News of funny stuff travels fast on the internet, even when people don’t use email to spread the word. Franny and I were having dinner at a place called Go Sushi in Greenwich Village on Thursday night, amusing ourselves by watching the teeming masses that converge at the corners of Sixth and Eighth and Greenwich and, yes, Gay streets at rush hour when Charley Taylor and Stephanie Zacharek spied us through the glass. Living four blocks from me in Brooklyn, I never see them and have to run into them in Manhattan. They were having your average film critics’ night out — meeting a friend at a bar and then going to see Exterminating Angel — when Charley asked what would become the question of the moment:

“Have you seen Dylan Hears a Who?”

I got home to find the link in an email from Steph, followed by another — subject line: Click immediately — from my friend Jeremy Epstein. I won’t ruin the gag for you except to say that it has nothing to do with The Who.

People have been parodying Dylan pretty much since he started singing, and small wonder. As former Bowie sideman Mick Ronson, who toured with Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue once remarked, “He sounds like Boo Boo Bear.” That’s not completely fair, of course, though it is funny. Sort of like my son remarking upon hearing Tom Waits for the first time, “Is that the Cookie Monster singing?”

To the delight of us diehard Dylan fans everywhere, Bob is still having the last laugh: recording some of his best albums in his sixties, writing one of the best rock star bios to date (and it’s just volume one!), and hosting the delightfully bizarre Theme Time Radio Hour on XM. Some scoff that his is not a voice for radio but whose was? Wolfman Jack?

I’d like to know what Dylan thinks of Dylan hears a who. For that matter, I’d like to know what Alicia Keys thinks of being name-checked in a Dylan song. The answer is out there, I’m sure. Email me if you know. Word travels fast on the internet.