Areas of His Expertise

One of my favorite comedians out there right now is the ever-hilarious John Hodgman, and lately, it seems like he's all over the place. He released a book last year, The Areas of My Expertise, became The Daily Show's resident expert, collaborated with They Might Be Giants on their Venue Songs DVD, and now he's appeared in a handful of new Apple commercials with actor Justin Long (the nerdy kid from Dodgeball). I'd like to provide an excerpt from the introduction to his book, just to give my readers a taste of his patent-pending style of humor:

   "I say 'good evening,' though of course I don't know what time it is where you are. This is one of the defining sorrows of books: that we cannot see one another.
   Of course it might have been different had my Publisher inserted the camera I invented to fit snugly in the spine of this book and spy on you. But this was determined to be 'too expensive' and 'too illegal' and so we are left once again to our imaginations."

For more Hodgman, check out his blog or browse these video clips:

• Apple ad: "Restarting"
  
• Apple ad: "Network"
  
• Daily Show segment: "Countering the Iraqi Insurgency"
  
• They Might Be Giants promo: "Venue Songs"