Uncle Jay Explains the News

Uncle Jay Explains the News is a weekly, online video weblog produced by Cincinnati-based radio personality Jay Gilbert, starring his alter-ego "Uncle Jay". New video episodes are posted every Monday on www.unclejayexplains.com, and they are also syndicated on a number of other web pages. The blog presents a satirical look at the week's news and events as a seeming ‘children’s’ newscast, but the material clearly is aimed at a wider audience. The site's slogan is "Helping Small Minds Understand Big News."
Background
The show first appeared in the mid-1990s as a "soft" feature on a local Cincinnati TV station, WCPO-TV. It was broadcast at 5.55 am every Friday, with Gilbert faxing the script to the producers the day before. However, the show was dropped after two years, despite winning a regional Emmy for editorial commentary. "Uncle Jay" was revived in January 2007 as an online weblog after Gilbert realised that, as he put it; "technology had reached the point where I could pretty much do it all myself and post it on the web". It is then posted on Uncle Jay's website, as well as on YouTube, a page on Facebook and on the websites of the Tribune Interactive media group. The show initially attracted around 10,000 viewers a week, but the 2008 Christmas 'singing' episode attracted over eight million hits on YouTube, and increased the channel's popularity markedly (that episode had to be revised and re-posted for legal reasons, and now does not indicate as many hits). Uncle Jay has more than 200 videos posted on YouTube and about 8,700 subscribers and has now seen traffic on his website increase to around 20,000 hits per week. “Package”, “Imperfect”, and “Aaaaaaaaag”. In some instances, there is also an "Other News Word", often linked to the "News Word".
Uncle Jay then attempts to explain two to three key news stories in a pseudo-simplistic, child-friendly manner, with the aid of pictures, video and repetition of the week's “News Word”. The production style is fairly unique, not always utilising all of the screen space, moving the video of Uncle Jay around in order to make space for graphics and videos. Many of the images are crudely edited, or “Photoshopped” in a deliberately childlike manner.
Uncle Jay has a sarcastic and satirical manner, delivering jokes in a fairly deadpan manner, often appearing as if the humour is unintentional. He also occasionally attempts to explain a complex issue or event in a ridiculously oversimplified way. For example, the episode on September 22; “The Economic meltdown”, his explanation of how banks make and loan money is described by himself as “ a little simplified, and a little wrong and a little misleading; so just think of it as a political ad.” why Congress has such a long recess and his "Osama-rama" special, after the death of bin Laden.
Singing specials
Uncle Jay has also produced seven 'singing' specials. For the final episodes of 2007, 2008, 2009 2010, and 2011, Uncle Jay sang about the major stories of each year's news, using a medley of holiday songs with re-written lyrics. He also posted a mid-year review in 2009 just ahead of the July 4 weekend, using the same method with patriotic songs. Another singing special was posted on April 19, 2009, lampooning the cliched arguments to be expected from President Obama's impending Supreme Court nomination, using the melody from the song "Dueling Banjos".
Jerry Springer
Jerry Springer, a former mayor of Cincinnati and later a local TV news anchor, now famous as host of "The Jerry Springer Show", has crossed paths with Gilbert professionally over the years, and has appeared in Uncle Jay episodes five times, in very brief video clips. The episodes including Springer are January 5, 2009, October 6, 2008, June 16, 2008, September 14, 2009, and January 10, 2011.
Episodes
There are over 230 online episodes. The "most requested" videos on unclejayexplains.com are (in order);
* The three year-in-review singing specials
* Uncle Jay explains the "Stimulus"
* Uncle Jay explains "Socialism"
Outlets
Uncle Jay Explains the News is available on Uncle Jay's website, and on several websites of the Tribune Company's newspaper and TV stations, including:
*The Chicago Tribune
*WPIX-TV, New York
*WGN America, on Cable
It also appears on a number of other websites, including;
*YouTube
*Facebook
*The WEBN Website (The Radio Station on which Jay Gilbert is a DJ)
*Funny Or Die, although new episodes have not been added there since early 2009
Jay Gilbert
Jay Gilbert, the real world name of Uncle Jay, is a long running DJ on Cincinnati's WEBN-FM Rock radio station, which is currently owned by the Clear Channel group. Gilbert has been at the station for over 20 years, and currently hosts the 2-7pm weekday drive time slot. He is quoted as saying that "long-term, I hope that Uncle Jay will allow me to move to a career out of radio before radio kicks me out the door, something that's happening to people my age everywhere".<ref name="blogspot1"/>

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu