In addition to comparing a violated slab of liver to a popular nightly TV program, the aforementioned New Yorker article about "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show" also invokes an interesting sports-related factoid, which Fishbowl, as a veritable sports blog, spotted immediately, all Matt Haber-like. Author Nancy Franklin includes a parenthetical about Colbert's follow-up act on Comedy Central, Adam Carolla, who probably no one would ever have thought would warrant this much ink in the New Yorker:

Colbert's show is a nightly festival of fatuity. (Now, don't confuse that with the nightly festival of flatulence that follows it on Comedy Central, the talk show "Too Late with Adam Carolla." Recently, Carolla began a show by saying to David Alan Grier, "I want to talk about a lot of things, one of them is your Escalade." Last week, when Carson Daly was Carolla's guest, it came to light that Jimmy Kimmel had discovered both of them. Whoever discovered Jimmy Kimmel now has even more to answer for.)

We don't know who discovered Jimmy Kimmel, even though a whole whack of Semitic-looking men are steamed that Sarah Silverman does so on a regular basis. We do, however, know why Kimmel deserves a little slack from Franklin and anyone else who has a beef with his discoveries. Why? Because, as we learned in this weekend's NYT Style Section, Kimmel was responsible for discovering none other than "Sports Guy" Bill Simmons, beloved regular-guy sports columnist, ardent Red Sox devotee and author of the wildly popular "Now I Can Die In Peace," NYT bestseller and currently #121 on Amazon (article courtesy of fellow sports guy NYT scribe Warren St. John).

Upshot? We've said it before: Jimmy Kimmel is magic.

The Spinoff Zone [New Yorker, Redux]
That Sports Guy Thrives Online [NYT]
Bill Simmons: Now I Can Die In Peace (And Start Rooting For The Yankees) [FishbowlNY]