Shel Israel: The Puppet

Disclaimer: If you don't like tech, you should probably stop reading. You might get bored. Just sayin'.

Shel Israel is a figure in the tech community. Not very visible, per se, but a figure nonetheless. He's an author, a vlogger for fastcompany.tv, and maintains the blog "Global Neighbourhoods: Social Media's impact on business & culture." He is an actual person.

Shel Israel the puppet is not a real person. He is a puppet that vlogs for "Shel Israel: A parody of Social Media’s impact on business & culture."

Jason Calacanis is an internet entreprenuer, and currently the founder of Mahalo.com, a kind of Google/Wikipedia hybrid site. He's an occasional guest on TWiT, and it appears he's also got his hand in 1938 Media, which produces Shel Israel the puppet's vlog.

If you are still with me, then you are going to love this. So, Shel Israel, the real guy, has had a bunch of blogs over the years, but apparently never bought his own domain name, shelisrael.com. Or, at least it was available on March 31, because the guy who does the voice, or Calacanis or somebody, discovered this and bought it up, and is now totally exploiting it. Basically, it's Shel, the puppet, doing interviews in the vein of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, but about tech and the people in it. The guy who does Shel Israel is real funny. He references how dumb it is to not have your own domain name all the time. Classic.

So, head over to shelisrael.com, watch a few of the videos, get used to his shtick, and I will be surprised if you're not hooked. My favorite episode so far is "Shel Tours Mahalo." It had me laughing real hard at one point. Also, check out 1938media.com, which seems to be a bit more up to date.

You know what? Even those not into tech might enjoy it. So, if you're still reading, check it out anyways.