You wouldn't like him when he's angry... or otherwise.

Okay, okay... I promised that I was going to try and stray from politics and Mac vs. PC coverage and stick to comedy for a while here on the blog. But this one is too good to ignore. And besides, nobody reads this thing anyway. So who cares?

You may have already heard a little something about Bob Garfield (from Ad Age magazine and co-host of NPR's On the media) interviewing Microsoft Chairman and richest man in the universe Bill Gates. The interview was more or less solid until Bob started challenging Bill on his concept for the ramifications of internet-delivered network programming on local affiliates. In fairness to both parties, it's a difficult model to follow since there's no precedent. But once you could tell Bill was tiring of Bob not understanding the Microsoft-level convolution of how local affiliates will stay on the air when people can get all their first run TV directly on their PCs the mood in the room was turning. It was at this point that Bob gave Bill a Steve Jobs-ian "one more thing" in the form of a question regarding what Bill thought of being represented by John Hodgman in the mac ads...

And the temperature dropped about 50 degrees in the room. Bill got audibly testy and although you can't hear someone giving someone else the finger, you can practically feel it in the audio. Needless to say, Bill has no comment on the mac ads. He will not be made a fool of. Except, um... well... a little late for that.

iTunes users can click here and download the podcast excerpt of Gates losing his cool. (Just download "Bob Garfield vs. Bill Gates," it's free!)

Too bad the interview had to end so abruptly. A good follow up to that smackdown would have been "So how's the conversion to Vista going? Are people caught up in all the 'wow!'?"

(The answer would probably be a resounding yes, despite all evidence to the contrary.)

But lest you think I'm being unfair, I will note that were the roles reversed and Swami Steve was getting served I have no doubt that he'd get a whole hell of a lot angrier. Jobs is a feisty mofo, historically. But I think that may be why he's such a helluva guy. He certainly has a cooler OS.

But I digress... back to the comedy.