Web site creator comes up with one for laughs: Jokes.com
By Jennifer Croshaw

San Diego-based Jokes.com offers comic relief - and it also provides free "joke based" e-mail, as well as a database of thousands and thousands of jokes by one-liners, lists and stories - or by category.

We're the largest jokes site on the Internet," claims John Carrieri, CEO of Mira Mesa-based Lost Reality Studios, creator of Jokes.com and a number of other web sites.

On the site, you can also vote on the comedic value of the "Joke du Jour," by giving it anywhere from one to 10 "monkey votes" (in honor of the site's mascot, "Hondo"), then see how well the joke fared overall based on others' votes.

"The jokes come from all over the world," Carrieri said, adding that some f the same jokes are submitted a thousand times by different site visitors. Joke.com's staff edits the jokes and adds them to the site.

Jokes aren't the only comic element. Cartoon-like bulging eyes, elongated chins and fiendish horns are drawn on the site's "Goo Gallery," a frame-by-frame look at computer-manipulated celebrity heads. Among them are Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.

Hondo Headlines displays what wild and wacky stuff writers world-wide have discovered. These real news stories, updated daily, can leave readers baffled or bemused.

Launched in 1996, Jokes.com was started because "we wanted to make peope laugh and bring humor to people's lives," said Carrieri, 30 and a graduate of the University of San Diego. "Humor appeals to everybody."

According to Carrieri, the site generates more than 10 million page impressions a month, which led Lost Reality Studios to add more servers to its heavily trafficked system. (Page impressions tell companies how many people visit their Web sites.)

For parents who want their children to share in the laughter, or for adults who want to stay away from less tasteful jokes, the site offers filter preferences.

Jokes.com, which is financially supported by advertising sales, is only one of a number of Lost Reality Studios' projects. Others include designing commercial sites. Among them are sites for Merv Griffin and Brian Tracy (a San Diego-based inspirational speaker), and one at http://www.breathsofresh.com (this one's no joke).

Lost Reality Studios plans to add more options to Jokes.com, including customizing the site for viewers - with themes such as sci-fi, holidays and fantasy - and providing video streaming of popular comedians. Both will be available within the next couple of months, Carrieri said

Jennifer Croshaw is a news assistant at the Union-Tribune.