Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog

Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog Mark Leyner (Harmony, $19) ''As a writer, the notion of being paid to masturbate does not seem odd to me in the least,'' writes Leyner in a vignette about a sperm bank in his new book, Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog. Regrettably, Leyner's conviction is borne out in this self- indulgent collection of parodies and playlets, which hangs on the thinnest of conceptual threads. Leyner's mockeries of celebrity were bitingly funny in Et Tu, Babe; here, the unexpected has happened: The great deflator of pretension has swallowed his own myth, and the results are embarrassing. Corn Dog is partially redeemed by ''The Mary Poppins Kidnapping,'' a sidesplitting mock newspaper account of children who go bonkers after watching Mary Poppins. The rest reads like a half-baked work in progress. C- -MM