New Orleans hurricane humor searching for gales of laughter

NEW ORLEANS — Some edgy humor is creeping back into this city six months after Hurricane Katrina.

Like the float in the Krewe du Vieux parade (Theme: "C'est Levee") that depicted hurricanes Katrina and Rita as naked lesbian lovers, or the T-shirt that shows two strategically placed satellite photos of swirling Katrina and Rita, with the words "Girls Gone Wild." Or several floats in separate parades referring to the Corpse of Engineers.

If humor is the best medicine, storm-shocked New Orleans is still tinkering with the dosage. Is it funny that women are fashioning dresses out of blue tarpaulins, like the ones that now cover the roof holes where trapped people chopped their way to freedom? Can you mock the agencies of first responders and relief workers?

The jury's still out. Maybe it's too early, or too late, for Katrina-based humor. Some people are trying, though, in this town famous for not taking itself too seriously.

At umpteen T-shirt stores, you can buy across-the-chest messages that read: "Where Is FEMA? Federal Employees Missing Again." Or "NOPD," which stands for "Not Our Problem, Dude" instead of New Orleans Police Department. Or "I Stayed in New Orleans for Katrina and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt, a New Cadillac and a Plasma TV" — which makes light of the looting.

At his night club, TV-star-turned-civic-activist Harry Anderson tells looting jokes before performing magic. "If we learned anything from Katrina" he says, "it's that plasma TVs fit through doors too easily." Not many laughs.

He says another joke works better: "The looters did so well that if you buy a $20 Rolex on Canal Street now, you get the real thing."

The city's boosterish slogan, "New Orleans — Proud to Call It Home," is the source of much satire. Now there's a new white T-shirt, one with a red sketch of a FEMA trailer that reads: "Proud to Call It Home."