just used comedians with the same knack for irreverence as Tim and Eric, such as Tom Kenny and Michael Ian Black, but also actors like Judd Hirsch and Robert Loggia who aren't necessarily strangers to comedic acting, but simply have a different approach. Watching Black act like a goofball is fun and all, but it's not surprising. Seeing Hirsch behave in a similar fashion is surprising because we're not used to seeing him that way, and it makes the show all the more fun to watch.

John C. Reilly, a man known for dramatic, albeit quirky, roles in film, shows off his comedic chops in this episode as a mentally-unbalanced man who befriends Tom through a MySpace-like site called "Friendship Alliance." Tom hasn't even been on the site for more than a minute when John sends him a message to meet at Sauceman's, a "house-style saucehouse restaurant" where you can dip your food into over 3,000 different sauces. Tom was only logging onto the site to add his profile (he's the step-grandpop of a baby wolf-child), but since he's the easy-going sort he accepts John's invitation.