06:09 PM CDT on Thursday, June 15, 2006

By CHRISTY ROBINSON / Staff Writer

What they are: Worth1000.com and FreakingNews.com are Web sites that hold Photoshop contests. They dictate a theme, a phrase or a word, and contestants use their mad "photo chop" skillz to create an image along those lines. The results range from fascinating to nightmarish.

What they're all about: To make a contest-worthy image, contestants take an existing picture and, using Adobe Photoshop or a similar photo-manipulation application, overlap another picture onto it. With a little blending, shading, color adjustment and other tricks, voila: a completely different photo. If you've seen the " If They Mated" segment on Conan O'Brien's show, in which photos of two famous people are melded together to create a ghastly celebrity spawn, then you've got the disturbing but comical idea.

The object of the game on sites like FreakingNews and Worth1000 is to come up with the most bizarre amalgamation possible that fits a particular contest's theme. For instance, if the given theme is "body hair," you might see an extremely hirsute Al Gore. Or if the theme were something current, like the bird flu epidemic, you might find President Bush getting in touch with his inner turkey. Contest submissions don't have to be ridiculous, however (although those are the most fun). Many themes also call for tricked-up images of flowers, fuzzy animals and the like.

Why we like them: I was introduced to the non-academic use of Photoshop back when I worked at my college newspaper, thanks to a beloved yet morose colleague. One day he entered the newsroom to find several photos of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! containers taped up on the walls. Except his "friends" had Photoshopped his smiling face and the re-worked phrase "I Can't Believe It's Not Bitter!" onto the margarine tubs. Clearly, Photoshopped pictures are the 21st-century equivalent of wedgies and whoopie cushions. At every job I've ever had, there's always been someone willing to make good use of company time by Photoshopping the editor's head onto the body of a bloated manatee or creating a convincing pseudo-photo of the office whipping boy making out with the CEO. This is all only slightly more professional than making copies of your butt on the Xerox machine, but it's undeniably entertaining.

Are the folks who enter these Photoshop contests artists? Or total goofballs? Thank goodness for them either way, because some days you just can't get through without seeing Nick Lachey dressed in Sailor Moon-inspired anime wear or a punk-rock frog.

In 'What we like,' our staffers let you know... well, what they're liking right now. Questions? Comments? E-mail BreakRoom@dallasnews.com.