By Kelline Linton, Chief Copy Editor
The Onion, “America’s finest news source,” is a fake news organization that reports on local, national and international news. It features satirical articles with headlines such as “East Timor’s first female dictator hailed as step forward for women,” “Nation’s blacks creeped out by all the people smiling at them” and “Experts agree giant, razor-clawed bioengineered crabs pose no threat.” This outlandish newspaper’s print circulation? 690,000.
Satire is not dead in America. It thrives in the media through print, television and film. Satire lives when shows like The Colbert Report interview unknowing politicians, forcing them to answer absurd and offensive questions in front of thousands of viewers. Satire lives when movies such as O Brother Where Art Thou?, Wag the Dog and Airplane use humor to poke fun at society’s institutional problems. And satire lives when the Optimist provides camaraderie to the student body with an April Fool’s device – the Pessimist.
The Pessimist, although long missing from the ACU newsstands, is back this year. This April Fool’s special edition of the Optimist features fake news stories that contain satire, buffoonery and silliness, all meant in fun. Its humor impacts students because we have a significant appreciation for the merriment of life.
“It is a time in your life when the funny factor is really important to you,” said Dr. Charlie Marler, professor emeritus and senior faculty of journalism and mass communication. “How many students do you know are sad sacks?”
Satire is commonly found in a journalism setting. But successful satire is both funny and therapeutic; it needs an April Fool’s moment, when the joke is revealed and everyone is invited to laugh together. The Pessimist has used this satire for decades.
The first edition of the Pessimist printed March 31, 1932. The Optimist began this new satirical tradition a few weeks after a faculty publications committee urged the cancellation of a popular column, titled Hoots of the Owl. The unsigned column, which began running in 1928, featured an owl that said he roamed the campus, spying on people. The committee said the column “had become too juvenile and undignified for a college newspaper,” according to the Sep. 26, 2008, edition of the Optimist.
Instead, the new fake newspaper ran stories about the Abilene police arresting the Dean of Women for an illegal storage of liquor and the President of the University buying a new tobacco shop that offers discounts to students.
Early editions of the Pessimist had columns printed sideways and upside-down and often ridiculed faculty members and administrative policies.
The Optimist staff produced the last edition of the Pessimist in 1981-82 after the potential for libel became an issue in the early 1980s, according to the Sep. 26, 2008, edition of the Optimist. Doug Mendenhall, instructor and journalist in residence, was the editor in chief of the Optimist in 1981-82.
“There is a fine line between good satire and garbage,” Mendenhall said.
While on the Optimist staff, Mendenhall regularly wrote a humorous column, also titled the Pessimist. And as a sophomore on staff, he created the entire 1979-80 edition of the Pessimist by himself. During spring break, he found the photographs, wrote the content and designed the issue. This Pessimist featured the Students’ Association Congress President Ron Holifield dressed in drag. A source close to Mendenhall had supplied him the photograph.
Marler, who was the editor in chief of the Optimist from 1954-55, remembers when the Pessimist was sold for 10 cents a copy.
He said the tradition of the Pessimist was always an April Fool’s joke, and the Chapel version of the Pessimist was an annual Faculty Impersonation Day.
“Nationally, the humor at that time was different from the humor at this time,” he said.
And although 27 years has passed since the last Pessimist and the humor has changed, the satirical tradition upheld by the special newspaper remains the same – telling an April Fool’s joke the whole campus can enjoy.
