BY DAVID KRONKE >TV CRITIC

Bravo, realizing that there are precious few awards shows out there for the general population to ignore, has seen fit to create yet another: "The A-List Awards," which will be presented June 12.

How misbegotten is this particular round of unwanted trophies? Consider: One category has Barack Obama competing against Britney Spears, Ryan Seacrest and Nicole Richie. What? Paris Hilton couldn't insinuate herself in there somewhere? After all, that category celebrates the most ubiquitous pop-culture presence, and Paris pretty much would seem to have that one nailed, unless Richie signed some sort of deal with Bravo agreeing to appear.

Given the name, you can probably guess that the awards celebrate vague celebrity over anyone who's genuinely deserving of attention. It's TV's ultimate version of the velvet rope at a club - some guy at the door decides if you merit attention, regardless of whether you have a Ph.D. or just a really tight dress. They'd be more honest but probably less audience-on-target if they called them "The Superficiality Honorifics."

Categories include: Person whose celebrity was created wholly by the Internet (Perez Hilton and Obama Girl are among the nominees), hippest TV show ("Gossip Girl" is a nominee - boy, those New Yorkers really love their guilty pleasures), most assertively annoying reality show personalities (obviously, that's not how Bravo puts it, but that's how the nominees shake out - you know, if you're giving awards to reality show participants, how cool can you really be? Oh, right - Bravo airs tons of reality shows), and hippest celebrity accessory (you wonder who'll accept this one, given that the nominees include "a baby" and "rehab stint").

So, yeah, they're jokey only not really, since they're also feting designers, chefs and restaurant owners (hmm - Bravo has reality shows featuring designers and chefs ...).

The only category mysteriously missing is The A-List Uselessly Self-Aggrandizing Awards Show, which Bravo could reward to itself, thereby allowing the ceremony to fold into itself and disappear into a black hole of omphaloskepsis. One guesses this will draw the same sort of star power of this year's Golden Globe Awards or the year the AFI Awards tried to go national on CBS only to have no major winner attend.

Check back soon for an announcement for the prestigious Mayor of Television's Awards for Excellence in Stuff That's Sitting Around on My Desk! Nominees include "Bull Terrier Bobble-Head from Fox's Short-Lived Series `Keen Eddie,"' " Masked Wrestling Action Figures in a Mexican-Wrestling Ring," "African Virtuosos: The Classic Guinean Guitar Group CD," "HP Photosmart C4280 All-In-One Printer-Scanner-Copier," "Return-Address Stickers from Sundry Organizations I've Donated Money To Who Desperately Want Me To Donate Even More," "Albert Einstein Action Figure," "Ironic Facsimile of a Communist-Chinese Government-Issued Ceramic Pencil Holder," "Photos of My Dog," "Cactus Planter from a Friend Who Knew I Wouldn't Be Able to Keep a Real Plant Alive" and "Pretzels."

"InfoMania": A deluge of pop culture sludge

The first time I saw Current TV's "InfoMania," it struck me as just a riff on E!'s "The Soup" aimed at more caffeinated ADD'd viewers. Host Conor Knighton felt like just another variation of those casually amped-up hosts on any number of shows trying to be "hip" to "the kids." But I watched again, and it's now apparent that the reason Knighton speaks with such energy is because he has an awful lot of jokes to bulldoze his way through.

"InfoMania" is indeed a mash-up of "The Soup" and "The Daily Show," with its once-over of the week's events in politics, pop culture and weird corners of the Internet and how just idiotically the media (TV journalists, magazines) covered them. They rag pretty amusingly on everything from bizarre Craigslist ads to iTunes' Top 5 to Bill O'Reilly.

My favorite in this episode is Ben Hoffman, who presents a Tech Report on Amazon.com's new Kindle: "Finally, a reading device without all those messy wires," he marvels in a laconic deadpan while reading his teleprompter slightly clumsily and holding up a book with wires coming out of practically every page. Maybe I like Hoffman because he's the one guy on the show who doesn't talkrealfast.

There's also amusing looks at the glut of online contests for amateur filmmakers and the joys of nature footage - well, of animals tearing one another apart, at least - on YouTube. Anyway, watch this and you'll be able to bluff your way through almost any weekend party conversation.

"InfoMania:" New episodes air Thursdays at 7 p.m. on Current TV, and then can be seen at current.com.

David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke@dailynews.com

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