Comedians make hay outt of high gas prices

At least someone can find some humor in the soaring cost of a gallon of gas!

Gasoline prices have gotten so high, crooks are knocking over service stations and demanding "your unleaded or your life."

There's a barrel of dark humor in three-buck-a-gallon gas and $50 fill-ups, so comics across the nation have seized on the topic people can't stop talking about. With politicians on summer recess and no high-profile celebrities on trial, the gallows humor of gas prices has become a staple of comedy routines.

"The Daily Show" mocks drivers by sending out correspondents in a stretch Hummer. Late-night monologues abound with wisecracks on the price of crude. And everyone seems to know some variation of the guy whose wife wanted an expensive night on the town, so he took her to the local gas station.

"Because of these high prices, I've actually changed to an electric toothbrush," quipped Tom Stern, a Woodland Hills comedian and comic strip artist. "There are other ways to save gas, you know - I'm always pretending to break down, just so people will tow me places.

"And if anyone's hitchhiking, you'd better stick a thumb out with one hand and a gas can in the other. You'll get a lot more rides that way."

I never said it was *good* humor...