New Parody Is Ridiculing The Phoenix

Readers of The Boston Phoenix might have found themselves confused at the appearance of The Boston Tucson, a well-planned parody of the Boston weekly that hit Cambridge newsstands earlier this week.

The Tucson, which mimics the Phoenix's format and writing style, aims to "inject a little humor in the otherwise humorless Boston news scene" Dennis Giangreco, president of Wet Incorporated, the Tucson's publisher, said yesterday.

The Tucson is Giangreco's second attempt to parody a Boston newspaper. Last December he published The Fake Paper, a take-off on The Real Paper that Giangreco said was "immensely popular."

"The Real Paper and the Boston Phoenix have a lot of humor in them, but none of it is intentional. They take themselves too seriously and are thus excellent parody material," Giangreco said.

He added that both papers have a "younger, more hip" audience that is more likely to appreciate his parodies than the "staid, middle-aged audience" of the Globe and other Boston dailies.

A member of the Phoenix staff said yesterday the paper's management has not heard of The Tucson.

Giangreco said yesterday that he started the company with a group of friends last December to publish a few copies of The Fake Paper as "a little joke on The Real Paper." The first parody was "so obscenely successful" that the company had to print an extra 6000 copies to meet the popular demand. The group has published 55,000 copies of The Tucson.

Giangreco said he does not plan to publish any further parodies. He called the first two efforts "one-short affairs done for fun and money."