Okay, kids, what-- hang on, let us repeat that in boldface and capital letters-- just WHAT is up with Sinbad? And we're not looking for general descriptions or career info, like "he's a comedian who happens to have one name like Cher." We're not even looking for obscure insider info, like the fact that he reportedly eats a lot of Chee-tos. What we want is an explanation of how Mr. Bad came to be named in a Salon article first pointed out to us by faithful viewer Tom: "Gates, Sinbad celebrate Microsoft's 25th anniversary." Tom's message was the first drop in a veritable flash flood of email from freaked-out viewers, wondering what Sinbad is doing hanging out with the Redmond camp. Don't ask us for answers; we're as confused as you are.

For the uninitiated, we should probably point out that Sinbad is a bona fide AppleMaster. This is a guy that Apple deems worthy of representing the brand to star-struck celebrity suck-ups the whole world over. More to the point, your friendly neighborhood AtAT staff had the good fortune to see Sinbad perform not once, but twice at Macworld Expo New York, where he delivered Mac-centric standup comedy that had the crowd howling with delight. He was, by all accounts, a Mac geek seriously afflicted with the Apple bug. In the old days we'd say he bleeds six colors; these days, he bleeds translucent. Or so we thought. (Insert dramatic organ chord here.)

These days, mere weeks after his last Expo appearance, he's reportedly shaking his groove thang for Bill's minions: "the comedian Sinbad warmed up the crowd for Gates with some impressive techie jokes." Non-Mac techie jokes, we presume. Hey, we understand that a man's gotta eat, and since Microsoft's "Apple's friend" these days, performing as Bill's warm-up act might not be the betrayal it once was-- but it's got more than a few of the Mac community raising an eyebrow and going "hmmmm." Is Sinbad a double-agent collecting data in Redmond for Apple? Is he a triple-agent really working for Microsoft? Enquiring minds want to know.

To delve deeper into this conundrum, let's take a look at the brief sample of Sinbad's wit delivered at the Microsoft gig: "We've got to improve things at Microsoft. My goal is that you [developers] can go to a party and nobody will know that you work in the technology industry." And, "here's one. If you're tired, you can go home." Well, gee... apparently his whole shtick was about how Microsoft programmers have no lives. So maybe he just couldn't pass up the opportunity to insult the software developers of Redmond on stage and get paid for it. Heck, we'd snap up a gig like that in a millisecond-- of course, our performance would probably be less of a stand-up comedy routine and more of a steady, vitriolic stream of curses and obscenities, but if Bill's willing to pay, we're available most nights and weekends...