QuickJester: Tragicomic Transformations Edition
This year’s final issue of the Jester hit the internet a few days ago and will hit newsstands Thursday — you may have received an email from Jesterbot informing you of such. The theme of the issue, as you might have immediately noticed from the front cover, is Tragedy. Editor in Chief David Iscoe explains, “We made an issue of a humor magazine devoted to Tragedy, and we believe that the cover is appropriate for such an issue.”
On to the Quick-ing:
The defining question of the post-(Civil) War era (page 6)
A dream, not deferred, but flat-out rejected (page 7)
Isn’t the real tragedy the absence of Gmail? (page 11)
Come not between Bertrand Russell and his wrath (page 12)
Confess your sins, brought to you by the US Postal Service (page 14)
A veritable brawl between the houses of Armstrong and Armstrong (page 15)
The anguish of the human condition, all a’twitter (page 25)
Tags: jester, quick jester, tragedy
13 May 2008 @ 7:24 AM · 56 comments
A cover depicting the Titanic crashing into the World Trade Center? This is sophisticated college satire in 2008? The immediately noticeable theme is not, as BWOG suggests, “tragedy”; rather it is nihilism.
Yes, nihilism of the laws of physics. We all know the Titanic cannot fly. Perhaps the Hindenburg would have been a more plausible option.
Fox News sees that picture…
Just not very funny.
AHAHAHAHA
All this cover says to me is that a good portion of the student body is woefully out of touch with the rest of New York (not to mention humor).
I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised — the last class to have been in New York on Sept. 11 graduated three years ago. Stuff like this cover can pass for funny and “ironic” when your memories of the day are based on what you watched from the protective shells of your high school (or even middle school) classrooms.
I was here and I think the cover is funny. I haven’t read the magazine yet so i will reserve judgment.
boo hoo hoo, no one understands MY PERSONAL 9/11, I am the only one who “got it” that day, everyone else is stupid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AYujWCCHRk
from dc. which also got attacked.
We need to clean this school of hipster bullshit and accept only the strongest, most aggressive, ibanker-minded applicants.
i don’t find this offensive. grow up.
thank goodness for david iscoe.
True meaning behind the cover: The WTC is an iceberg: 85% of the building is underground.
I presume people who work for the Jester didn’t lose loved ones on 9/11.
but what the fuck do you know about it anyway? if the joke is funny, it’s funny, regardless of who came up with it; if it’s offensive, it’s offensive. the idea that you need your own badge of personal suffering to be permitted to make jokes is bullshit identity politics of the worst kind. pull your head out of your ass.
I did, and, as you might see above, I find this cover funny.
But then again lumping “9/11 victims” into some sort of action group always pissed me off. Why would you assume every family member/loved one of a victim would react “as one” to some perceived offense?
Grow up.
Lighten up, guys. 9/11 and the Titanic were tragedies. The theme of the issue is tragedy. And because the Jester is a HUMOR magazine, they found a way to depict tragedy in a humorous manner.
except this cover just isnt funny.
i find jokes about 9/11 funny, and i find jokes about the titanic funny. hell, i even find jokes about the assassinations of jfk, mlk, and benazir bhutto funny.
but this cover isnt funny.
Perhaps you should read the issue as well… instead of pretending to cram all the material you missed while working on the Fed…
All the jokes in this issue are located on the cover. AS THE LAYOUT EDITOR YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS.
Humour can be a good way of coping with tragedy. Trust me, I’m Jewish…
CONSPIRACY….world TRADE center. TITANIC — titanic was a ship. TRADE used to happen because of ships. THE GOVERNMENT DID NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS. dont be a fool! titanic = world trade center = government secrets. both were inside jobs!!!
http://www.titanic-titanic.com/world_trade_center_titanic.shtml
Not a bad piece of neo-surrealism.
FUCK AUSTIN MITCHELL THIS COVER IS OFFENSIVE I HOPE SOMEONE FLIES A PLANE INTO HIM
I hope someone flies a plane into your mom. They could, too, it’s like a hangar down there.
Hello Bwog editors, the quality of Bwog articles have gone down significantly recently. Tyeisha Chavis for Senior Wisdom?!?! I don’t know how that could have happened.
Can we have some nice, unassuming people?!?! Lets start with Janusz Kesek or Todd Spitz please…
Rob Trump was an inside job.
I’ll like an inside job from rob trump.
I usually like the Jester, but I never like this sort of use of 9/11 imagery.
Yeah. Just not funny. Not even a question of taste or “too soon.” Just not witty enough to be funny. I mean, who hears “Titanic crashing into WTC” and thinks, “comic gold!” But then again, it’s Jester, so we don’t expect much. It could have been worse, though–they could have decided to sail the Hindenburg into Auschwitz. That would have been hiLARious.
how is that worse?
The Jester kicks ass
would not be funny at all. Nothing crashed into auschwitz. The whole point is that the titanic crashed into something, and planes crashed into wtc…combining them is not only absurd, but a supertragedy with a witty connection between the prinipal players…hence the comedy. Hindenburg into auschwitz would just be lame, combining two tragedies without a witty connection. So yeah, it would be worse than I guess.
I thought the “witty connection” was that the exploding zeppelin would have burned down the camp’s furnaces, which were themselves meant for burning prisoners.
then… Not than
Damn, these comments are funnier than the cover. If you guys were in the room when we came up with this I guarantee you wouldn’t be having this much of a debate. That’s all I’ll say.
is not funny. I guess no one on the Jester lost anyone on the Titanic.
At least we don’t have enough money to print the poster-sized version. Those HIV+ orphans were terrifying.
Back cover is Lee Harvey Oswald sniping Nancy Kerrigan in the leg.
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
WHYYYYYY indeed
http://nancykerrigan.ytmnd.com/
i shouldnt laugh but thats hilarious. maybe just because figure skating sucks.
I hope you guys realize this isn’t a joke. Will Dizard really thinks this is how it happened.
The mechanics of hurling the Titanic into those buildings would be beyond the capabilities of any terrorist organization, and besides that the Titanic seems to be much larger than it actually was. Clearly the Jester lacks sound science.
who laughs at the cover?
a) people with no taste for jokes
b) people who don’t care about the tragedy
c) people who want to pretend they’re cool by laughing
d) a combination or all of the above.
Seriously, maybe the mag shouldn’t be Jester, but Bad Taste Cooking Recipes. It’s so not funny, I consciously decided not to laugh..Maybe the tragedy is how un-funny this is!
I couldn’t agree more. Although I don’t need to consciously decide not to laugh at the Jester, it just happens naturally.
You were about to laugh, then made a “conscious” effort not to? Sounds kind of like when I’m watching Arrested Development in Butler. Wait a second…you DO think the Jester is funny! Or b), you don’t care about large ships crashing into larger buildings.
DAMN IT, this was going to be the New Yorker cover next week!
Fuck you all.
ATTN: Austin Mitchell.
Draw our cover.
I support the jester simply for provoking such hilarious bwog comments
NICE ADVERTISEMENT FOR THEM
It should be known that the Jester is also an advertising firm of the highest degree.
disease.
yo, not anti-rjt. don’t steal my name or i will cuddle your first born after i axe murder it.
yeah, i went too soon, biatch.
Paper copies of this TRAGEDY are now available in a bathroom stall near you!
great cover!