This is maybe a little off-topic for LOLFed, since it’s a fail that doesn’t involve banks, but it is about pricing and two publicly-traded companies, so here you go. Viacom (VIA) is demanding an additional $35-40 million from Time Warner Cable (TWC) for the privilege of broadcasting its panoply of high-brow channels – including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon – into the homes of TWC’s roughly 13 million customers.

Just pass it on to the customers, says Viacom. Time Warner says that we are in times of financial fail, and even a few extra cents a month is enough to lead their customers to cancel and pursue alternate forms of entertainment, such as macaroni art or building ships in bottles.

Viacom, where they are firmly convinced both that cable television is now a good with inelastic demand and that children under the age of five read newspapers, took out a full-page ad in many of TWC’s markets with the photo above, encouraging children to ask their parents “Why is Dora crying?” We have received word that at least three parents of precocious toddlers phoned Time Warner today to encourage them to go along with the increase, though at least one of those three calls was placed from a Fisher-Price Elmo’s World Talking Cell Phone, so probably shouldn’t count.

I guess Nick/MTV/etc are really going dark tonight. TW’s suggested solution if Viacom really does want to play hardball: “If you want to watch that Viacom crap, just watch it on the internet, where they offer it all for free. Can we interest you in an upgrade to your high-speed broadband?”

EDITED TO ADD: As of 1/1/09 – the two have managed to reach a deal, after all, though terms are not yet disclosed. This is probably not surprising to anyone.