Tax Information And Guide

Letter to the Editor: Sense of humor sorely lacking

Date 4/18/2002 12:00 AM | Topic: Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

Out of all the virtues that reside within our community, I am quite disappointed to see that humor jumped ship, regrettably eradicated by extreme bitterness as evident by undeservingly harsh letters found in the latest CHIPS. Deborah Gomersall, unfortunately, takes a good laugh for the student body (which COULD be shared by the teaching body if they have the humor) and rips it apart as bad journalism. She obviously did not pick up on the fact that if CHUNKS was attempting real journalism they would have most likely included any form of facts in their stories. As a joke, it was quite successful, seeing as it took non-facts (aka fiction) to poke fun at. Since the "Weakest Link" was based on the ridiculous idea that an entire department was going to be dropped, a professor should not take offense at being included. Ms. Gomersall's comparison with a list of "least likely to succeed" students does not follow the same train of thought since that singles people out. Now if CHUNKS had written a "least likely major to get a job" list, that sure could have been humorous and could have satisfied Ms. Gomersall.

I also would like to discuss Professor Barry's article, starting with my deep regret for her bout with cancer and my relief of her victory-to-date over the disease. In her article I was bothered by the emphasis she put on maintaining a good self-image, yet her own body image was threatened by this pun. In my opinion, she could and maybe should be angered that she had not consented to the use of her head. But instead, her arguments were based on gender inequalities. According to her it was a "joke about women's bodies," even though the point of the article was clearly to make up silly stories about what crazy things professors might do during spring break (fiction yet again). If they were honestly going to have an article "joking about women's bodies" they would title it "ways to degrade women" (yet I doubt it would make press). Fiction should not be so anger-provoking. A similar picture with Professor Klammer's head on the body of a male stripper would have been laughed at by him, as well as many other people. It's satire, people, deriving humor from ridicule. And satire is HUMOR (not a tool for expressing chauvinist propaganda!! Don't change its meaning.)

Please don't fill the opinion page with so much hatred. (If anybody wishes to address my points, please come to me directly. My e-mail is stonerob).

I enjoyed the April Fools edition of CHIPS, and I hope they write one just as funny next year. I would advise picking professors with a better sense of humor next time though, Richard Hanson perhaps?

I wait impatiently for the day CHIPS mocks me, such that I could show people how to take a good joke. You laugh casually and smile because you were mentioned in the paper, yippee.

Don't be a hater.

Bob Stone ('04)

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Barry Campbell
Editor-in-Chief

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