I normally go through about one Dumbest Thing Ever per day– the goalpost is on wheels– but this one is the current record holder at three days.

With the fall television season upon us, many of you will undoubtedly be watching NBC in the near future. When you do, look down in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. No matter what time of day, no matter what you are watching, you will always see this:

This symbol, called a “bug,” used to be used by the network to tell you which channel you personally turned on with your own goddamned hand, because market research apparently suggests you are a foil-chewing imbecile. Even if you did manage to figure out how you got the picture box to make Jason Lee, you might forget unless it said “NBC” on the screen somewhere at all times. You might grow confused and start running into the wall over and over again.

Now, as my wife pointed out this evening, the bug reminds you at all times that [inscrutable peacock symbol].com.

At the risk of repeating myself, I’m going to leave it here just to make myself feel better:

This is for no one. Any prospective visitor to NBC.com who did not arrive in Doc Brown’s Delorean is pretty sure that, in 2006, NBC has a web site, and if they want to get there, they f***ing well know how. Adding that “.com” in 2006 begs the question, “What, no ‘cyber-’?”

And even as I type this, I can hear the smug marketers saying, “Tsk! Foolish eyeballs, you just don’t understand branding.” I understand branding perfectly well: you put this bug on every show all day long, and looking at it makes me want to plunge a red hot iron into your ass. Branding.