I like "The Daily Show." Occasionally, I'll tune in to watch a new episode as soon as it airs. It's fun to find out about something the same time as everybody else watching.

When it finishes up, my brain gets to thinking:

"Ha ha, what a great show. Oh, it's over. Well, at least now I can enjoy some relaxing theme music as I watch the credits. Na, na na na na na na Na, na na na na… Hey, is something wrong with the screen? It looks like there's a problem… is that a Phantom Image?"

When I was younger, I remember having seen a problem with the TV signal more than a few times. One channel would be showing its programming mostly fine, but you could also see faint images of another channel trying to intrude. They were almost transparent, but the action they revealed was cohesive enough that you could recognize the source of the image by switching channels a bit. Usually the intruder's origin was one or two channels above or below the one you were already watching.

I noticed that a similar thing seems to happen on Comedy Central during the credits. A black background is shown on the left half of the screen, with the credits in white text. Meanwhile, the right half of the screen is divided into two (more or less square) areas, top and bottom. The bottom area shows the name of the program that just ended, or the program coming up next. The top usually shows some content from the ending show, like an extended Moment of Zen.

It is in that upper right-half area that I noticed the Phantom Image. But what channel was it coming from?

Initially I thought it was actually a lingering image from earlier in the show. Part of my reasoning for this conclusion drew on another thing I'd noticed. When I was watching Comedy Central credits, as soon as they ended I'd usually see a quick flash of a still image, which appeared to have been a piece of the pre-credit broadcast. So like if Stephen Colbert was saying hello on "The Daily Show," and then the credits aired, they'd finish and for a split second you might see Colbert frozen in mid-wave (as opposed to a still shot of Colbert introducing a new "Colbert Report"). That image would then be immediately replaced by the next show, or a commercial. So it seemed like data from within the previous show was "spilling over" during the credits. That must explain the Phantom Image… problem solved… Right?

Wrong.

I noticed something else recently. Something far more sinister.

I don't know the name of the show that had just ended. But I do recall that I was paying greater attention to the Phantom Image during the credits. Again, it seemed to overlay the upper right quadrant of the screen, but just barely enough so that you would probably dismiss it if you weren't paying attention. This time I was lucky enough to get a good look at the enigma.

It appears that the Phantom Image is really a near-transparent textual ad, fading in and out, that reads something like "ComedyCentral.com".

My original guess had given the network the benefit of the doubt. "Oh, it's just a data transmission error." But now, it seems apparent that the network is trying to fool its viewers into feeling oddly attracted to the Comedy Central website.

Will they deny this issue, as the Food Network denied having intentionally placed a screenshot of a McDonald's logo directly into the middle of their program?

Will Comedy Central remove the offending transparency and claim that I, the writer of this post, am insane?

Will anybody even care?

Stay tuned next week for an all new episode of "South Park!"

Today, I watched some television. Hard to believe that someone with such an apparently intense disdain for TV's ads would "stoop" to sitting through a few, right? Well, it depends. Some shows are on equal footing with the ads they display. By that I mean that the show puts you in a mood where you'll enjoy ads of similar content. But other times, the situation is just incredibly different. Like watching "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." That show is so far above anything else on television that it makes the accompanying ads just seem pointless. There's no hope for the ads to be "as good" as the show. So I tend to mute them.

At one point, watching a muted ad today, which may or may not have been broadcast during "Terminator," I realized this specific ad can be interpreted differently when there's no sound to confuse you. Yes, I do mean "confuse you," because there are hidden messages in this ad that you probably wouldn't pick up on while listening to some disembodied sales voice try to convince you do go out and buy.

This was a Valentines Day ad from JCPenney. Maybe you've seen it. Maybe you will see it. It probably won't make an impression on you, unless you mute it. Then you'd see what I saw.

What did I see? A heart-shaped pennant on a necklace, swinging back and forth. "Your eyes are getting heavy…" No big deal, right? I think they did that with two different necklaces. "Get her one of these, she'll love it," was the idea. But that's not what they really said. The truth is far more interesting.

At one point on the screen, there was a very clear message. On a solid back background, bright white letters spelled out a sentence similar to this: "Everybody Gets What They Want On Valentine's." Yeah, they sure do, next commercial…

…Waiiiit!

Let's think about this. JCPenney is selling jewelry, more specifically jewelry for women. Who buys this in preparation for Valentine's Day? Guys do. So if everybody gets what they want, and women will get what they want (jewelry), what will guys get?

What do guys want?

Guys want sex. JCPenney is saying, "Buy her our jewelry, and she'll be sure to put out."

That's just the "subtle" vibe I got from watching a harmless commercial without the sound. I guess it's like playing a rock record backwards…

Judas Priest is God!

**Note: After seeing the ad a second time, finally with the sound on, it has become apparent that the hypnosis idea was an intended gag. One of the audible voices says something along the lines of, "When you're happy, I'm happy." Then the primary message pops up, something like, "This is the day everybody gets what they want." In this new context, I think my original conclusion still makes sense.