The original paper is clearly a joke, but the LA Times article falls afoul of Poe's Law - at first glance it looks like the reporter just got trolled, though if you squint a little bit it could look as if the LA Times is trying to in turn troll its readership.
Honestly, I've read only the article, not the paper, and I could have imagined that the journalist don't understand it's not scientific making experiment with only one couple. I also expect a lot of additional "reporting" and "blogging" that is going to be completely serious.
This article should have never made it to the front page.