Okay, we realize we made this point recently, but it needs to be reiterated (especially since new s**t has come to light, man): We love England. Yesterday, it was the MMA fighters in drag taking out a couple drunk idiots on the street.

(This took way too long to make.)

Today, though, it’s British people trying to call a basketball game. Emphasis on “trying.” Apparently, the BBC just trotted out Mark Pougatch and Colin Murray, two reporters without much of a clue about what happens in basketball games, and let them work their way through it. It’s delightful, and the sort of thing that only British people (see: the film careers of Hugh Grant and Jude Law) can get away with without looking completely stupid. Video is after the break.

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The BBC has one of the sweetest gigs in broadcasting. The UK government decided to institute independent public broadcasting and fully funded the network with “television license fees” - nice word for taxes per TV, basically. In other words, since the government doesn’t directly give them any money there’s no incentive whatsoever to be a mouthpiece for Britain (or anybody else, since there’s no advertising). Pretty slick.

(Why yes, it is beautiful. You’ll be staying far away from here.)

That doesn’t exempt the company from frugality, though, which is fair; nobody wants their government funding a bloated calf in the media. All that said, their coverage of this year’s British Open in Scotland is a head-scratcher: 420 traveling staff, zero hotel rooms rented. Huh?
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There are a few things you should never mock in life. One of them (lookin’ at you, Larry Brown!) is airplane crashes. Just nothing funny about people dying on board a hunk of metal moving several thousand feet above the ground.

So when BBC soccer reporter Chris Price decided to make a sports/plane crash analogy, he probably shouldn’t have expected things to turn out well. And they haven’t! Now the BBC is backtracking quickly and issuing apologies all over the place.

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• The Friendly Confines aren’t so friendly toward Charlie Weis’ singing.

Because Cubs fans certainly know what’s tasteful & what isn’t.

• Smog, human rights abuses, slow internet connection with too many banned sites - the Beijing Olympics will have it all!

• Tony Stewart once again demonstrates his cool trackside manner.

• Two MMA fighters get attacked & Tasered in a robbery attempt by a bunch of Canadians? What’s that all aboot?

• An assistant football coach quits after his players egg his car & home.

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With the potential of complete indifference by the British viewing public, the BBC is trying to perk up its Olympic broadcasts by introducing some very animated characters, courtesy of Gorillaz.

THE 700 LEVEL introduces us to this new cartoon collective created by the British band in order to get more English eyeballs glued to the Beeb during the goings on in Beijing. Let’s see - there’s the Monkey King, Sandy, Pigsby and the Sand Monk.

So, how did these creatures all come together? The video after the jump should explain. (Well, at least the animation looks pretty cool.) Read more…