It turns out the fishy-smelling-but-just-amusing- enough-to-post-as-fact news item circulating throughout the European press about a month ago, in which Trey Parker and Matt Stone claimed that Saddam Hussein was being tortured with forced viewings of his animated manifestation rolling around in bed with Satan, was, in a shocking twist that we could never have anticipated from a source as earnest and trustworthy as the two creators of South Park, just a joke:

"South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone know how to punk the press. Media outlets all over the world picked up on the mischief-makers' recent claim at a U.K. press conference that Saddam Hussein's jailers had told the pair that the dictator had been forced to watch a "South Park" episode depicting him as Satan's gay lover. "It was a joke," Stone told us at a party celebrating the series' 10th season. Asked if Amnesty International might pursue them, Stone said, "Bring it on! We wish they would."

The embarrassing affair should serve as a lesson to an increasingly scoop-hungry and gullible news media operating under the impression that their efforts have no direct effect on global events: Their irresponsible reports not only misled the public, but also inspired the CIA, always on the lookout for new interrogation methods, to subject suspected terrorist detainess in secret Eastern European prisons to the very real "alternative" torture technique of round-the-clock screenings of Mind of Mencia.

• Side Dish [NY Daily News]