local news

Oh, YouTube! Where were you back in the day when the wrong graphic appeared next to a Portland news anchor's head? It was a photo of a man with the caption, 'Arm Amputated', and he said, "With this tight economy, everybody's making cutbacks." Classic.

YouTube is quickly becoming a great place for local news bloopers. A friend alerted me to this one the other day. The anchor's slip-up about a Mount Everest climber just defies explanation. I don't want to ruin it for you, just check it out.

And, Lost Remote brought two other clips to my attention. One is a rapping traffic report. By a white girl. With blonde hair. And she's rapping about morning commute traffic. In North Carolina. The other clip is of the Terre Haute, Indiana weather wars promos featured prominently on The Daily Show.

Comedy Central's partially-improvised spoof of local news, Dog Bites Man, debuts on June 7 at 10:30 p.m. Right now you can click over to Comedy Central's Web site for the show and watch a preview clip, plus "interviews" with different members of the tenacious but somewhat inept KHBX newsteam. It's hard to gauge by the brief clip alone, but the show looks pretty funny, and I love the talent they've assembled for it. It definitely has a Reno 911 vibe to it, so I'm sure I'll be checking out at least the first episode, which will see the newsteam cover a bodybuilding competition and take part in sexual harassment training.

As soon as I started seeing the commercials for this new Comedy Central series, I was thrilled. First of all, the series will spoof local news, which is ripe for spoofing, I must say. Most spoofable is the local news, that's what I'm getting at. Also, the new series will feature Matt Walsh (the reporter) of Upright Citizens Brigade, and one of my favorite funny people of the moment, Zach Galifianakis (who will play the director). Andrea Savage and A. D. Miles will round out the cast. The series is produced and written by Dan Mazer of Da Ali G Show. I can't believe this show won't be hilarious with this crew behind it. The series debuts June 7 at 10:30 p.m.