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Overheard in the Newsroom: Superman and phone booths

David Pescovitz at 10:02 am Wed, May 19, 2010

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From the very funny (and provocative!) blog "Overheard In The Newsroom." (Thanks, Jason Schultz via Jess Hemerly!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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  • Anonymous

    Well OBVIOUSLY today he would work at the
    .
    .
    Daily Google

  • Brainspore

    He hosts a news program show that airs just before the Colbert Report.

  • David Pescovitz

    Yes, I loved that gag! And that was even before cell phones. It was a reference to those walk-up phone boxes!

  • Angstrom

    I’m guessing you meant to put a link in to
    http://overheardinthenewsroom.com/

  • Chuck

    He’d change at home, because he’d be blogging from his home office. (Can’t wait for the Superman issue where Clark Kent is the guest blogger on BoingBoing.:-P)

  • penguinchris

    I just wanted to put my vote in that it’s bizarre that you left it to the readers to find the blog and link to it in the comments.

  • Chentzilla

    It’s okay, we found it.

  • Anonymous

    I seem to remember a short period where Clark and Lois were TV news anchors in the comics.

    Peter Parker eventually became a school teacher after the newspaper business didn’t pan out.

    When the paper existed in the “Ultimate Spider-man” universe Peter was the papers webmaster rather than freelance photographer.

  • Ugly Canuck

    Jeez, I can’t remember: does Superman even have to eat?
    I mean , the question for me isn’t “Where?”, but “Why?”. Why would Superman condescend to accept paid employment?

    • Brainspore

      I think it was originally a plot device so that he’d know when and where he was needed. Before the internet there weren’t very many places you could find up-to-the-minute information on breaking events.

  • David Pescovitz

    Argh. Sorry, that’s the third time I’ve done that in two days. Gotta be more careful. Thanks.

  • johnny payphone

    Imagine the progression of the public phone: From an attended human-switched phone to a classy wooden booth, to the bombproof tardis, to a pee-smelling aluminum booth (some with phone books!), to the sort of ‘half-booth’ that Superman encountered in above joke, to the empty ‘half booth’ with the payphone gone.

    Fortunately there will always be payphones in one place at least: Wherever you can go to pay your cell phone bill.

    Payphone proliferation peaked in 1992.

  • Roy Trumbull

    In 1964 I played a super hero type in a student film and one of the gags was actually to shoot what it was like to change cloths in a phone booth. Just consider that Superman goes from shoes to boots. That alone put me outside the confines of the booth.
    The idea of heros of that ilk wearing capes and gloves is just laughable. What fine motor activities can you do with gloves on? Any sort of mask like Batman and the Lone Ranger wore shoots your peripheral vision to hell.In short all of it is fantasy and detracts from the character’s supposed powers. Today I would suggest that the server closet be used as the change room. He could terminate some cat 5 cables while he’s in there.

  • TheMadLibrarian

    Remember, there was a brief sight gag in the first Superman movie about no more phone booths. Clark Kent eyeballs an open air phone kiosk briefly, the goes to Plan B — a revolving door.