2008 Woodie Awards
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The Insurgent is only good for laughing at
In my opinion
by Tyler Graf | Opinion editor
PUBLISHED ON 5/16/07 IN Commentary
It is no secret that my favorite on-campus humor publication is the Student Insurgent. My heart palpitates whenever a new issue comes out because I know that I will soon be laughing hysterically at the paper's unintentional brand of whimsy.
Every issue is a peek into the fevered minds of a group of incoherently angry anarchists, as they spout vitriol on purportedly "edgy" topics, like how capitalism sucks, or how Christians are bigots, or how J-school perpetuates the patriarchal paradigm. (Yes, they actually write like that.)
Well, mainly it's about how Christians are bigots.
They often underscore their points by WRITING IN ALL CAPS, or purposefully misspelling common words like Amerikkka, or using approximately 8 million fonts per page. In any given issue, you can almost hear the writers struggling valiantly to piss off and alienate the squares, as it did last year with an infamous issue that featured a cartoon of Jesus on the cross with an erection - an issue that has resurfaced around campus, approximately a year after its initial publication.
For those who don't know, the Insurgent receives nearly $20,000 a year in incidental fee money, making it the second costliest publication on campus, behind the Oregon Daily Emerald. Like the other ASUO-funded student publications, the Oregon Voice and the Oregon Commentator, a majority of the Insurgent's budget goes to printing and duplication. The Insurgent also pays some of its staffers stipends, meaning that members of the "collective" actually get paid to write, layout and distribute their little Mickey Mouse newsletter of rambling, ungrammatical prose and prolix calls for activism, interspersed with unpunctuated, ranting screeds against capitalism, which have the overall tone and cohesion of a tinfoil-hat-wearing bagman screaming at the invisible elves that live in his bus station locker.
Nobody pays much attention to the publication, as most people are unaware that it exists. Last year that changed with the aroused-Jesus issue, which gained national attention. In what can only be described as a post-Easter miracle, aroused Jesus and his throbbing turgidity have returned.
Every issue is a peek into the fevered minds of a group of incoherently angry anarchists, as they spout vitriol on purportedly "edgy" topics, like how capitalism sucks, or how Christians are bigots, or how J-school perpetuates the patriarchal paradigm. (Yes, they actually write like that.)
Well, mainly it's about how Christians are bigots.
They often underscore their points by WRITING IN ALL CAPS, or purposefully misspelling common words like Amerikkka, or using approximately 8 million fonts per page. In any given issue, you can almost hear the writers struggling valiantly to piss off and alienate the squares, as it did last year with an infamous issue that featured a cartoon of Jesus on the cross with an erection - an issue that has resurfaced around campus, approximately a year after its initial publication.
For those who don't know, the Insurgent receives nearly $20,000 a year in incidental fee money, making it the second costliest publication on campus, behind the Oregon Daily Emerald. Like the other ASUO-funded student publications, the Oregon Voice and the Oregon Commentator, a majority of the Insurgent's budget goes to printing and duplication. The Insurgent also pays some of its staffers stipends, meaning that members of the "collective" actually get paid to write, layout and distribute their little Mickey Mouse newsletter of rambling, ungrammatical prose and prolix calls for activism, interspersed with unpunctuated, ranting screeds against capitalism, which have the overall tone and cohesion of a tinfoil-hat-wearing bagman screaming at the invisible elves that live in his bus station locker.
Nobody pays much attention to the publication, as most people are unaware that it exists. Last year that changed with the aroused-Jesus issue, which gained national attention. In what can only be described as a post-Easter miracle, aroused Jesus and his throbbing turgidity have returned.
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