Tragedy has befallen local funnyman Leslie Topherson, as he has officially taken way too long coming up with a joke that references the deaths of both Heath Ledger and Brad Renfro.
“I got sidetracked,” says Leslie, visibly disheveled and unshaven after spending over two months locked in his bedroom working on the joke. “I thought it was going to be really easy, since Renfro was in Apt Pupil with Ian McKellan. Y’know McKellan is a fag and everything, so that sparked some really hilarious stuff in the old noodle. Offending fans of Ian McKellan, Brad Renfro, and Heath Ledger in a single joke seemed too good to be true.”
Leslie pressed his index finger to his head, indicating that his ‘noodle’ was his brain. His fingernail had the appearance of being unclipped for weeks, with Sour Cream n’ Onion powder clinging to his cuticles.
“Turns out it WAS too good to be true,” laments Leslie, burying his face into his hands. “I suddenly remembered that McKellan was Magneto, so that kind of cancels out the whole gay thing, and makes him kinda cool. It wouldn’t be right dissing Gandalf like that. The whole Apt Pupil ‘little boy’ angle went out the window - everyone knows that pedophiles are hilarious, but insulting one that people like is always a crap shoot.”
Leslie removed his socks for the first time in two weeks, tossing them into a pile of empty Hot Pockets boxes.
“Then I realized that most people don’t even know who Brad Renfro is. When you bring up that he was in Tom and Huck, everyone assumes that you’re talking about Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Then nobody thinks you’re funny, since everyone has a soft spot for Simba.”
Leslie sat down and furiously rubbed his temples, obviously distraught over the whole experience.
“I think I’m going to give up trying to be topical, it’s too fucking hard. I think I should stick to quoting Clone High and doing Greased Up Deaf Guy impressions.”

April 18th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Loved this one - identified with it, too. How many friggin’ articles do Mike and Josh have banked, fer crissakes?
How long you wanna play flamewarz in the Bucket? I don’t want to bore people, but it’s kinda fun flaming through haiku…
April 19th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Flame away to your hearts desire! If this site turned into a big floppy circle jerk where we wrote articles about how awesome we all are, I’d be calling it quits really quick.
It’s not surprising that you identified with this article, since it’s based on a true story. When I was finally getting some headway on my hilariously unhilarious Ledger/Renfro article, I realized they died two months ago and decided to pull a Charlie Kaufman to at least save some of my effort.
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:28 am
clap clap clap
your references are awesome. Sour cream and onion…. jeez, didnt see that one coming.
Bravo