REACTIONARY COMEDY IS BULK OF PAPER’S POWER

MICHAEL RAWSON
SPORTS EDITOR

They stood glaring at each other at the entrance to the elevators on the sixth floor of the parking garage: two men by the bridge, three women near the elevators. The most vocal woman gestured and nearly shouted at one of the men who answered her remarks in a slightly edgy but calm manner. In another semester, it would have taken a moment to figure out what they were arguing about, but in the Spring of 2011 it could be nothing but The Koala.

Incidents such as that have been spreading around the school ever since The Koala appeared on campus that first U-Hour, but, increasingly, they seem to involve members of the publication who appear determined to convince the student body and faculty that they have every right to distribute on campus.

The paper, an offshoot of previous versions at UCSD and SDSU, appeared in North County unexpectedly but unsurprisingly. A majority of the CSUSM faculty strives to teach and promote only ideas fitting with political correctness and social justice, but such attempts invariably lead to a verbal revolt. Monty Python member Eric Idle once said that the comedy group ultimately formed “out of hatreds and dislikes of a certain bourgeois…a repressive English upbringing, where you weren’t really supposed to laugh and make fun of things.”

In the first issue, a fake “status update” from the gun threat read: “Lockdown in Academic Hall, I finally have time to rape my TA.” In the Valentine’s Day issue, The Koala quotes a letter from Syndee Wood. It reads: “If you are going for satire, you fail. Rape is never funny.” In itself, the joke isn’t very funny. The arguing woman in the parking garage agreed. In fact, the sentiment seems to be shared by most of the paper’s opposition. But if rape isn’t ever funny, somebody should tell Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show” writers, who recently featured a segment on the differences between “real rape” and “rape-ish.”

It’s obvious that neither The Koala nor “The Daily Show” actually wants its audience to commit rape. A quick web search for Wood returns her blog, and while she may not find rape funny, she does describe her day in a “literary crack house.”

Her prose can be very funny, as well as outrageous. Clearly, Wood understands that anarchy in the face of political correctness litters the world of comedy today. Shows like “Family Guy,” “South Park,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “Californication” strive to make the viewer uncomfortable in their choices of characters, jokes and plotlines. Louis CK, Lewis Black, Patton Oswalt and other popular comics thrive on jokes similar to those in The Koala.

In my twelfth semester of college (yes, twelfth), I have never seen a campus so alive with passion and debate, not to mention finally a dash of the tomfoolery I expected (a la “Animal House,” a film that pioneered modern rebellious comedy). But some members of the CSUSM faculty and student body feel that, as The Koala violates the school’s mission, the publication should be shut down. It does not. It should not.

The administration is right to cite the First Amendment and allow the distribution of The Koala on campus. Hate speech must be supported by a legitimate criminal threat to violence, and The Koala members have no more history of violent acts than the creators of South Park.

While lessons in morality are honorable, students are here to earn degrees and, in turn, make more money. CSUSM’s largest major, Business Administration, exists to maximize profit. The paper’s content is unpolished, could be funnier and less crass, but considering what sells in the comedy world, perhaps The Koala’s writers are Cougars who are actually applying themselves.

Photo courtesy of thekoala.org