Karma for the Deaf ...
the Joe Karma show with Closed Captioning!
by Hazel Inglis
 Karma for the Deaf? That's right ... 1stEntertainment .com, a division of 1stBuy.com has recently released the premiere of their Joe Karma Program. In addition to three audio versions, (for 28.8k, 56.6k and turbo' connections) this Macromedia Flash presentation is offered in closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Because the closed caption version contains no audio file, it can be viewed even with a 28.8k speed modem.
Unfortunately, the hard of hearing must make the choice between a solely closed captioned or audio version. On the flip side, I found the captioning to be very high quality, including background noise, intonnation of the speakers and READABLE text (my pet peeve - what's the point of closed captioning if you can't read the text?)!!
This highly irreverant Jay Leno meets the Simpsons animated talk show, puts on trial infamous guests from the "Internet and beyond" and lets the audience choose the punishment. The host is Joe Karma , who bears a resembelance to Gandhi dressed as a Buddhist monk and the official title of 'Lord of Karma'.
In the premier episode, "Jeffy Bozo" the CEO of Spamazon.com, Jeffy Bozo, (hmm...Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com) is accused of three transgressions ... 1) contributing to the new millenium affliction of 'internet shopping addiction'; 2) trying to create a web monopoly by laying patent to a one-click shopping system no-one else can use; and 3) trying to lose more money than anyone else in the history of the world.
His sentence? Well, you can choose between sentencing him to: becoming a shopping avatar in virtual space for the rest of his life, a mouse interface for one-click shopping, or banishment to the amazon jungle with three voluptuous, scantily clad, amazon women ... as a eunuch.
1stEntertainment.com plans to release a second closed captionned episode, "Net Prophet" within the next week, followed by many other episodes that are still in production. You can take a look at:
www.JoeKarma.com
P.S. This show may not be everyone's 'cup of tea'. While it's intention is for comedic entertainment, it may be regarded as offensive to some. Although there is no 'restricted' content in this show that we know of, it can be considered 'adult oriented' and adult supervision of viewing may be recommended.
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