We’re practically halfway through the semester, and no protests yet. However, along with some making fun of the disabled, there are still troubling things going on, not counting the usual substandard campus journalism that at times pales in comparison to other media. Today’s victim: humor.
I’m not sure I stressed it enough during the fallout of the April Fools’ Issue last semester, but one of the other things slighted by The Hoya in that issue was comedy in general and satire specifically. Now, obviously this is not as important in the grand scheme of things when compared to racism, but it is painful for comedy geeks like myself to see it treated in such a way. I’ll try to leave it at that, because something of comedy also dies when you discuss it like a high art form and what it means to the lives of those create it. But the pleasure I get from seeing The Hoya try to do what the Heckler does each year and failing pales in comparison to the sadness I get from seeing satire written poorly and becoming something hateful. As I said, I’m a geek.
The Hoya’s mantra from here on out should be, “Don’t publish anything that’s racist; and if you’re trying to be funny, and it’s not funny, don’t publish that either.” They are not following it with their editorial cartoons.
At points in the past, I’m sure these have been funny. In fact, someone who has often contributed to the Heckler used to do these things for them. But if they can’t find a good editorial cartoonist, they just need to not have one for a while. Editorial cartoons themselves these days are usually hackneyed and ripe for parody, but the form is not dead, and laughs can still be had from them. The Hoya’s cartoons by their current cartoonist, however, are a unique kind of terrible. Not only are they not at all funny, they usually don’t make any sense either. Whatever the cartoonist is trying to say is completely imperceptible. The space on the third page of each issue is a complete black hole for humor and reason. And on the website, they are attached to op-eds that have nothing to do with them. Huh?
This most recent cartoon was paired with an op-ed on Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize on the website. So many questions arise. Did the cartoonist just think that putting swine flu news together with something collegey (beer) constitutes a complete thought? Does he somehow think that the University is lax on alcohol regulations and tries to force alcohol on its students? Or is it trying to distract students from the shortage, which is obviously not true? And why do these “BEER KEGS” have spigots for attaching a garden hose on the bottom of them and nothing on top? Has the cartoonist ever seen a beer keg? Finally, look at the wrist on that table. LOOK AT THAT WRIST.
I could cite more examples (especially if The Hoya gave me any possible way to locate these cartoons on their site), but I can feel comedy dying with each word I write.
In other Hoya news, apparently someone on the Ed Board got an alcohol violation in the past few weeks! And they are still refusing to name the student arrested for shooting off that gun in McDonough, despite the precedent set by their giddy article in the less serious Simon Wu incident.
