Hot Type, for the week of May 5, 2003 -- continued The Heckler is that newspaper. Twelve pages thick, it was launched in early April, and most of the 5,000 copies were distributed in Wrigleyville bars. "I've never wanted to just go to something," explains Zibung, the editor in chief, who's 26 and a lifelong Cubs fan, though his fidelity to baseball barely survived the '94 strike. "I've always wanted to be a part of it in my way. So in a way, this is putting me alongside the action. Everyone who writes for it is a huge fan and wants the team to do well." But the editorial model is the Onion. The banner headline on the front page of the first Heckler japed, "2003 Season Underway: Cubs Concede NL Title." When I suggest that only a fair-weather Cubs fan would stoop to ridicule a mere 58 years after the last pennant, Zibung takes the point more seriously than I meant it and eventually sends me an E-mail pleading his case. "I was thinking a little more about your doubts of my sincerity as a Cubs fan," he writes. "I understand where you're coming from, but I think at some point, many die-hard fans take on the role of critic. . . . It's that mindset that's given way to The Heckler." When the Cubs began the season at a winning pace inappropriate to sarcasm, the Heckler didn't stumble. Issue two led with "Tribune to Sell Cubs." John Madigan, chairman of the Tribune Company, was quoted as saying, 'We're winning too many games. It's simply not the Tribune way." The newspaper spawned by a Web site spawned by a bleacher cheer has now spawned a second Web site, www.theheckler.com. Ellis having moved to the west coast, it's up to Zibung to keep everything straight, including the busy schedule of a new Cubs mascot. Chug-Chug the Comeback Clown hands out the Heckler in bars and roams the park during games high-fiving fans and leading cheers. To Chug-Chug's distress, he doesn't look like much of a clown because Cubs management won't let him into the ballpark in full costume. Zibung says the Cubs cite security concerns -- perhaps the same concerns that led them to raise those green screens above the outfield walls last year. "Why can't I wear my red wig and freakin' red nose and bring the World Series to Chicago as the Comeback Clown?" grouses Jason Yurechko, the unemployed improv student who plays Chug-Chug. "Last year the Angels had that Rally Monkey and won the freakin' World Series." The Heckler found Yurechko by advertising at www.improvchicago.com for a serious Cubs fan. "I thought, man, that's perfect for me," he says. "I brought to the table that I can do balloon animals, and I'm a graphic designer by trade, so I showed up for the interview wearing a Heckler T-shirt I'd made." "He's got marginal talent doing balloon animals," says Zibung. The idea that there's a pecking order among balloon-animal makers is a new one to me. "He breaks a lot of balloons," Zibung explains. "At the launch party I saw a lot of people with balloon rings around their necks." Balloons Chug-Chug gave up on? Yes, says Zibung. "I do the basics," says Yurechko. "The dogs. The cats. The hats. When you start getting into the fancier stuff, the Cubs emblem -- not just the Cubs emblem, but the Cubs emblem with a bear walking through it . . . " Not yet? "It's a matter of time." The Heckler multimedia empire isn't making anybody any money yet. That's regretted by Zibung and Yurechko -- and by Yurechko's wife. "He comes in from northwest Indiana, so I give him transportation and a few bucks," says Zibung. "He knows if the paper brings in money he'll get a portion of it, but it's hard to convince his wife of that." "She actually is supportive," says Yurechko, "but she was hoping for a little more fundage, if you know what I mean." News Bites • When Tribune theater critic Michael Phillips wrote his review of Gem of the Ocean, August Wilson's new play at the Goodman, he took a dig at the people he'd watched it with: "Wilson's characters can spark something even in a predominantly white, predominantly repressed nonprofit regional theater subscription audience." Repressed? Phillips's review was published in the Tribune and posted on the Tribune's Metromix Web site. Metromix left his language alone. But the Tribune turned what he wrote into "a predominantly white, predominantly restrained nonprofit regional theater subscription audience." "I didn't know they changed that," Phillips said when I called him. He'd gone to New York right after finishing the review and hadn't seen it published in either version. "'Restrained' is apparently less insulting than 'repressed.'" To a white, middle-aged audience it would be. To the younger Metromix crowd, "repressed" might be telling it like it is. Modern editing technology now makes it possible to give every generation the adjectives it approves of. • Trying to explain the Laci Peterson phenomenon in last week's Hot Type, I suggested that the indispensable reason the story took off was "everyone's good-looking." A former Chicago newspaperman wrote in to say, "And white." OK, that too. Send tips, tirades, and comments to hottype@chicagoreader.com Copyright © 2003 Chicago Reader, Inc. All rights reserved.