Four and a half years as a fake news reporter on The Daily Show prepped the public for not taking Mo Rocca too seriously, but his string of appearances as a CNN/VH1/NBC commentator and the host of Animal Planet's Whoa! programming block is baffling in a "what the hell are you doing with your career?" sort of way. His current "Gamekillers 101" tour (sponsored by AXE Dry deodorant) is especially odd, a 10-city college lecture exposing students to the "dark side of the dating game." Mo, please explain yourself.

City Paper: To start, what is the deal with this "Gamekillers" thing?

Mo Rocca: I've been studying the mating game for a long time in the field and the laboratory, so I'm fully aware of this syndrome called "gamekilling"—that there are these entities that exist solely to make young men go home alone and unhappy. What I've found in my research, made possible through a generous grant by AXE, is that there are 14 subspecies of gamekillers—11 men and three women.

CP: Have you ever seen yourself in the role of a gamekiller?

MR: I'm often mistaken as "IQ," which is certainly flattering because I don't think I'm that smart. A typical "IQ" knows all the q-words in Scrabble, for instance, which I don't. But I also can become "Early Man" at times, so I'm something of a hybrid. He's a primordial beast, Popeye, the ape at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

CP: What do you think about MySpace.com and how it's changed the mating game?

MR: It's strangely old-fashioned, actually. MySpace is like an arranged marriage service based on what people list as their interests, to avoid the whole dating process altogether.

CP: You did improv and acting at Harvard, so I'm sure you wouldn't have been surprised about going into comedy or TV. But gamekillers? And Animal Planet shows?

MR: I don't think people could have foreseen what happened with cable TV and the sheer proliferation of content venues. It's kind of like remaining in school, like my life is one endless series of elective courses. Which is great because I can barely remember what I majored in.

CP: Do you feel pigeonholed as an ironic commentator?

MR: Different shows have different tones. The snarky thing can get tiresome. I should be so lucky that I can make people laugh on so many different shows though. There's an upside and a downside: You get variety, but you don't always get the depth you want. I've had a lot of fun bouncing around, but I'm ready to get married.

Mo Rocca presents "Gamekillers 101," Tue., Feb. 28, 7 p.m., free, Temple University, Mitten Hall, 1913 N. Broad St., seating is on a first-come basis.