UPDATE: Yearbook Prank Spreads Laughs Beyond O.C.

Looks like resident is having his 15 minutes of fame, and then some.

A Seattle radio show invited Somogyi—who took out a for his daughter in Aliso Niguel's yearbook depicting her in an unflattering light—to tell his side of the story last week.  

The talk show, Ross & Burbank, airs weekdays at 9 a.m. on 97.3 KIRO FM.  Somogyi said a producer of the show left a message on his ex-wife's answering machine asking for him to be on the show.

"We actually weren’t very thrilled about it. It seemed like this had really gone too far," Somogyi said. "I kind of want the story to go away, but then, there is an element of it that is very funny. By the time the radio station called me back, I felt very ready to discuss it and was very amused by the yearbook ad getting this kind of attention."

As for how the story that first appeared on Laguna Niguel Patch in June 20 reached Seattle the show's producer, Andrew Walsh, said the show's hosts sift through local blog sites and found the story on Gawker.com.

"When I first read what he actually wrote, I didn't quite follow the joke.  I didn't think it was appropriate, but only because I thought that maybe the dad had a bit of a lame sense of humor," said the show's host, Luke Burbank.  

Somogyi said he thinks that he eventually convinced Burbank of the humor.

"When he came on the show, he was surprisingly likable," Burbank said. "I have a 17-year old daughter too, and I would never do something like this, but she and I do have a very similar relationship to theirs."

What Did Seattlites Think of the Prank?

Most of the comments on the blog post attached to the radio show seemed to agree that this is a slightly overblown situation. 

One poster "Humor," wrote: "Humor is in the ears of the beholder—or something like that. I have a similar relationship with my dad. We kid each other relentlessly, yet we know what each other's motives are. When you understand a person's motive and personality, you are less likely to be overly sensitive or easily offended by their comments to or about you."

But there were a couple posters who failed to see the humor, including a comment from "Meh," who wrote, "I don't think it's that funny. The Gawker article references Monty Python, and I think this falls a little short of that. I also would probably be a little pissed with the school for allowing such a stupid ad to be in my yearbook."

How Is the Family Doing?

"I am much more at peace about the whole issue.  My ex and I had a full-on laughing fit after the first interview, and the comments people have written on the Patch.com website have been very supportive.  It made a big difference to me," Somogyi said.

And, apparently, despite the extra attention that his daughter has been getting, the graduation ceremony went off without a hitch.

"I was concerned about going to the graduation ceremony and someone confronting me, but everyone who knows us came up to us and told us how much they laughed," Somogyi said.  "The people who were most angered don’t know me, so they couldn’t pick me out in the crowd, I guess."

A Life of Its Own

"Back in January, I had this idea to play a little practical joke on my daughter.  I never imagined that five months later I’d be defending my joke on a Seattle radio station, and there was a time I really wondered whether I had done a bad thing, but I don’t feel that way any more, based on the comments people have posted," Somogyi said.

Burbank thinks that ultimately this will be a situation that the family will look back at years down the road and "have a good laugh at."

"Ultimately, he's created the most famous yearbook ad in America.  Maybe next year she can be voted most likely to be embarrassed by her father."