Satirists find humor in Nick and Jessica split

Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson announced their split last week. File picture / Reuters

LOS ANGELES - The breakup of "Newlyweds" reality TV stars Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey spurred laughs on the Web as satirists poked fun at the couple known for being ditzy.

The pair who went from middling pop singers to A-list celebrities through the TV show "Newlyweds" about their life as a couple, said in a statement last week they were separating after three years of marriage.

Web site pugbus.com said Simpson, who famously confused "Chicken of the Sea" tuna for chicken, had pushed the relationship over the edge by an associating with men from the Mensa society, whose members have high IQ. scores.

The online satirist jokingly quoted Simpson as saying, "I tried to reassure my husband that size doesn't matter, but his infections were already alienated. He feared that he was in under his head."

The couple's future together had long been the subject of speculation, despite denials from both Simpson and Lachey the end was in sight. As far back as April 1, 2004, the website realityblurred.com announced the couple was starting a new series, "Newlydivorced: Nick and Jessica".

The actual announcement was made with little fanfare on the eve of the US Thanksgiving holiday.

"After three years of marriage and careful thought and consideration, we have decided to part ways," Simpson and Lachey said in a statement.

"This is the mutual decision of two people with an enormous amount of respect and admiration for each other."

Simpson was a teen singer who had failed to find the commercial success of Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera when she married Lachey, a singer in the boy band 98 Degrees, in October 2002.

They quickly became superstars on "Newlyweds," an MTV program that chronicled their lives over three years as rich, sometimes clueless, 20somethings navigating show business and life together in a ritzy Los Angeles-area mansion.

Simpson recorded a string of hit songs, appeared in TV commercials, launched a perfume line and landed a part in the 2005 summer movie "The Dukes of Hazzard." Lachey's career as a solo artist, however, floundered as his wife's soared.

The breakup of "one of Hollywood's greatest couples" was major news, even in the White House, according to a spoof report on the website chortler.com.

It depicted President George W. Bush as complaining that the breakup was more bad news, on top of problems in Iraq, and facetiously quoted him as saying, "I can't take any more."

- REUTERS