Pat Brice and Mike Bridenstine's mugs are plastered on the front of MySpace's main page today, as the Blerds video "Rent Or Own" was chosen as a featured video on the megapopular site. MySpace: not just for pre-adolescent hookups anymore, now it's a powerful marketing tool for musicians and comedians alike.

This little accomplishment is another addition to what seems to be an ever-growing list for the group. The Blerds site will be celebrating its one-year anniversary at the end of April, with what we're sure will be the party to end all parties, so stay tuned for details real soon!

Hey! Wanna feel old? The three youngest team members at i.O. - born in 19-fricking-85 - are joining forces to create Forever 21, consisting of Bastion contributor Mackenzie Condon, Jon DeWalt of Callous and thoseguyfilms.com, and Lauren Lapkus, recently of The Darned, MISSfits, Big Yellow Bus, and Impress These Apes. Fork out a mere $5 to see them in the Del Close Theater at i.O. tomorrow at 8 p.m. before Mackenzie wusses out and heads to New York for law school. (Really, it's sad to see people dropping out of comedy for something as chancy as law. What will she have to fall back on?)

Also, there's a bit of fuss across the internet today in the wake of a Washington Post story called "Beaten to the Punchline," in which the trials and tribulations of the modern itinerant female stand-up are dissected and analyzed. Maria Bamford points out the common hiring practice of no more than one female comic per lineup, except for special cases of quasi-token "theme nights," like the ones specially crafted to highlight black or Latino comic talent. Lisa Lampanelli logs in with thoughts about the challenges of life on the road as well as her style's appeal to men, provocatively suggesting that "Men respond to my kind of (crude) comedy. If a guy wants to hear a yapping bitch, he'll just stay home with his wife."

New York comic and blogger Carolyn Castiglia vents about the article a bit herself. She's actually a bit tired of receiving links to every article about "women in comedy," thinks the media may be rubbing female comics' noses in something already as plain as day, and wonders if there are any topics that are strictly the domain of the woman comedian. "Is marriage a female topic? No. Jim Gaffigan is married. Louis CK is married. Chris Rock is married. Brian Posehn is married. Is dating a female topic? No. Zach Galifianakis talks about having a broken heart on stage. Are children (gulp!) a female topic? Ah, let's hope not, considering that most of the married male comics I mentioned not only have kids but talk about them in their acts. So what the expletive is it then, huh? Is it that our pathetically sad little American culture still just wants our 'yapping bitches' to shut the expletive up?"

Check out the article yourself and let us know what you think.

- Elizabeth McQuern