Truth and Consequences
Over at f/k/a, David Giacalone wonders why few people have taken a stand on Harvey Silverglate’s outrageous contention that the “Harvard Factor” has somehow killed satire in the legal profession.
Stand at my wall and start screaming “Hektor,” why don’t you?
Professor Silverglate reminds me of the guy, Dr. Pritchard I believe, who wrote the poetry textbook in Dead Poets Society. He tries to make objective the subjective art of “comedy,” despite the fact that he is not funny.
Silverglate is annoyed that so many people reacted poorly to the New Yorker cover of Barack Obama dressed up in so-called “muslin” attire. His reasoning for the backlash over the cover is that “elites” — like Obama — have become so stifled in their thinking that they can no longer take a joke.
He specifically calls out the HLS Parody (full disclosure: I was part of the show each of my three years). He states that none of the humor approaches the frankness or “brutality” of previous incarnations.
Excuse me while I stand on my desk and shout “yawp.”
Maybe back in Silverglate’s day, all the good ‘ol boys could sit around and tell watermelon jokes with impunity. Today, at Harvard and I’d imagine most anywhere else, you can still make fun of racial and gender stereotypes, you just have to be a little bit more intelligent and creative about it. Why? Because “Gee golly, them girls sure can’t drive,” just isn’t funny anymore. It’s called progress.
More ad hominem attacks on Silverglate, after the jump.
F/k/a quotes Silverglate just getting silly:
[O]ne may not safely say in Harvard Yard what is constitutionally protected in Harvard Square. The same may be said for just about every campus where there once was a hallowed hall of learning.
Harvard Yard is easily one of the best places on the planet to run your mouth without real world consequences. Clearly, Silverglate has never attempted to “parody” a townie in Southy on Saint Patrick’s Day. Satire has never been the dominion of those who desire safety. Any 1L could tell Silverglate that speech isn’t free, it is protected and that has to be enough.
Telling the truth is always dangerous. Telling the truth while trying to be funny only
increases the level of difficultly. Silverglate seems to want to use satire as a way to say offensive and hurtful things without getting in trouble. True satirists try to say truthful and insightful things regardless of the consequences.
Nobody likes “backlash,” but it is a small price to pay for laughter. I learned that at HLS.
(79) 
Comments
FIRST to say Ellie still SUCKS!
Wow, what a terrible post.
Ugh...go away already.
Even if truthful, this was certainly not funny.
Lat was good about not talking about "all the things I learned at Yale." Keep it that way.
what?
This post is terribly written. You need to explain things better, buddy. While I may be dumdums, I have no idea what is going on in this post or what it is about.
This read like HuffPo. I don't come here to read HuffPo. Become funny and tone-appropriate or go away.
Townies are from Charlestown, and its Southie, not Southy.
Obama was dressed in "so-called 'muslin' attire?" I suppose one would be comfortable in a type of finely-woven cotton fabric, introduced to Europe from the Middle East in the 17th century.
It was named for the city where Europeans first encountered it, Mosul, in what is now Iraq, but the fabric actually originated from Dhaka in what is now Bangladesh.
It is Southie. But to be fair Townies go to Southie, too, on St. Patrick's Day.
co-signed 6. There were too many allusions. I had trouble following your argument or explication of Silver's post.
I think that you're right to distinguish funny satire from unfunny. Jokes about how women (or men, for that matter) can't drive aren't funny unless they're backed by rigorous empirical methodology.
this post sucks.
"Professor Silverglate reminds me of the guy, Dr. Pritchard ...."I believe""
Of course you "believe"...you probably looked it up and made sure of the fact before you posted. Next time don't be so pretentious lat
Don't blame me, I voted for Frolic and Detour...
What a useless post. This blog is going downhill fast.
If you want to excite us male readers, how some pics of white guys with asian girls? Who doesn't love their pretty, flat, round faces and cute, tiny boobs?
- King of WGWAG
ATL really sux now. Your posts are boring. You are put to shame by decent websites like www.bitterlawyer.com
ellie you are HORRIBLE
13, This is not Lat - it is Elie "Peter Principle" Mystal.
13 here, my bad lat, i meant "Ellie Mystal" or whoever the hell wrote this terrible post
Did Silverglate write anything about clowns? I'm afraid of clowns.
The far, far more interesting question is whether identity politics jokes and satire can ever be funny. I would love to hear some thoughts on this issue. Can you effectively satirize ethnicity or race? I think that the answer is "no."
what does "yawp" mean? Is it like a yawn?
Elie, excellent post, wrong forum. If you want to go off on political or philosophical rants, there are plenty of blogs who would likely be happy to have you. This one's popular because it's different. Ghost write for some of those, but keep the flavor of ATL alive, lest you be writing for the four people who will care about your opinion.
21, you can effectively satirize ehtnicity and race, but it may not be funny. Satire is not a direct synonym for humor. Effective satire may or may not be intended to be funny, and effective humor is not necessarily satirical.
Useless post.
If Ellie had gotten OUT of Harvard Yard once in a while, she would know that Silverglate is not some crazy 'ol (sic) boy, but a vocal, progressive civil libertarian.
If you want to disagree with him (I usually do), that's fine. At least know what you are writing about before you subject us to a diatribe in what is supposed to be a legal tabloid.
HTH
I normally don't bother to comment on here, but the general crappiness of this post compels me to add to the growing din of dutiful ATL readers. Elie sucks.
The ATL of today resembles in no way the ATL of a year ago.
I am not angry, just sad.
22 - it's a poor attempt to reference Dead Poet's Society.
Leave it alone, Elie. Don't bring a great movie into the realm of your crapitude.
These posts are terrible.
Yeah, this was bad. The most it should have gotten was a mention in the morning docket. This is tangentially related, at best, to anything I care about.
Are we going to see incensed posts every time someone makes a negative comment about Harvard? Oh, and why did old white guys get slammed in this piece and those who have gone to Harvard in the past painted as racists telling watermelon jokes (I know what watermelon jokes refer to, btw, I just don't see the leap of logic here).
f/u/c/k this.
This post was awful. Just awful. Please keep this stuff where it belongs, which is any of the million or so blogs that I don't read. By the way, 21, you sound like an insufferable PC tool. "Identity politics"? Seriously?
check out www.bitterlawyer.com and www.endofesq.com -- waaaay funnier.
I went to Harvard and I have no idea what this post is about or why anyone thinks the Harvard Law School Parody has any impact on what anyone thinks is funny anywhere, even on the law school campus. The Lampoon, it ain't.
Horrible. Good lord... I thought Elie's introductory post was good, but he's gone rapidly and scarily downhill. I never comment, just read, but this level of crapitude compels it. Lat (assuming you have hiring/firing power), it's time to cut you losses and find a new EIC.
I agree with everyone. This post sucks. I am not impressed. Lat, we miss you.
awful.
I for the first time checked out www.bitterlawyer.com and, indeed, it is much better than this. This place is really falling apart.
Check out "Gayholm Syndrome" on bitterlawyer. Fairly clever.
I saw better writing on the bathroom walls at GULC.
don't normally bother commenting that a post is awful, but this one is that bad. and for an example of typos that matter to everyone just see this post.
www.endofesq.com is written by / for those stuck in the first of the two peaks in the bimodal distribution.
www.bitterlawyer.com is a little better, still not ATL though.
Can we transfer Elie to the ATL Bratislava office??
34: you're expanding the argument's scope. The issue is whether the HLR has any impact on Obama's sense of satire, and, by slight-of-hand and extension, the nation's.
On an unrelated note, reading about Furg's death deeply disturbed me. It also reminded me of the Cravath walk and Schwartz. I had no idea that certain areas of Cambridge were dangerous enough for homicides.
Also, my condolences to both of their families.
I join those above me who also do not commonly or even sporadically comment on this blog, but this post was so very stupid that I felt compelled. When did this turn into your personal livejournal?
Also, is the debated contention really that "outrageous?"
I join those above me who also do not commonly or even sporadically comment on this blog, but this post was so very stupid that I felt compelled. When did this turn into your personal livejournal?
Also, is the debated contention really that "outrageous?"
39: forget that, I saw better writing at NY Law School!
Elie: keep trying (I guess...), but this was terrible. You didn't explain what the hell you were even talking about. When commenting on a topic that 99% of your readership has not followed, that's a good start.
Second, your points are weak, weak, weak. Your Southie example is terrible: nobody accepts a parody of himself from a stranger; we all need the substratum of a social bond to tell everyone that it's all in good fun. A Southie making fun of a Southie for being a Southie would obviously be no problem.
Besides that, all you do is say that Silverglate's not funny and assert that you tell important truths through your satire.
Well, not so far.
uhh when did atl become a pro-harvard op-ed forum? the silverglate article was waay more interesting and clever than elie's commentary/diatribe.
43, it's "sleight" of hand.
I hope Elie is on some sort of probationary period, to be terminated upon inadequate completion and replaced by a professional.
Humor may be dead at Harvard, but I know where it lives and breathes
http://www.ytmnd.com/
How pretentious & boring. DIE.
Lawyers, as a class, are among the most humorless people on earth.
And Elie, I'm afraid you are playing to type.
The gentlemen at my preparatory academy would often jest at the lack of carriage driving acumen of the students at the ladies finishing school, much to the chagrin of the body politic. It was not a conspicuous occurrence.
~Fraternity Lothario
Elie is sending ATL straight down the GULC.
52: why did the lawyer cross the road?
Because he wanted to test the judicial limits of proximate cause.
"Hey Cunningham, take a look at the shark I just skiied over!"
Gong.
wtf is this post about?
Bitter Lawyer sucks. two gay guys eating sandwiches in a room together at Dewey and the Beef is not funny.
lol@56
Clearly, the obviously wrong spelling of "Southy" indicates that the writer has never actually left the confines of Harvard Yard. Which makes sense, though, as I've always found that Harvardites tend to know next to nothing about the town.
At least he managed to drop the fact that he went to Harvard enough times. Although, to be fair, LAT only seemed to ever write about people he had class w/ at YLS (which, I believe, was all of them).
"(full disclosure: I was part of the show each of my three years)."
And that is the only reason why this post exists. Nobody cares, dude.
I had a class with Pritchard. He wasn't funny, and his bald-with-a-greasy-pony-tail look was creepy.
i am so confused.
Elie, did you go to Harvard Law (sorry, "HLS")? Did you like it? You must have been working on that townie parody the day they taught objectivity and impartiality. There is something ironic about your "backlash" comment, no?
First the Asia Chronicles and now this. I dont know why I come here. Why cant I quit you?
Yeah, this was a bad post. Hard to follow, too much "I was at Harvard" crap.
Elie has potential, but he definitely doesn't have his sea legs yet.
to recap: unfunny drivel, contextless diatribe, off-the-mark references, unnecessary HLS trolling. it's also a serious post dressed up in humor's clothing, and it doesn't work -- not just because the humor sucks. silverglate's argument has strengths and weaknesses, but this post didn't provide a credible attack or present persuasive counterarguments.
fail.
tl;dr: elie is a terrible addition to ATL
Don't blame me, I voted for F&D. Bring back Exley!
this post has now replaced that lame "if law firms competed in olympic sports" post as the worst post of all time.
also, Harvard.
how the hell did you make a parody about bho about you? dear god.
One wonders whether Mr. Mystal actually read the Silverglate article. Silverglate is not trying to make "objective" the "subjective" art of comedy. He's writing about various institutional efforts to limit or punish speech that is ostensibly comedic, and making a specific argument on that subject. It looks like Mr. Mystal just read the part discussing the Parody and ignored the rest of the article, thereby making his post nearly incomprehensible.
Wow, actual thinking is dead at ATL, film at 11.
22, you are an uncultured cretin.
This really was bad. You're making me regret voting for you Elie. I think you have to be a Harvard insider to understand all the Harvard inside jokes that are required to make reading this article bearable. I quit half-way through when I realized the article couldn't be deciphered by non-Harvard grads. I turned down Harvard Law School for a reason . . .
ooof, not a good post elie. you can do better!
Bring back Billy Merck!
Effing terrible
he didn't teach us
he didn't teach us
no doctrine here that we can see
just tortured answers
to tortious questions
a pile of bullshit and policy
more feces
I can't belive i actually spent 10 minutes trying to figure out this idiotic collection of words and punctuation. This was horrible.
Where do I got to get that ten minutes back? Better yet, give me a fucking billing # so that this exercise turns from a horrendous waste of time to a horrendous waste of time that someone else is paying for?
I mean..WTF.
Full Disclosure: Although I was not full fledged Marin-Head, I found her to be more amusing. I thought Mystal showed promise, but it seems the voters made a massive Myst-TTTake.
WTF is wrong with you people? And I use the term "people" loosely to refer to the oh-so-freakin' superior commenters. If you all really hate your legal jobs so much GET A NEW ONE! GO TO BUSINESS SCHOOL! Don't shit all over someone because you're so choked with envy that you can't even see straight. I thought the post was fine. And no, I have no idea who this Elie character who wrote it is, but I have to speak up when I see an entire list of comments that basically adds up to "you suck." What benefit do you possibly gain from such vitriol? ATL Commenters - YOU make me sad.
Amber