Slate Magazine - Number 1

How ventriloquist Jeff Dunham became America's most popular stand-up comedian.

Josh Levin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:58:44 EST

Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham's latest concert special begins with an old-man puppet named Walter detailing the best strategy for dealing with a Kwanzaa reveler: "Throw away the Champagne and pull out the frickin' malt liquor." Dunham then brings out Achmed the Dead Terrorist—essentially a skeleton with jutting eyeballs—who shouts his catchphrase, "Silence, I keel you!" to great audience acclaim. A short while later comes the comedy duo of Peanut—a furry purple being of indeterminate heritage—and José Jalapeño, a sombrero-wearing pepper on a stick who punctuates most thoughts with the punch line "on a steeeek." What does José want for Christmas? "I think he needs a bigger stick," Peanut says. "That's not what your mother said," the jalapeño replies.

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Is the Ford F-series' 27-year reign at the top of America's sales charts about to end?

Josh Levin — Mon, 2 Feb 2009 12:19:25 EST

The pickup truck commercial circa 2009 has all the subtlety of a peeing Calvin sticker. In a series of ads for the Chevy Silverado, Howie Long appears to argue that purchasing a Dodge Ram (which has a heated steering wheel, ideally suited for those with manicures) or Ford F-150 (featuring a "man step" that allows for easier access to the truck bed) will turn you gay. Chrysler, seemingly more willing to court bankruptcy than be associated with effeminacy, is pushing its Dodge pickup with the "Ram Challenge," a Web reality series helmed by Top Gun's Tony Scott that pits firemen, cowboys, contractors, and soldiers against one another in some pursuit that features both trucks and explosions. (Memo to creative: It might be easier to prove your product's masculinity with spokesmen whose occupations aren't cribbed from the Village People.)

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Why high-school recruiting gurus are better than NFL scouts at finding gridiron talent.

Josh Levin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:52:24 EST

Who's the best player in high-school football? Bobby Burton, the publisher of Rivals.com, a forensic report on the best high-school players in the country, says he's got it narrowed to three candidates. Californian Matt Barkley, Rivals' current No. 1 player and a future USC Trojan, is your standard-issue star quarterback: good size, good mobility, great arm strength, blond hair, million-dollar smile. Rueben Randle, a Louisiana wide receiver prospect, is such a great athlete that he's led his team to the top of the state rankings while playing out of position at quarterback. The final contender: LSU-bound quarterback Russell Shepard. The day he arrives on campus, Burton says, he'll be the best running quarterback in college.

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The secrets of aXXo, BitTorrent's top movie pirate.

Josh Levin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:53:44 EST

BitTorrent is TiVo for the tech-savvy and the ethically flexible—a way to watch what you want when you want it without having to pay for it. Instead of flipping through the channels or putting on a DVD, you can head for the Web to grab pirated digital copies of whatever movies and television shows you want. As you might expect, downloaders gravitate to popcorn flicks and nerd-friendly TV fare—among the top search phrases on one BitTorrent search engine are Quantum of Solace, Max Payne, Saw V, Heroes, Prison Break, and Fringe. But the No. 1 search query isn't a movie title or the name of a TV show. Rather, it's the name of BitTorrent's top uploader: aXXo.

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Is classical music staging a comeback?

Brendan I. Koerner — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 12:18:04 EST

Is classical music—a genre that has spent a seeming eternity on the commercial skids—staging a comeback? That's the buzz on Nielsen SoundScan's 2006 report card, which listed classical as the year's fastest-growing musical genre. In an otherwise dreary year, sales of classical albums—a figure that includes CDs, LPs, and downloaded albums—increased by 22.5 percent, or 3.57 million units. That put the genre way ahead of such laggards as jazz (down 8.3 percent), alternative (down 9.2 percent), and rap (down 20.7 percent).

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