Best news I've heard all day


This is just BRILLIANT!

You know those sponsorship bumpers that have just finished ruining your enjoyment of the recent series of 'The Sopranos'? You know the ones...really unfunny? Two guys in moustaches doing little comedy routines that, to quote Bart Simpson, both suck and blow at the same time? The ones designed to make you forget you're a human being enjoying a work of art, and actually just a consumer to be picked up and shaken until the loose change spills from your pockets?

Well, The Guardian reports that "118 118 has admitted defeat in the battle to persuade consumers to pay for phone numbers, with the launch of a free service".

"The scrapping of BT's monopoly 192 service four years ago led companies to scramble for a slice of the market, hoping to make millions. But confusion among consumers about what they were being charged and a reluctance among many to pay at all, led people to stop calling."

Hooray! Not only do a bunch of greedy scumbags get their comeuppance, but maybe we'll see the end of those two guys! And maybe the advertising company responsible will go bust! And maybe Channel 4 will stop doing those sponsorship bumpers! All right, I'm getting greedy now.

On the minus side, from my own point of view, this joke is suddenly out of date...