So, in the clip from 30 Rock above, which aired months ago, in those sepia-tinged days of Clinton inevitability, a simple play on words makes for a witty joke. What if a character--in this case, vapid Jenna, prone to errors in judgment--was made to air her patriotic bona fides on MSNBC, but confused the word "Obama" with "Osama"? At the time the scene (what with pompous man-child-windbag Tucker Carlson having literally been struck dumb at the end) made me laugh the kind of laugh one gives only to absurdist humor. But now, having seen Ted Kennedy, John Ashcroft, Fox News (sorry, no Youtube available), ABC News and CNN --to name only a few of our paragons of government and media--commit the same error, the 30 Rock joke starts to look more sad and prescient than absurdist.