Come For Your Trial, Stay For the Corruption

Let's take a brief break from Slapstick Week for just a few minutes, because the Newsarama blog just picked up on something interesting: a New York City councilman wants to officially name "Gotham City" as NYC's primary nickname, in order to capitalize on the release of this summer's Batman flick, The Dark Knight.

That's just a bad idea all around. Gotham City is not a nice place. If you're not being accosted by a psychopathic clown while waiting for the subway, you've got to watch your back for the crazy in the bat costume who thinks you've got a connection to somebody's Al Ghul. Then there's the justice system, which, despite the aforementioned crazy's efforts to eschew any real political reform and stick with beating the crap out of ugly people, has yet to keep anyone in jail long enough for them to become homesick. This is the last fictional place in the world that you want associated with your hometown.

I mean, even if this councilor believes the comparison to be apt, do you really want to advertise it?

Contrary to the popular colloquialism, bad publicity is only that - bad. Say no to Gotham.