No Easy Trick

How to spoof the Enquirer ?

Perhaps nothing is harder to satirize than a venture that is already a caricature of itself. By that standard, the ultimate challenge to a parodist would have to be the weekly scandal sheets sold at supermarket checkout counters, epitomized by the 56-year-old National Enquirer (circ. 5 million). The Enquirer and its imitators, including the Globe, Star and National Examiner, feverishly mine such exotic "news" as people biting snakes, unimaginably obese couples losing hundreds of pounds, clergymen having visions of aliens or ghosts, and almost any gossip involving the Kennedy family.

Hard as it may be to concoct articles more bizarre than what the tabloids already run, the challenge has been taken up by Tony Hendra, 41, the editor-entrepreneur behind the 1978 parody Not the New York Times and last April's Off the Wall Street Journal. Says Hendra: "The Enquirer style is difficult. You have to keep sentences to ten words and use 'mind-boggling' and 'national survey' over and over. To get the layout right you have to unlearn everything you know about good design."

About 1.6 million copies of his Irrational Inquirer are scheduled to reach newsstands this week, and except for the price, $2, vs. 65-c- for the Enquirer, the takeoff is all but indistinguishable from the original. Indeed, that may be the jape's major flaw. Even regular readers of the Enquirer and its ilk may err in guessing which of the following stories comes from the spoof and which from the "real" tabloids: -- The Chinese Communist government is sabotaging the U.S.--by spreading herpes. -- John Lennon speaks daily from beyond the grave to his widow Yoko Ono.

> Making funny faces can help you look years younger.

> You can live in an enclosed steel box and be comfortable.

>"Good Night, Gracie [Allen]: My horror encounter with actress's ghost." *

The close imitation was taken, possibly sincerely, as flattery in the Lantana, Fla., headquarters of the Enquirer. Said Enquirer Editor Iain Calder, 43: "Obviously, I noticed the similarity. It's another confirmation that we are No. 1." Hendra's partner and publisher, Larry Durocher, 42, joked in an interview that the major difference between the publications is that the spoof is stapled together, while the Enquirer is merely folded. Then he noted another distinction that probably ought to matter to the 11 million credulous readers of the major U.S. scandal tabloids. Said Durocher: "We make no claim that our stories are true."

*Only the last story is from the Irrational Inquirer. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.