Harvard's punch season -- that painful, joyous, farcical orgy of social climbing -- is upon us. In the coming weeks, dozens of male sophomores will receive invitations to attend the "punch" rituals of the university's storied final clubs. (If you don't know or care about punch season at Harvard, don't fret: A handy guide is in the works. Caring is up to you.)

Thanks to the merry pranksters at the Lampoon, this year's season is already a joke. In an opening salvo, the Lampoon delivered fake punch invitations from the Porcellian (PC to you, chap) to various sophomore guys just as the PC released its real invitations. Confusion turned to glee and back to confusion as kids who neither went to Exeter nor gestated in a Rockefeller womb thought they had been invited to schmooze with the gentlemen (no girls allowed) of Harvard's most exclusive final club, only to discover they'd been had. Take that, commonfolk!

Expect cryptic envelopes from the other seven clubs to start sliding under select doors within a week or so.

Bonus: We hear Sarah Silverman is coming to play softball with the Lampoon. We'll enjoy watching the players run the bases while trying to hide their boners.

UPDATE 2:45 p.m.: We're hearing some amazing rumors that the Lampoon wasn't behind the fake punching -- the more likely culprit is an independent troublemaker trying to cover his tracks. A prank prank! God, you people take this stuff seriously. The Lampoon apparently pulled a similar joke a few years ago, sending counterfeit Hasty Pudding invitations to the homeliest members of the freshman class (the Pudding is known for having the most attractive members); does the Lampoon ever repeat its pranks? Well, count us among the snowed. Mazel tov, whoever you are!

UPDATE No. 2, 5:01 p.m.: The Lampoon writes: "Yeah, we had nothing to do with the PC prank. This year we decided to send fake invites for the Fly club, not the PC, so basically what I'm saying is I'm very sorry to all the sophomores who've been punched by the Fly, but your invites are fake." Hold on. Something's off. We're pretty sure the Lampoon is pranking us by claiming they pranked the Fly, to further confuse everyone about the rogue prankster's prank prank and gaaaaaaaaahhh!! We're not cut out for this shit!