It is a crazy world, and sometimes people just need to laugh it off.

Chad Harris, Springfield resident and founder of Fair City News, hopes his satirical publication provides more than a few chuckles to usurp the insanity.

Fair City News is a tabloid newspaper that pokes fun at local events through fake news articles.

“We take tidbits of truth and spin stories around events that are happening here locally,” Harris said. “Satire is a great way to escape the madness that exists in our society.”

Fair City News started out as a blog in March 2009, but debuted a print product this month, leaving Harris to joke that the publication is “regressing in technology.”

Harris has a background in improvisational comedy, having studied it in college and performed it for the last 12 years. He is associated locally with the Skinny Improv and The Improvadors. He felt blogging was the “next logical step” and found writing fake news stories a great way to “have an alternate source of creativity.”

Harris writes the vast majority of articles appearing in Fair City News and pushes himself to write at least one satire article daily for the website.

“When you’re on stage, you’re on a tight-wire, putting your head in a lions mouth, and you have got to perform on the spot,” Harris said. “Similarly, at Fair City News, I sit down on the computer and look at the news topics of the day. It’s my time to get a little written improvisational humor.”

While the Fair City News blog garnered plenty of readers on its own, Harris believed the time was right for a move to print.

“This was right around the time GO Magazine went out of print, and I wanted to introduce something students would enjoy and graduates would enjoy,” Harris said, adding that advertising support has been solid thus far.

Chad Harris, founder of Fair City News.

Harris believes Fair City News may create an avenue for people to become more informed about local news topics by making it more appealing.

“If readers are interested in reading ‘funny’ articles,” Harris said, “they are more likely to read about the real issues and be more informed about the world around them.

Fair City News produces a print version once a month which is available on campus. Its blog can be found online at faircitynews.com. Fair City News is seeking student contributors.