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David Shaw's Media Matters column in yesterday's Times was all about George Wolfe and his news satire site, the LALA Times. Wolfe, 40, is an ex-playwright from Virginia and now lives in Venice, where he compiles his skewed take on Los Angeles, manages properties and dabbles in investments. Some recent "stories" include a ban on piñatas in L.A. parks, a reality show starring Catholic priests called "Lead Us Not Into Temptation," and a science piece reporting that L.A.'s air quality is like Saturn's rings. After Ronald Reagan died, the website ran an item from a friend of Wolfe's on a new Alzheimer-themed amusement park to be called Foggyland.
Wolfe says he "gasped" when he read that. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized, "Hey, this is supposed to be a satire site…. So we went with it … and, no, we didn't get a lot of complaints."
The site's slogan: Everything absurd under the sun.