Eli Manning, Master Thespian; Shep Smith Kicks Gingrich on His Way Out

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We realize there's only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today: Belgium supplies video proof that driving and texting don't mix, Shepherd Smith had fun with his goodbye to Newt Gingrich, and Eli Manning is the most promising SNL hosting newcomer since Tom Hanks.

Here's a bunch of Belgian motorists bombing the road portion of their driver's test after a faux faceless bureaucrat arrives to evaluate their driving-and-texting skills. The moral, of course, is that you should never text and drive, or take seriously a rogue driver's ed teacher who hops in your car in a controlled environment and orders you to do things that would pose a threat to public safety under ordinary circumstances. He's almost just an actor, trying to prove a point. [via Gizmodo]

Upright and goofy, Eli Manning is the only active NFL quarterback who also would be a tremendous leading man in a Preston Sturges  comedy. Which says nothing about his odds for success when he hosts Saturday Night Live this week. Like Christopher Guest, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and countless others, the SNL format might not be right for Manning. But he certainly looked good in the promo reel. Delivery and timing are off the charts (for athlete hosts, at least) and he seems to have an innate understanding of why unchecked enthusiasm is funny to watch. It's not just Eli being Eli: if it were, he'd be shrugging more. No,t his took some work. Real, actorly work. [NBC]

Shepherd Smith delivered the best good luck, goodbye send-off to the Gingrich campaign on Fox News today. Ed Rollins was on hand if Smith needed to tap out, which he did not. The money quote: "I feel like I've just been transported to some other world. What was that?" [via Mediaite]

Shanthi, a 36-year-old elephant who lives in the National Zoo -- that's near us! -- can play the harmonica. This is a very talented, elephant, obviously, but here's the kicker: when she plays harmonica, we secretly wish she would stop after three seconds. So not only is she gifted, she's the first man or beast to make freestyle harmonica music tolerable to the human ear. Colleges should bring her in for lectures and one-on-one discussions with the one guy in every dorm who insists on bringing his harmonica into the common room. She could talk some sense into him, or at least improve his form. [Smithsonian]

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.