Tonight on the Daily Show

I have always firmly believed that Jon Stewart is better when he features people on his show who have something political to hock.

Tonight, however, Samuel L. Jackson will be on the show, talking about his new movie, Snakes on a Plane.

Now, either this "movie" - and I use the term loosely - is merely the result of brilliant marketing, or the movie industry is micturating down your back and calling it rain.

Wink. Wink. They're both the same thing.

The Blogosphere has been on fire about this thing for a long time, but blogging can only do so much (unless it's politics, and then it can do a lot). What the industry is hoping is that new types of advertising can save this thing from going down like a Democratic campaign during wartime (zing!).

It's most certainly not the movie.

Snakes on a Plane is Anaconda-meets-Passenger 57, and not just because a black guy is in the lead role. Or is it just an action movie in a post-9/11 world? Is that the new scare? Anything on planes? Is it the 21st century equivalent of The Exorcist or Texas Chain Saw Massacre? Are planes the only taboo left?

No. That would be giving this vehicle too much credit. I don't know whether the filmmakers intentionally tried to make a movie that would have a cult following at best, but I heard that Sam Jackson threatened to drop out of the project if it was called anything but Snakes on a Plane.

I think that speaks for itself.