Posted on 01/16/2010 5:47:09 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Notre Dame uproar over anti-gay cartoon in student newspaper
By DARA KELLY
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
The University of Notre Dame is being rocked by a controversy over an anti-gay cartoon printed in the student-run newspaper, The Observer.
The cartoon depicts a conversation between two figures that reads:
“What’s the easiest way to turn a fruit into a vegetable?"
“No idea.”
“A baseball bat.”
Earlier, the cartoonist, who has not yet been named, posted the original version of the cartoon on his blog. In this version, it shows the punch line as “AIDS” instead of “a baseball bat.” The paper, he claimed, preferred “not to make light of fatal diseases.”
In a statement to the press today, The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) claimed “The Observer made a dangerously misguided decision that promoting violence was somehow superior to making fun of HIV/AIDS. Both versions of the cartoon were abhorrent.”
GLAAD contacted The Observer’s editor, Jenn Metz, who relayed a tearful apology by phone. She explained that she was not present when the decision to run the cartoon was made, and that she was incredibly upset that others on staff had made that decision.
An apology printed in the paper this morning included the following:
The editors of The Observer would like to publicly apologize for the publication of “The Mobile Party” in the Jan. 13 edition. The burden of responsibility ultimately lies on us for allowing it to go to print. There is no excuse that can be given and nothing that can be said to reverse the damage that has already been done by this egregious error in judgment.
Allowing this cruel and hateful comic a place on our pages disgraced those values and severely hurt members of our Notre Dame family — our classmates, our friends. For this, we sincerely apologize. Unfortunately, the language of hate is an everyday reality in our society.”
Geeze, when are these kids going to learn. You can only make fun of white Christian men. Nascar lovers a plus.
I couldn’t locate the original comic strip online, just the editorial board’s apology here:
http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/viewpoint/responsibility-for-offensive-comic-1.1011631
And when you give someone else the power to define "hate" hence control over you and your actions, you are lost.
There's a difference between poor taste and "hate".
No, that is Woody Woodpecker in drag.
an old joke that no one remembers anymore, “How do you make a fruit cordial?” “How?” “Be nice to him.”
Maybe N.D. would have appreciated the cartoon more if it was, “what’s the fastest way to turn a fetus into a souffle?”
But yet drag queens make fun of women....
or ...fruit stand ... take a way his chair.
Seriously, the cartoon seems in such obviously bad taste (as well as being not at all the kind of humor used in cartoons), that I have to suspect that it’s uproar bait. Probably a professor in gender studies.
That’s a pretty rough caption. Joking about causing brain damage to a homo just because he’s a homo crosses the line for me. I think they’re mentally ill, and their habits are revolting, and they should shut the hell up already, but I don’t see any humor in the suggestion of causing brain injury on top of the underlying disorder.
Agreed. Bottom line it was in POOOOOOOR taste. And if you ask me, if some poor gay guy gets his head beat in with a baseball bat, it could be construed as borderline criminal. You cant tell me nobody knew this was gonna be put in the paper. Bull S***!. Its just not right.
I agree, its a hoax that will result in campus-wide sensitivity training.
Yes, when I was in college I NEVER laughed at anything in obviously bad taste.
That makes NO sense at all - even if you take it literally. It is really stupid. And, as a play on words, it's just cruel.
Gays acting like Muslims??
1St Amendment is not just for liberals.
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