Say the city, save the world. Or, at least fall back on an increasingly tired standby for punchlines. On a recent episode of NBC's "Heroes," our fair city gets a mention during a scene in which a new character is explaining why Claire's dad has to leave town to the wife. "We had a huge paper mixup in Fresno," is something like the quote went.

It always seems to be the butt of a joke. Case in point: Also last week, the USA Network comedy series "Psych" needed a city presumably less glamorous (or at least quieter than Santa Barbara), and its writers came up with -- you guessed it. The scene called for Corbin Bernsen's character to explain to his son that the woman he thought he saw jump out of an asylum window 20 years earlier is actually "probably married with two kids and living in Fresno."

The sad thing about both of these examples is neither is true (to their respective storylines). Both are examples in which characters have to conjure up "another place" to either lie or end a conversation.

So, beware: if someone ever mentions Fresno in the middle of talking about something that has absolutely nothing to do with Fresno ... run. (Or, just think of David Spade and that Capital One commercial. And then tell your dialogue partner that he or she is as funny as David freaking Spade.)