CNN’s Don Lemon Dances with New Robot BFF

On CNN the other night, news anchor Don Lemon was overjoyed when Inside Man’s Morgan Spurlock brought a real robot by the studio. While elsewhere CNN had been hyping the premiere show of Inside Man’s third season with a forboding “Meet our new robot overlords?” Lemon seemed to welcome Meccanoid, the child-sized robot bearing more than a passing resemblance to Number 5 from the popular ‘80s franchise Short Circuit. And why shouldn’t he? Lemon has had it up to here with humans lately, what with their criticism of his pop culture-inflected news delivery and questionable reporting, their piling on about his seeming lack of sensitivity toward his interview subjects, their mean-spirited “awards.” It’s enough to make a guy want to avoid those sentient bags of flesh and their dumb opinions at all costs.

So, it’s no surprise that, upon learning Meccanoid could complete important functions like dancing, high-fiving, and fetching alcohol (“Is he gonna be, like, hanging out in my house one day and I can say ‘hey, Meccanoid, get me a beer?’” Lemon asks. Spurlock, apparently playing the straight man, responds “Yes, that will happen”), Lemon says giddily, “who needs another human in the house?”

Spurlock said that robots are an inevitable part of our future, for uses both practical and fun. Lemon, and his new “bro” Meccanoid, couldn’t happier about it.