I was disheartened to read the letter published in the March 22nd issue of The Chronicle concerning NONSENSE. It seems that Mr. Beede and Mr. Solari are not fans of ours.
While this saddens me, it is inevitable when making a product like NONSENSE that people will dislike it. I wish that Mr. Beede and Mr. Solari had looked a little closer at our magazine as they might have noticed that there have been far fewer jokes about Hitler and AIDS than they may think.
Also, if penises and Hitler aren’t funny I hope someone told Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and the late Richard Pryor. Two of those men might still be able to save their careers.
Having outlets for student creativity is essential to a university community. The university is blessed to have NONSENSE, the second longest running on-campus humor magazine in the country, second only to The Harvard Lampoon, serving it’s students for 23 years. At six issues a year we come out more often than any humor magazine I am aware of. We have earned our place on this campus.
Production values are something that every student-created media outlet has to struggle with. Certainly no one would confuse an issue of NONSENSE with an issue of MAD Magazine, just as no one would confuse The Chronicle with Newsday or “Thursday Nite Live” with “Saturday Night Live.”
We are organizations of dedicated students who sacrifice our valuable time to create something for the good of the university community.
That said, I firmly believe that NONSENSE looks better now than it ever has in my time here, I would like to commend my design staff for their hard work and thank the dozens of people who have complimented me on the look of the magazine, especially our popular series of “Find Your Edge” parodies.
It is very easy to stand on the outside and point out flaws in an organization, it is much harder to step up and change things. Luckily, NONSENSE is a volunteer based organization and any student can contribute. I urge anyone who thinks that NONSENSE is in any way lacking, be it in written content or artistic quality, to contribute something themselves. Our meetings are Thursday nights at 9:23pm in the Student Center room 201; I would also accept first-time submissions through e-mail at [email protected].
Art Tebbel is the Editor-in-Chief of Nonsense Humor Magazine.