Gag

"The Pink Panther 2" slinks into theaters this week with all the stealth of a monster truck with a bad muffler, or a Howie Mandel game show (or use your own favorite over-the-top analogy here). It is all about excess and extremes with any shred, sliver or speck of nuance as elusive as the Pink Panther diamond and apparently Jeremy Irons' self-esteem, but more on that later.

Everywhere in these tough times, people are trimming the excess from their lives. The Indian martial arts comedy "Chandni Chowk to China," however, which stars Akshay Kumar as a hapless food-stall worker who goes from chopping vegetables to hand-chopping bad guys, approaches entertainment with a more-is-more ethos.

When new members were welcomed to an e-mail group called the Easy Rider Gag List, they were warned that they would soon be receiving a steady diet of tasteless humor. The warning came from the Easy Rider himself: Alex Kozinski, one of the highest ranking and most intellectually respected federal judges. On the gag list, Kozinski periodically distributed jokes to a group of friends and associates, including his law clerks, colleagues on the federal bench, prominent attorneys and journalists.

PHILADELPHIA -- I'm worried about Joe Torre. This is no time to sound clueless, the Dodgers going flat against the Phillies again, the manager asked what he might say to his team, and Torre appearing befuddled. "There's nothing I can tell them," he said. I don't get paid by the Parking Lot Attendant, and for that matter a lot of the Dodgers don't either, but I know what I'd tell our heroes. "OK, guys, gather around. We're on our way to Washington. Those clowns have lost 14 of their last 16. An automatic sweep -- no reason to even use Jonathan Broxton, so everyone can rest easy.

Question: I live in a condominium complex near Studio City. At the association's general meetings there is an "open forum" for discussion. If an owner raises an issue that is not on the agenda during the open forum, the board president says it cannot be discussed under the Davis-Stirling Act. The president says that because this issue was not on the agenda, discussion must wait until the next month, when it can go on the agenda. Is she correct in her interpretation of the Davis-Stirling Act?

The generals, to put it mildly, can't take a joke. But the Moustache Brothers make their living mocking fools, including those who wear military uniforms. So they have drawn a battle line in this country's long struggle for democracy with a small stage that cuts across their cramped living room, site of the three-man comedy troupe's nightly performance. The military regime silenced street protests last fall by arresting and, in some cases, shooting peaceful demonstrators.

Re "Forget smokers, tax snackers," Opinion, Nov. 12 As a smoker, I of course applaud Tina Dupuy's article. However, intellectual honesty demands that I point out its one small problem: Stopping the persecution of smokers via tax after tax would deprive the majority of the population of its self-righteous satisfaction at sticking it to what they've been taught are a bunch of evil addicts.

A flotilla of L.A. residents gather in an unlandscaped recreation area in Baldwin Hills to canoodle, attempt suicide, plot revenge and dig into one another's psyches in writer-director Kurt Voelker's high-spirited if slight comedy, "Park."

A San Francisco transplant surgeon pleaded not guilty Wednesday to two felony charges stemming from his alleged efforts to hasten the death of a prospective organ donor last year. A lawyer for Dr. Hootan Roozrokh entered the plea on his client's behalf in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court. The attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, also filed a motion to have a third count thrown out because he contends it is legally flawed.

As Meryl Friedman plowed through ancient comedy's greatest hits, looking for 21st century AD laughs in 3rd century BC material, she began to wonder whether funny things really did happen on the way to the Forum. This was not what the veteran stage director, who has made a cottage industry of adapting literary texts into play-able form, was hoping for as she plumbed an assortment of translations.