The Bwog
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)

Posted by Tom: #1 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 10:36 AM (from campus)
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.
Posted by Wait till: #2 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 10:51 AM (from campus)
Fox News sees that picture...
Posted by how about: #3 (in reply to #1) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 10:51 AM (from campus)
Yes, nihilism of the laws of physics. We all know the Titanic cannot fly. Perhaps the Hindenburg would have been a more plausible option.
Posted by Interesting picture: #4 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 10:52 AM (from campus)
Just not very funny.
Posted by HAHAHAH: #5 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:17 AM (from campus)
AHAHAHAHA
Posted by alum: #6 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:27 AM (from campus)
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.
Posted by iscoe is: #7 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:29 AM (from campus)
from dc. which also got attacked.
Posted by alum: #8 (in reply to #6) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:32 AM (from campus)
I was here and I think the cover is funny. I haven't read the magazine yet so i will reserve judgment.
Posted by 1231231231: #9 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:33 AM (from campus)
We need to clean this school of hipster bullshit and accept only the strongest, most aggressive, ibanker-minded applicants.
Posted by i grew up in ny and: #10 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:39 AM (from campus)
i don't find this offensive. grow up.
Posted by cc09: #11 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:45 AM
thank goodness for david iscoe.
Posted by "bubble" this, dick: #12 (in reply to #6) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:45 AM (from campus)
boo hoo hoo, no one understands MY PERSONAL 9/11, I am the only one who "got it" that day, everyone else is stupid

[external link to www.youtube.com]
Posted by truth: #13 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:50 AM (from campus)
True meaning behind the cover: The WTC is an iceberg: 85% of the building is underground.
Posted by ...: #14 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 12:24 PM (from campus)
I presume people who work for the Jester didn't lose loved ones on 9/11.
Posted by Viva la Jester!: #15 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 12:35 PM (from campus)
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.
Posted by Sprinkles: #16 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Humour can be a good way of coping with tragedy. Trust me, I'm Jewish...
Posted by omg: #17 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 12:41 PM (from campus)
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!!!
Posted by maybe so: #18 (in reply to #14) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 12:43 PM (from campus)
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.
Posted by stolen idea???: #19 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 12:51 PM (from campus)
[external link to www.titanic-titanic.com]

Posted by ANTI-AUSTIN MITCHELL: #20 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 1:01 PM (from campus)
FUCK AUSTIN MITCHELL THIS COVER IS OFFENSIVE I HOPE SOMEONE FLIES A PLANE INTO HIM
Posted by yeah: #21 (in reply to #20) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 1:14 PM (from campus)
I hope someone flies a plane into your mom. They could, too, it's like a hangar down there.
Posted by Bwog Reader: #22 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 1:36 PM (from campus)
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...

Posted by wrong again: #23 (in reply to #14) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 1:51 PM (from campus)
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.
Posted by anti-rjt: #24 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 2:09 PM (from campus)
Rob Trump was an inside job.
Posted by Marcel: #25 (in reply to #19) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 3:34 PM (from campus)
Not a bad piece of neo-surrealism.
Posted by CPD: #26 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 3:48 PM (from campus)
I'll like an inside job from rob trump.
Posted by Ehhh: #27 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 4:07 PM (from campus)
I usually like the Jester, but I never like this sort of use of 9/11 imagery.
Posted by new yorker: #28 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 4:30 PM (from campus)
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.
Posted by Wait...: #29 (in reply to #28) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 4:36 PM (from campus)
how is that worse?
Posted by yeah: #30 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 4:43 PM (from campus)
The Jester kicks ass
Posted by that: #31 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 4:47 PM (from campus)
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.
Posted by oops: #32 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 4:48 PM (from campus)
then... Not than
Posted by Helmut Dorque: #33 (in reply to #31) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 5:00 PM
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.
Posted by Peter Fucking Schamp: #34 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 6:39 PM (from campus)
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.
Posted by This: #35 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 7:23 PM (from campus)
is not funny. I guess no one on the Jester lost anyone on the Titanic.
Posted by katwill: #36 (in reply to #35) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 7:37 PM (from campus)
At least we don't have enough money to print the poster-sized version. Those HIV+ orphans were terrifying.
Posted by alexw: #37 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 8:00 PM (from campus)
Back cover is Lee Harvey Oswald sniping Nancy Kerrigan in the leg.

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Posted by The King of Spain : #38 · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:13 PM (from campus)
I hope you guys realize this isn't a joke. Will Dizard really thinks this is how it happened.
Posted by yeah: #39 (in reply to #15) · reply · track
May 13, 2008 at 11:53 PM
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.
Posted by The King of Spain : #40 (in reply to #39) · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 12:50 AM (from campus)
Perhaps you should read the issue as well... instead of pretending to cram all the material you missed while working on the Fed...
Posted by alexw: #41 (in reply to #40) · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 12:53 AM (from campus)
All the jokes in this issue are located on the cover. AS THE LAYOUT EDITOR YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS.

Posted by Publishbot: #42 · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 1:28 AM (from campus)
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.
Posted by So..: #43 · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 3:02 AM (from campus)
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!

Posted by David Remnick: #44 · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 3:08 AM (from campus)
DAMN IT, this was going to be the New Yorker cover next week!

Fuck you all.
Posted by David Remnick: #45 · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 3:08 AM (from campus)
ATTN: Austin Mitchell.

Draw our cover.
Posted by Yeah: #46 (in reply to #43) · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 11:29 AM (from campus)
I couldn't agree more. Although I don't need to consciously decide not to laugh at the Jester, it just happens naturally.
Posted by mec: #47 · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 12:16 PM
I support the jester simply for provoking such hilarious bwog comments
Posted by Westside MARket: #48 · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 1:15 PM (from campus)
NICE ADVERTISEMENT FOR THEM
Posted by Alexei Novshinski: #49 (in reply to #48) · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 4:02 PM (from campus)
It should be known that the Jester is also an advertising firm of the highest degree.
Posted by lame: #50 · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 8:28 PM (from campus)
disease.

Posted by baha: #51 (in reply to #37) · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 8:31 PM (from campus)
WHYYYYYY indeed

[external link to nancykerrigan.ytmnd.com]
Posted by so...: #52 (in reply to #43) · reply · track
May 14, 2008 at 10:26 PM
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.
Posted by haha: #53 (in reply to #51) · reply · track
May 15, 2008 at 2:16 AM (from campus)
i shouldnt laugh but thats hilarious. maybe just because figure skating sucks.
Posted by anti-rjt: #54 · reply · track
May 15, 2008 at 4:39 AM (from campus)
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.
Posted by katwill: #55 · reply · track
May 15, 2008 at 7:01 PM (from campus)
Paper copies of this TRAGEDY are now available in a bathroom stall near you!
Posted by hahahahaha: #56 · reply · track
May 16, 2008 at 2:11 AM (from campus)
great cover!
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