Ya Digg?

Digg.com is a fabulous site for catching the hottest news stories from around the web as soon as they are found. Its success is dependent on users finding and submitting stories, and after a story is out there, its visibility is determined by normal folks like us simply telling the world whether we think it's a worthwhile story or not. If you like a story, you "digg" it, if you don't, you just leave it alone. The community that has formed around the site will rarely let you down. The hottest diggers are brilliant at scouring the net and bringing back amazing and potent stories.

There are tons of behind-the-scenes calculations and algorithms that track a story's heat, and present the stories to users in different, unique ways. It's just as informative as cnn.com or Yahoo! news, but it works so much more intuitively, it gives you more news that you're interested in. It's a completely different news experience.

And, to add to the 21st centuryness of the Digg experience, the best part of the community that has formed around the site, is Diggnation. It's simply not enough for the site to be amazing, one of Digg's founders (and TechTV & G4 alum) Kevin Rose, along with Alex Albrecht (also a TechTV and G4 alum) have started one of the most contagious podcasts out there. Diggnation is just these two dudes talking to each other about the week's hottest stories...and drinking beer.

Somehow, though, these guys' engaging demeanors, their willingness to be normal (even though they are becoming minor celebs), and their passion for the obscure, the cool, and the bizarre makes listening and/or watching Diggnation a great weekly adventure. It's a favorite pastime here at AC, and we'd like you to consider checking it out.

I've been a fan for a while now (thanks to AC reader Prisoner of Question),but something happened in the last episode I watched (ep 49, at the 11:41 mark) that has me hooked 4-EVA. Alex is chatting about the new features coming out for XBOX 360 (or CAME out, the ep's from June), and he's trying to convince Kevin about how great the feature is. He has a little trouble getting the words out and he ends his diatribe by saying: "It's a f----n'....donut!"

This probably means NOTHING to almost everyone that saw it. And it didn't mean anything to Kevin, and even Alex didn't even seem to think he was doing anything awesome. But his little pastry shout-out was delivered in homage to AC's favorite comedian, Eddie Izzard.

The "donut" line comes from a monologue of his from Dress to Kill about Kennedy's "Ich bein ein Berliner" speech combined with an earlier comment about American Cinema. For Izzard, it's a throwaway line. But it's funny. And if you are a random curser, it's a very quotable line. Alex swears a lot, and very creatively almost every time (watch almost any episode of Diggnation to find out new ways to swear, mostly using monkeys), and I can easily see him incorporating Izzard's toss offs as his own.

I'm certain that Alex wasn't quoting Izzard at that point, but there is NO WAY he would have said the donut line if he hadn't watched DtK at least two or three times.

Izzard fans aren't a small cult. He sells out his comedy tours. But he ain't no Dane Cook. When a fan spots another fan, it's worth noting, all right? I'd rather not