Funny Best of Breed
Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
(www.mcsweeneys.net)
Take admirably bizarre notions, add sharp writing, and subtract the smugness that sours other New Satire ‘zines. This offshoot of the Brooklyn-based quarterly earns laughs both in titles — “Though I Can’t Be Certain, I Suspect That This Hollywood Actress I’m Interviewing May Be Entertaining Thoughts of Having Sex With Me” — and topics like “A Graceland for Adolf,” which envisions der Führer’s summer hideaway replete with shag rugs, cat figurines, and haikus to his dead mother. Both funny-weird and funny-ha-ha. A
The Centre for the Easily Amused
(www.amused.com)
Self-proclaimed Queen of the Internet Cathie Walker surfs hard so you don’t have to: Get links to all kinds of diversions in categories from Random Silliness (Harmless Office Pranks) to Sites of Dubious Taste (Stick Figure Death Theatre). It’s hit-and-miss funny, yes, but keep the name of the site in mind. B+
Funny.com
(www.funny.com)
With more than 30 categories to choose from, in ratings from G to X, the site, run by San Carlos, Calif.-based Dreamissary, offers hundreds of jokes. Users rate each punchline’s laugh factor — on a five-smiley-face scale — and a program tracks the ones you’ve read. You’ll never be at a loss for a lawyer joke again. Or a Clinton joke, or a knock-knock joke, or a “your mama” joke… A-
Heckler’s Online
(www.hecklers.com)
Make like Seinfeld at this Los Angeles-based comedy site. It supplies the setups (Signs Your Screen Saver is Hypnotizing You); you supply the punchlines (every time you log on, you hear a voice say, “Hi, Dave”). The results range from poor to puerile to pretty darn funny. B+
Funny or Not?
(members.home.net/daughters)
San diegan Howard Daughters knows from funny. Compare his side-by-side lists (Steve Martin — funny. Martin Lawrence — not so funny), each with links to related sites. Or peruse his selection of best lines from the likes of Henry Youngman and Steven Wright, grab some “Insults You Can Use,” and mull over deep thoughts involving weasels, Smurfs, and corduroy pillows (they’re making headlines). B
