If you visited our website yesterday, you probably saw a few stories that didn't seem so believable.
Our home page yesterday
If you'd like to re-live our second annual April Fools' Day experience, click on the image above to see it larger. Here are links to the stories:
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Hollywood writer David Misch wanted to investigate the true nature of humor -- or, as he puts it, the "history, mythology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, biology, neuroscience and theology of humor" -- so he went about crafting the new tome Funny: The Book -- Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Comedy. In a nutshell, it's an exploration of humor's long history from its ancient roots to present-day popular media. 
Misch has written for shows such as Mork & Mindy and Saturday Night Live and created seminars for universities like UCLA and Columbia. He will speak at Pepperdine University tonight at 7:30 p.m. in a talk entitled "Comedy and Morality."
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See also:
The new pope
*Jorge Mario Bergoglio: Is the New Pope Latino?
*LACMA and MOCA's Possible Merger: The Internet Reacts
*12 Comedy Acts to Watch in 2013
You know those days when your Twitter feed explodes with the energy of billions of opinionated Internet-surfers? That definitely happened today, as the Vatican officially announced the new pope and the world reacted.
But leave it to a few courageous and witty comedians to turn the history-setting event into material for pithy jokes under or at 140 characters. Here are some of the best:
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With the Mayan apocalypse upon us, Rob Kutner, a writer for Conan and the author of the book Apocalypse How: Turn the End-Times into the Best of Times!, offers ten tips for survival come Dec. 21:
10. Chemical Warfare Begins Within
Are you currently thinking of injecting, inhaling or surgically implanting any foreign substances to enhance your bra size, batting average or just horrible workday? DO IT NOW. The more inorganic chemicals churning in your body, the more protection you'll have from whatever is going to get blasted into it.
9. Head for the Sex Shop
As has been well-documented (albeit mostly by the Australians) the most powerful leaders of any post-apocalyptic world will be those clad in leather bondage-gear. Get your Fifty Shades of Grey on today, run Bartertown tomorrow.
A recent New York Times article cited the prevalence of "Really?" in modern comedies, but reading it made me go, "Really?" Because to my mind, there's a much more interesting language usage trend happening, one to which the author of that article might respond, "What now?"
Liz Lemon on 30 Rock
This "What now?" I speak of is not the one you use when you've finished something and are trying to figure out what to do next. Rather, it has a meaning closer to "What?" and is nearly synonymous with Urban Dictionary's "Say what?!" (defined as: a term used when a person wishes for a surprising or astonishing statement to be repeated, or simply to show their surprise at said statement.)
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Photo by Dana Malbandian/Bravo Emily Huh (left) shows a visiting student how things work at the office during the "Bring Your Kids To Work Day" episode
How can you make a living creating cat memes? UCLA grad Emily Huh and her husband Ben bought the weblog I Can Has Cheezburger in 2007 and built it into a humor empire. They boast two New York Times best sellers, 500 million page views per month and an additional 110 million video views.
Next, ICHC is set to be the subject of a new reality TV show on Bravo that will reveal the magic behind the meme. LOLwork premieres on Nov. 7 at 11pm Pacific and Eastern time on Bravo. Emily Huh, the editor in chief at ICHC and one of the stars of the show, spoke to us about how she made funny kitties her business and the sociology behind a successful meme.
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Topless Robot, home for "nerd news, humor and self-loathing" is looking to immediately hire a new chief blogger and editor. 
Yes, really!
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Anyone who attended this year's Daniel Franzese film retrospective at L.A.'s Silent Movie Theater can attest that this actor's career spans a vivid spectrum: From the bloody crimsons of Bully (the 2001 Larry Clark version, not the new documentary), through the pastel pinks of Mean Girls, to the shadowy hues of I Spit On Your Grave. Now Franzese adds a new color to his palette: neon orange, the same pigment that radiates off the skin of Snooki and The Situation.
Natalie Toren
Last week, Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin' Rock Opera, starring and co-written by Franzese, began its Los Angeles run at the Hayworth. LA Weekly took the opportunity to pick Daniel's brain on this hilarious musical satire, NY Fringe Fest, and never playing the same character twice.
During the obligatory morning check of my inbox to see which spa was offering a Groupon for a colon cleanse and infrared therapy (what?), I noticed a smug cat atop a stratocumulus cloud giving me the evil eye from underneath the participating spa's details. I scrolled down to see that he was spouting off some nonsense about purchasing Ferraris in the "Groupon Says" portion of the email at the bottom of each featured deal, where the cat typically appears.
What does buying a Ferrari have to do with colon hydrotherapy? And why must this cat have his tongue out, as if to brazenly hiss his point across? It is too early for that kind of sass. This cat is snarky, arbitrary, nonsensical and omnipotent. If Garfield is a depressed cynic, Groupon Cat is a digressive comedian.
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By Jeremy Blachman, Zachary Pincus-Roth and Brian Guillian
Michael Kovac for the Paley Center Napoleon Dynamite panel, one of the many, many panels that take place at the Paley Center
The Paley Center for Media's PaleyFest, which begins tonight at the Saban Theatre, always seems exciting, with its parade of panels featuring cast and creators of your favorite shows, from Mad Men to Two and a Half Men to Modern Family.
But there are, after all, only so many ways for people who make television to talk about television, and after years of attending television panels of these sorts, certain aspects start to seem a little repetitive.
To help keep you interested, we created the game PaleyFest Bingo. After the jump, you'll find the PaleyFest Bingo board, which you can print out and bring with you to the events. The first person to fill out a row -- writing in the exact quote and the person who said it -- and then scan it in and send to arts@laweekly.com will get a prize to be determined. Good luck!
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