Web site we like

By TOM ZUCCO

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 28, 2000

Just browsing . . .

http://www.hecklers.com

If it's done correctly, heckling can be an art form. Take in a baseball game and see what I mean. ("Hey ump, I know you can't see me. Follow the sound of my voice!") Some of the best heckling can also be found at hecklers.com, one of the oldest (launched in 1995) and largest comedy sites on the Web.

You'll have a wide range of topics to choose from: Let's Play Tug-O-Elian, the Al Gore Emotion Simulator, and Rejected Easter Candies (Pagan Brittle, King of the Juice) to name a few of the current ones.

As you can already tell, we are deep into politically incorrect territory here, and some of this may be offensive, so be warned. But there's no nudity -- none that I could find, anyway -- and little if any profanity.

That doesn't mean no fun. This is a place that has an advice column titled If That Was My Kid ... Last week one of the questions was from a single mom who was worried about what to do with her sometimes rambunctious kids, ages 5 and 8, now that school is almost over. This was the response: "First of all, you are not alone. Nearly one in four American households are just as screwed up and dysfunctional as yours, so don't feel bad.

"Is there not a neighbor or a relative you can leave the little monsters with for a week or two while you head to the beach to clear your mind? What about some kind of camp or something? Don't they have camps that deal with kids with behavioral problems like yours? Look into it."

Thank you so much.

The best material comes from the people who visit the site. If you go, stop at the feature titled Interactive Top Ten. The other day, the topic was Top 10 Complaints About the Raid on Elian's House. Among the responses visitors left were these: "Guys in masks kept screaming "Drop the chalupa!' " and "No blood, and I spent four months trying to get these seats!"

Of course it's insensitive. Of course it's crude.

But that's the beauty of it.

If you'd like to nominate a site, drop me an e-mail at zucco@sptimes.com