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NAMES & FACES

Go West for Laughs?

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Oh, sorry! We forgot to laugh. According to a recent poll, East Coast residents just aren't that funny.

The Kaplan Thaler Group (the ad agency behind the Aflac duck) commissioned the survey after the company's bigwigs noticed a lack of comedy shows on TV and a decline in the popularity of stand-up comedy.

Out of 1,000 people polled, 25 percent said East Coasters -- including Washingtonians -- are the most humorless. So who's the ha-ha head honcho? The West Coast. Must be the quakes. The South and Midwest follow.

DC Improv manager Allyson Jaffe is demanding a recount. "I completely disagree," she said. "There's a different type of comedy on the East Coast than the West Coast. The East Coast tends to be darker and more sarcastic.

"Comics can really work with educated humor in Washington because people here are smart and well-educated." So there!

End Notes

· Coretta Scott King , the 78-year-old widow of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr ., was admitted to an Atlanta hospital yesterday for an unspecified condition. "She's here and resting comfortably," a hospital source said.

· Universal is slated to make a $15 million 9/11 movie based on the terrorist hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, according to Variety.com. "Flight 93" will be a 90-minute real-time movie following the decision by passengers to sacrifice their lives to take control of the plane. Filming is set to begin in October.

-- Compiled by Korin Miller from staff and wire reports

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