TheAgitator.com
Bread and Circus
Thursday, November 12th, 2009Noticed this earlier today while researching an article.
Kinda’ sad.
38 Responses to “Bread and Circus”
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Wow, I am getting old. Had to pull out the reading glasses for this one. :)
Sad but not surprising. Personally, I’d rather listen to black metal than Judge Judy. How anyone can keep from going insane while listening to her screech at morons is beyond me.
Why is that sad? (I ask unsarcastically)
I AM THE LAW!
Have you every WATCHED Judge Judy? Also notice the low placement of “judge not.”
Mock Trial with J. Reinhold!
Mock Trial with J. Reinhold!
Sorry, I gotta do that any time I see Judge Reinhold’s name. Arrested Development fans will understand…
how is judge reinhold so high on that list? wasn’t he the tall goofy cop in Beverly Hills Cop 1, 2, & 3?
@ #3 – Because the most popular searches are about dramatic TV judges and not actual city, state, or federal judges from the past or present.
Definitely sad that Judge Dredd isn’t first. Or Mike Judge.
Damn. justinslot beat me to it.
At least those are *civil* suits. I often wonder how long until criminal trials are televised (aside from OJ).
On the bright side, if you Google “prosecutor”, the top position goes to prosecutorial misconduct and, Nancy Grace doesn’t even make the list.
#6 Nipplemancer
He was also the masterbater in “Fast Times at RH.” I’d give that character a pass though. I mean, seeing Phoebe Cates topless and all.
I’ve often said (tongue partially in cheek) that Americans are too stupid for self government.
Why would Americans be searching local, state, or federal judges on a regular basis? The vast majority of their decisions don’t apply personally. But even if they did, those results would generally be less likely to pop up on a measure of popularity versus judges with national television shows. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for what you’re seeing, and it isn’t that people are stupid, or that you’re smarter than most people.
Google’s suggestions produce bizarre results.
Try typing ‘Why Won’t’ in the search box or ‘I am terrified’ in the search window…
Yeah, it’s not like if you were looking for Felix Frankfurter stuff you’d put in “judge felix frankfurter.”
By the way–I tried “judges” just now hoping “judges luzerne county” (home of the most significant judicial corruption I have ever heard of in this country) would pop up, but it was mostly bible verses.
Sorry to keep on this, but that search tool aggregates national searches, not local ones. So searches for judges representative of smaller-than-national geographic districts are unlikely to occur as often as those for television personalities. You could, I suppose, view this as upsetting regarding searches for Supreme Court Justices, except I don’t know how often people say ‘Judge Alito’ or ‘Judge Scalia’ versus some other formulation of the same idea.
Sam makes a good point. There are only nine real judges with national reach, and they generally are called “justice so and so” not “judge.” So it’s not surprising that a national search for Judge… turns up TV judges. Then again, a search for justice… turns up a clothing store and the Justice League, so that may not be much better.
Last post, I promise: so what? If the vast majority of people using Google’s search tools are more interested in the Justice League of America as opposed to whatever your own personal interests are, it just means you’re on the outs with that particular set of user interests. There is nothing bigger to be gleaned from the human condition or the quality of citizenship or anything else.
CuteOverload.com probably does what, twenty or thirty or forty times the daily traffic of TheAgitator.com. Does that mean Americans are stupid? Not at all. It means they’re more interested in cuddly kittens than they are in libertarian blogging. The collective internet using interest is focused elsewhere.
I’m rather disappointed that Judge Wapner isn’t on the suggestion list. All these other TV judges are just parasites on the head of Wapner.
And the older brother in Fast Times at Ridgemont High who rubbed one out in the bathroom while watching Phoebe Cates get out of the pool.
I would have liked to see Judge Leddy pop up, but that would have been asking way too much.
Hah, those Google suggestions are endlessly hilarious/depressing.
What, no Judge Holden?
Not least because judgment is spelled with one -e, not two.
Also, I recommend you try typing “why doesn’t my para” into google’s search box. Unfortunately google has no good answers.
Re: Vertigo.
That’s amazing.
You don’t even need to search ‘why won’t’ though. Just ‘why ‘ will do.
I wonder how many people wanted to find out.
Where’s Judge Roy Bean?
I’m confused.
You’re typing something into Google Search that doesn’t contain the words “sex”, “boobs”, or “porn”. And then you’re confused when you get goofy returns? Why?
Need I remind you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWEjvCRPrCo
I typed in “you tube” and got “an error occured, please try again later.”
I will say this – of all the TV judges, Judge Joe is the coolest. I love it when he has had enough and goes “I declare you Pitiful.”
FWIW, Judge Wapner returns to the People’s Court tomorrow…
My friend David Codrea calls it the “PH Factor”.
Google, “Patrick Henry”…
now Google, “Paris Hilton”.
Which “PH” do Americans clearly know, and care, far more about?
[...] Radley Balko reports on what Google proceeds to suggest based on search popularity. [...]
Luke,
Why on Earth would more Americans care about Patrick Henry than Paris Hilton, no matter how awful, diseased, disgusting, creepy, and off-putting she might be? She gets media coverage, and frankly, you just don’t sell many Us Weeklys reporting on “Patrick Henry, Still Dead!”
Does there really exist an expectation that Americans need to be sitting around, doing Google searches about long dead historical figures, rather than whatever it is that personally interests them?
when you begin a search with “why” one of the top results is “why is there a dead palestinian on my couch.” Another is “why is my poop green.”
Not sure this feature works exactly the way google wants.
tekel: Not any more. And the top result for “why is there a dead palestinian on my couch” is now this post. #2 out of 2 is in French, I think it’s about a movie.