One of my first jobs at Pogo was to re-do our news and humor section. And so in March of 2002, we launched the Pogo Funny Pages, a humor section with horoscopes, jokes, News of the Weird, some syndicated comics, and weekly original features.

Writing the features was a lot harder than you'd think. Pogo's a family-friendly site, so our stuff had to consist of PG-rated, non-controversial humor, which isn't easy. Basically, imgine trying to write a humor section that your friends' moms would find funny. This is kinda the challenge I was up against.

The Funny Pages ran for about 9 months. I think we had about 5000 readers weekly, which might seem like a lot, but given the number of people who normally visit Pogo (several hundred thousand a day), it really wasn't anything great -- especially when you considered the amount of time I was putting into it. So in the end, we decided to take down the funny pages. (Sniff.)

But I hated to let all that work just disappear. So for your reading pleasure, here's a of most of the stuff I wrote (sometimes under the psuedonym Pete Thompson, so it looked like we had an actual staff of writers) while the Funny Pages were around. Feel free to check 'em out. Oh, and the ones with a star next to them? Those are my favorites.

	Inside Pogo: Interview With the Cactus This week, we chat with Spike, our cuddly little mascot, about Poppit! Read Spike's recommendations for better Poppit popping, and find out why a cactus needs to wear a vest, anyway. Originally ran March 27, 2002
	Cooking for Single Guys Okay, so we're no Martha Stewart, but we could still kick her butt in air hockey. Originally ran March 27, 2002
	Letter From The Editor The New-And-Slightly-Improved Pogo Shtick Funny Pages Originally ran March 27, 2002
	Let's Give a Shout-Out To Our Peeps! Little. Yellow. Squishy. Originally ran April 3, 2002
	The Liza Minnelli Wedding! No, we weren't invited, but that doesn't mean we don't care. Originally ran April 3, 2002
	Caption Contest #1 Supply the funniest caption and win a million dollars! Or some tokens. Our choice. Originally ran April 3, 2002
	Funny Pages Tax Help! They're due April 15th! Which means I probably won't start until about 9:00 pm on the 14th. Originally ran April 10, 2002
	EA Celebrity Challenge Think you're smarter than the average EA employee? Yeah, you're probably right. Originally ran April 10, 2002
	Broken English Musical Challenge! Mastered reading the instructions that came with your stereo? Then give this a try! Originally ran April 17, 2002
	Caption Contest #1 Winners So a man and a duck walk into a bar... Originally ran April 17, 2002
	Letter From the Editor: We Have No Integrity You probably already knew this, but it's nice to see it in writing. Originally ran April 17, 2002
	Inside Pogo: Who Wants to be a Four Thousandaire? We interview the winner of one of the largest jackpots in Pogo history, who shares his thoughts on golf, life, and creepy clowns. Originally ran April 24, 2002
	How to Cope With the Loss of a TV Show Ally McBeal may be gone, but she'll live on forever in our hearts. And re-runs, of course. Originally ran April 24, 2002
	EA Celebrity Challenge Yes, Santa Claus, there really is a Virginia. And we're interviewing her this month. Originally ran May 1, 2002
	Calling All Bachelors Welp, since we can't find a date for our freelance writers the traditional way, we figure we'd better try television. Originally ran May 1, 2002
	Mom Scientific Monthly What the world would be like if scientific research was conducted by our mothers. Originally ran May 8, 2002
	Mom Goes to the Movies Movie quote quizzes just like mom used to make Originally ran May 8, 2002
	Letter from the Editor: Mother's Day Extravaganza! In case you haven't noticed yet, there's a theme to this week's features... Originally ran May 8, 2002
	Inside Pogo: Gopher It! We finally get a chance to interview the Word Whomp gophers. But we had to promise them the interview would not involve anybody getting bonked on the head. Originally ran May 15, 2002
	Caption Contest #2 It's back by popular demand! (i.e. Nobody said they hated it.) Originally ran May 15, 2002
	Letter From the Editor: Rodents! Run! They're furry. They're cute. And they're about to get even. Originally ran May 15, 2002
	Movie Merger Mania! Brought to you by AOL-Time-Warner-Viacom-Universal-Disney Originally ran May 22, 2002
	Letter From The Editor: Pogini's Long-Lost Brother? Psychic powers must run in the family Originally ran May 22, 2002
	Caption Contest #2 Winners No skunks were harmed in the manufacture of this contest Originally ran June 5, 2002
	Letter From the Editor: Shameless Vote Pandering You'll never see us stoop to the level of those guys at IGN. I plan on going much much lower. Originally ran June 5, 2002
	Broken English Musical Challenge! The sad thing is, a lot of the songs sound better this way. Originally ran June 12, 2002
	The Funny Pages' Guide to Wine Tasting Trust me, it gets a lot easier after the third bottle... Originally ran June 12, 2002
	EA Celebrity Challenge This week, we ask Tarrnie Williams a bunch of tough, hard-hitting questions. Such as, "Where'd you get a name like 'Tarrnie'?" Originally ran June 19, 2002
	Letter From the Editor: The Depot Man Home Depot: It's a place for dads, not girlfriends. Originally ran June 19, 2002
	Letter From the Editor: Now You're Cookin'! We don't win awards, marshmallow animals get hurt. It's that simple. Originally ran June 26, 2002
	Inside Pogo: Reader Mail We take a moment to read all our mail. Once we're finished starting up all those viruses, we answer a question from our Canadian readers. Originally ran July 3, 2002
	Movie Merger Mania: The Visual Edition Hollywood out of ideas? Our crappy Photoshop skills are here to help. Originally ran July 3, 2002
	The Pogo Dare! Sort of like truth-or-dare, but you don't need to be a teenage girl at a slumber party to play. Originally ran July 17, 2002
	EA Celebrity Challenge: Le Freek! C'est Chic! Freekstyle's Todd Arnold answers a few questions and gets his freek on. Originally ran July 17, 2002
	Inside Pogo: Boy Meets Girl Read our interview with U-Go Girl, the heroic star of Sci-Fi Slots, or she might beat you up. Originally ran July 24, 2002
	The Funny Pages' Tips for Surviving the Crappy Econmy When it comes to sound financial advice, you should always trust a dot-com web site! Originally ran July 24, 2002
	Caption Contest #3 Stop putting words into your spouse's mouth. Put 'em into ours instead. Originally ran July 31, 2002
	Martha! Martha! Martha! Take our quiz. It's a Good Thing. Originally ran July 31, 2002
	The Broken English Musical Challenge This month, we take a look at TV Theme Songs! We're moving on up... to the East side... Originally ran August 7, 2002
	Letter From the Editor: The New Pogo Dare section See it? It's right down there. Originally ran August 7, 2002
	Caption Contest Winners All dogs go to Heaven. But only some of them win tokens. Originally ran August 14, 2002
	Other Presidential Backgrounds Some White House photo ops you might have missed. Originally ran August 14, 2002
	The Pogo Dare Photo Album! We've got pictures of pets in hats! You'll like it. It's cute. Honest. Originally ran August 28, 2002
	What Board Game Are You? The question might haunt you forever unless you take our little self-test! Originally ran August 28, 2002
	Caption Contest #4! That's one small joke for man, one giant pile of tokens for the winner. Originally ran September 4, 2002
	Terms of the Major League Baseball Agreement Revealed! We send in our investigative reports to find out what kind of deal those baseball guys came up with. Sure, we've got investigative reporters! They're... uh... on assignment right now. Yeah, that's the ticket. Originally ran September 4, 2002
	The Funny Pages Mortal Combat Death Race Arena Thing! With Plants. You've gotta admit, right up until that "plants" part, it sounded pretty exciting. Originally ran September 11, 2002
	One Flew Over the Haiku's Next Japanese art form Gets stripped of all dignity By our writing staff. Originally ran September 18, 2002
	Caption Contest #4 Winners! In space, nobody can hear you groan. Originally ran September 18, 2002
	The Real Death Race Let's check in on our Death Race Arena Thingie contestants after the first two weeks... Originally ran September 25, 2002
	The Pogo Dare Photo Album! We got some results back from the "Get yourself wet" dare. Which is good, 'cuz it probably won't be as popular come January. Originally ran September 25, 2002
	Inside Pogo: Who are the people in your neighborhood? We chat with Sharri, a jackpot winner who works right down the street from us. Originally ran October 2, 2002
	The Price is Close Enough Hey, local universities! Don't waste money on books! Spend it on something your students will appreciate: concerts! Originally ran October 2, 2002
	The Pogo Dare Match Game (Part 1: The Gals) Check out some of our readers' childhood photos! Originally ran October 16, 2002
	The Mortal Combat Death Race Thingie, Part 3 Check out the exciting conclusion to our Death Race! (Your definition of "exciting" may vary.) Originally ran October 16, 2002
	What Infomercial Are You? As seen on TV! Uhh... well... your computer monitor's sort of like a TV, right? Originally ran October 23, 2002
	Spike Answers Your Letters Spike answers email from our readers. Except for the spam about finding singles in our area. Cacti don't really date. Originally ran October 30, 2002
	EA Celebrity Challenge: Earth to Rade... With Earth and Beyond Producer Rade Stojsavljevic, every day is Earth Day! (No, he's not an environmentalist. His Outlook calendar is broken.) Originally ran October 30, 2002
	The Pogo Dare Match Game (Part 2: The Guys) More Pogo readers share their baby photos with us. Originally ran November 6, 2002
	Election Day Recap! The mid-term elections! They're like the presidential elections, but with more apathy. Originally ran November 6, 2002
	Movie Limericks!! If you're a theatrical whiz You should try our new Limerick Quiz The poetry's lame But it's just a game It's not like we're all that concerned about getting the last line to rhyme or anything. Originally ran November 13, 2002
	Little Pumpkin Theater Presents Hey, we had to do something with them now that Halloween's over. Originally ran November 13, 2002
	The Pogo Dare Photo Album (part 3) This time around, we check out our readers in their Halloween costumes. Or maybe they dress that way all the time. (We've got some weird readers.) Originally ran November 20, 2002
	Guest Cartoonist of the Week! I'll give you a hint who our guest cartoonist is -- remember the comic Calvin and Hobbes? Well, it's not that guy. But he's still pretty funny. Originally ran November 20, 2002
	Spike Answers Your Mail! Uhh... that is, he answers the mail you've sent him. The stuff in your mailbox he's just skimmed. Originally ran November 27, 2002
	Pogo Dare Match Game (part 3) It's like The Picture of Dorian Gray, but without any of them fancy moral messages or anything. Originally ran November 27, 2002
	Letter From the Editor: We're Outta Here! Bye, kids! Originally ran December 4, 2002