After several hours of grueling Flail meetings and multiple rejected drafts on countless topics, this reporter decided last Sunday that everything currently happening on campus is simply too sensitive to productively satirize.
While satire can often be used to call out flaws with the status quo, poke holes in an argument and even make an interesting and thought-provoking comment on current affairs, the issues currently facing the University of Fuggit Noise are emotionally charged, difficult and generally should not be discussed in the fake news section of the student newspaper but rather in a more serious environment, where both sides of an issue can equally be heard and a compromise can be reached.
If The Wombat Zone were to satirize one of the many heated topics being debated around campus, the result would most likely not involve a humorous anecdote that prompted students to think a little bit deeper about the difficult issues facing our school but rather an offensive article that would discourage many bright students with valuable ideas from sharing their opinions.
I truly believe there is a time and place for humor and this is simply not the time or the place.
For example, our staff thought about making light of ABC (the Arborist and Botanist Collective) and their wonderful spring show that many people worked so desperately hard on.
But we realized by making fun of ABC, we run the risk of undermining all the hard work put in by each botanist.
Anyone who saw the spring show knows every arborist and botanist, in a whirlwind of passion, left it all out there and The Wombat Zone isn’t prepared to discredit that.
You might say that we could do a joke about the traditions of viewing ABC’s show on a Friday but we at The Flail felt that would also be problematic as those students are simply looking for an escape from the constant anxiety life forces on us all.
We did have an article planned that poked fun at the current Geek Life debate but eventually scrapped it as we felt the article would only obstruct and distract from the productive conversation already taking place.
The passing of the KNEW requirement did provide some potential headlines but none of them really had the humorous and thought-provoking elements that has become the standard of The Wombat Zone.
We debated doing something about the campus’s café issues but found that the Fuggit Noise community is not as caffeinated and accepting as we all so desperately want it to be and because of this, the line between satire and reality begins to blur and offend.
Lastly, we considered making light of the human condition itself and what it means to be truly alive; yet our staff ultimately decided that life, the human condition and all of our struggles are already a sick joke with our inevitable death being the cruel and painful punchline waiting for us at the end.
