Cornell Daily Sun the Arts Tell Us Why We Live
Initially aimed at tricking readers, the satires—which take actually run at various times of the year—at present seek to amuse and lampoon
By Joe Wilensky
"Trustees OK Department Name Change to 'English: Become Lit,'" declared the front end-page headline in theCornell Daily Sun, paired with an prototype of the A.D. White statue on the Arts Quad holding an oversized joint.
"Profs embrace cannabis, 'other postmodern subjects,'" the 2021 story continued—then launched into a detailed study on the supposed plans for the rebranded department, just weeks after New York State legislators had voted to legalize recreational marijuana.
The article, which appeared in terminal year's joke outcome of the newspaper—renamed theCornell Nightly Moon—was unlikely to fool anyone, but that wasn't the signal. It was function of theSun's decades-long tradition of producing an annual parody edition packed with riffs on campus events, educatee concerns, and the tribulations of life on the Hill.
"Information technology was an result that people picked up, took to show their friends, laughed at, and talked about," says Sun senior editor Madeline Rosenberg '23.
The parody tradition, she says, gives the paper'southwardwriters, editors, photographers, and designers an opportunity for creativity—a run a risk to laugh at themselves and at campus life, and to take a suspension from the intensity of their regular gigs.
Whether they're crafted to trick the gullible or are but outlandish, theSun's parodies have appeared at various times of the year over the decades.
In past eras, they often popped up in the fall—making newly arrived first-years even more susceptible to panic-inducing tales of housing assignment changes and grading organization overhauls.
For years, the joke event—typically a 4-page wrap around the regular edition—found a home on April Fool's Day.
But that inverse in 2012: beloved former President Dale Corson died on March 31, and out of respect theSun pushed the publication appointment back a few weeks.
It landed on April twenty—the "4/twenty" of innumerable marijuana references—and the parody event has come up out on that date e'er since. Thus the "Get Lit" headline, and many similar japes.
While the annual joke issues were long limited to print, in 2020—when students left campus due to the pandemic—it went online for the showtime time; now, there's a "4/20" drib-down carte du jour on the homepage.
"This is a joke section," says the landing folio, "curated bySun editors who are tired—simply not tired plenty to stop making 4/20 jokes."
Fun with 'fake news'
Most of theDominicus's early on parodies were meant to fool readers and even provoke outrage; ofttimes, a "who to call" box listed actual administrators' phone numbers, guaranteeing headaches for Day Hall.
"Many of the joke issues give a unique glimpse into aspects of student life in before eras," says University history adept Corey Earle '07. "What were the controversial topics at the time? What were the stories that might rile up the student body? Humor can help us sympathise the campus conversations that weren't e'er being covered in the 'real' news."
Sense of humour can assistance us sympathize the campus conversations that weren't always being covered in the 'real' news.
Corey Earle '07
In 1959, a story noted that due to "a jumbo geological blunder," the so-under-structure Olin Library would be abased, as the entire building was sinking into the Arts Quad.
"University to Exit Ivy League Due to New Academic Calendar," proclaimed a 1964 study, which noted that the alter would abolish bound sports (and quoted Robert Kane '34, BS '36, the and then-director of athletics, who wept over the crew team's uncertain future).
Some "faux news" stories even proved true—eventually. "New York Legislature Raises Minimum Drinking Historic period to 21," the Sun announced in 1962, more than than 2 decades before it actually happened.
Many joke stories involved outlandish construction proposals—often on the hallowed Arts Quad, which would allegedly see such abominations as a 35-story skyscraper (1942); an aeronautical research facility smack in the middle (1966); and a subterranean parking lot (1970).
Other stories targeted student stress points: all classes would henceforth be graded on a "C" curve; Study Week would be reduced to 48 hours; Thanksgiving break was canceled; New York State had outlawed co-ed dorms; compulsory ROTC for male undergrads had been reinstated.
Throughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, many parody issues aped the mode of other publications, from theNew York Daily News to theNational Enquirer and fifty-fifty theHarvard Cherry.
In more recent years, the satirical bug—with "This is a joke" prominently in the masthead—have sported such headlines as "Campus Climate Task Force Confirms Ithaca Is Too Cold," "Trump Tower to Ascent in Collegetown," and "Golf Class Now Required for Business organisation Minor."
"We're really deliberate virtually what we're doing," Rosenberg says, noting that transparency is central in today's digital age of deepfakes, disinformation campaigns, and social media. "We're trying to be really articulate about what is a joke and what is not—that what we're doing is trying to make people laugh."
Top image: Photograph illustration past Cornell University.
Published: April 1, 2022
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Source: https://alumni.cornell.edu/cornellians/daily-sun-parodies/
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