Did you catch Wednesday night's episode of ABC's "Modern Family"? One of the subplots involved husband and wife Phil and Claire Dunphy (Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen) arguing over the relative ease of use (or lack thereof) of the household's new universal remote control. At the height of her frustration, Claire smashes the remote, claiming it's just too hard to use. Phil defends himself by pointing out that "the experts at CNET.com rated it the best remote."
At least one CNET staffer found the storyline to be fairly sexist: "The wife and daughter are unable to learn how to use the remote and must be taught by the father, while the son is 'good with electronics,' even though he is thought of as the stupidest member of the family." That very issue--gender stereotypes in the tech sphere--is the subject of Friday's Reporters' Roundtable podcast with Rafe Needleman and Molly Wood. (Watch it live at 1 p.m. PST/4 p.m. EST on Friday, January 22, or archived at the Reporters' Roundtable homepage.)
I, on the other hand, was slightly miffed by the joke's mixed metaphor: Burrell says the remote was awarded "three and a half mice," which is a longstanding Macworld metric. But in the end, we're just happy with the free advertising, especially on a rival network (CNET, you'll recall, was purchased by CBS in 2008.)
Oh, and in case you're wondering which remote controls we really like--for men and women, real and fictional--check out our list of best universal remotes.