Roker Goes Down

Now that America's favorite bug-eyed weatherman has taken his celebrated spill courtesy of Wilma, the 2005 hurricane season has officially jumped the shark. If you didn't catch it on-air (who did?), there are only a million web portals hosting the video and dissecting its every frame. In the groundbreaking footage, Roker files a live report while an oddly barefoot lackey attempts to keep him connected to terra firma. It didn't work. As if on cue, the insistent tempest blew Al and pal over halfway through the stapled-stomach one's canned punchline. No NBC staffers were harmed during the impromptu slip, but Roker did lose grip of his dignity and the Today's Show's last shred of credibility rolled somewhere out of sight.

Now, Al ain't the only broadcaster to take a hurricane dive lately, though he may be the highest paid. Reporters have been perfecting the human windsock schtick ever since GungaDan strapped on his first oversized logoed parka (all the better for on-camera billowing). But now, with the world wide webs up and running, a vapid moment such as this is instantly disseminated, deconstructed and parodied before the goofy weather dude even dries off. Is THIS what all our fabulous technology has wrought? Is THIS what Al Gore toiled in his lab for all those many moons? So some schlub with a press pass could throw caution to the wind and soak up a little internet glory in the process? I mean, WHO DOES THAT? Hmm? What? Oh, THIS? Oh. Uh. Well, Hmm-Mmm...never mind.