Carson Daly was once a big wheel over at MTV. As the host of Total Request Live his passive-aggressive modesty and back-of-the-bus snark impressed the kids--especially the lady kids--so much that he was able to date Tara Reid, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Love Hewitt. A trio that sounded a whole lot better back in 2000 than it does now.

The networks were not impervious to Daly's smarm, and about five years ago he was given his own late night talk show on NBC. Oddly, Daly's move from cable to broadcast didn't raise his profile. In fact, save the occasional update on his burgeoning manorexia, Daly darn near fell from the face of the earth.

He was back in the news yesterday, as a result of many prominently placed reports that his will be the first late night talk show to defy the writer's strike.

To make up for the missing writers, Daly, who is not a Writer's Guild of America member, sent out an email to friends suggesting they call in jokes to a "joke hotline." Daly will then play the recorded jokes on the air as part of a larger gag about the hilarity of non-professionals suggesting jokes to him.

This is not unlike what Johnny Carson allegedly did when he resumed production during the 22-week writers strike of 1988. Only that was before email and all this sausage-making meta, so the talk show legend's appeal to friends never made it to the Smokinggun.com, and when Carson did receive jokes he read them, himself, in a professional manner.

But this is 2007, and if Wikipedia can be a primary source for authoritative information, and Ron Paul can have his presidential campaign run by his supporters, maybe America is ready for our first open source opening monologue.

And if the masses end up getting their own late-night time slot, who better to be replaced than Carson Daly?

For more by Jeremy Taylor go to http://www.jeremysspecialblog.blogspot.com/