There are only so many Langliebs in the phone book, so if you have deduced that our own resident Sex and the City expert is the same David Langlieb that has been today’s talk of the town, you’re right. For those of you that haven’t heard the news, a satirical article Langlieb wrote accusing gentrification of being a modern day form of colonialism has caused quite the stir within the Polish community, despite its obvious sardonic tone.
Maybe if Langlieb wrote for Condé Nast, the New York Times, or News Corp (well okay, probably not News Corp) he would be fired. But Boob Tubers is no Condé Nast or New York Times! Here, we are staunch protectors of the freedom of speech, and staunch supporters of the death penalty for people incapable of critical reading.
As for the Polish community that is now up in arms, please understand that the Boob Tubers, Langlieb included, have nothing but respect for you. In order to show this respect, we would like to invite any Pole that is willing to share a meal with us. Let’s get together and eat some dead babies. We found a great recipe here in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Wait, what? He didn’t actually want us to eat baby? How can that BE? It’s right there in writing!
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23 comments:
As a fellow Haverford alum I am sadly sadly disappointed. It was not obviously sardonic. It was poorly written and not at all funny. It was pathetic. Seriously, the only thing that really pisses me of about it is that if makes it seem like you get a shitty education from Haverford. Hope he wasn't an English major, if he was the college should take his diploma back. I'm all for good satire, I'm against someone who thinks he's funny but is really not, and is a bad writer to boot.
Hey, you're entitled to your opinions on Lang-Lang's piece, but you should check your own grammar before you insult someone else's writing skills. Also, it would be easier to take you seriously if you had the nerve to sign your name.
Difference between not given a shit about the wording of a comment on a blog and thinking you were funny in a published piece you had all the time to rewrite. And it's not the HC comment board so no requirement to sign my name.
Well, if it's truly the poor writing that concerns you, Anon, maybe you should contribute more of the salary from your job as an (insert mundane, stuck up, sense of humorless career here) to the editors of your alma mater's alumni magazine. This slipped through their editorial fingers, after all.
What makes you think that the back page of the HC alumni magazine holds such a greater position of prestige than a comment on a blog? I would be willing to bet that on average more people read this page than the whole of the alumni magazine. Additionally, the use of crude and vulgar language is a more obvious indication of lack of intelligence and class than someone writing a satirical piece that was misunderstood by many of its readers. I mean what the f***! At least have the decency to use to oh so special * censoring! There may be children reading this! Or babies...
Also, I guess this guy is a bad writer too. http://www.theonion.com/content/node/51852
It's not like he writes for a legitimate publication or anything.
Three cheers for Bass!
Also, we promise not to eat any babies at our peace making meal that can prove they are loyal boob tubers readers.
one day you will all look back on this and cringe, because you will know quality satire, and you will know that this was not quality satire.
---Senator Bentsen
i agree with senator bentsen above. the question is not the author's intention, but rather the skill. because satire involves such an important interplay between the author and reader in terms of being able to create in the reader's imagination precisely what is NOT written, it isn't recommended for novices. additionally, the response that "you were too dumb to GET it" ('obviously sardonic tone') shows clearly the naivete of the writer and his supporters. satire is all about how you get the reading audience to interact with you. you cannot reject them when it goes horribly awry--that's squarely your bad, and poor writers have no right to their jobs. you're not a bad person...but...you might want to consider literary baby steps.
No one is putting Langlieb on the same skill level as Jonathan Swift here. But that doesn't make us naive for recognizing that the piece is satire. Come one, his word choice is SO severe and over the top. Maybe you should take literary baby steps before accusing us of calling everyone else "too dumb."
s/he was just trying to help you and provide constructive criticism. grow up.
An alumni magazine was definitely not the forum for such an immature, naive, and bigoted piece.
mr. langlieb, from what i've read it seems that your response to all this has been that it's satire. that's fine, and you're entitled to write whatever you please, anywhere that will publish it, but clearly your piece has angered and offended a lot of people. the issue really isn't whether it's satire or not anymore, it's the fact that you offended people. have you at all thought of maybe doing the moral thing and issuing some sort of apology? i know you think your piece was funny, but it really bombed out. sorry man, that's life. i just feel that a good person would suck it up, be a man, and just say that's not what i intended and i'm sorry for how it came across. your alumni magazine might be a good venue for that. i hear it's all the rave right now.
Alright, commentors, feel free to continue to tell Langlieb he is a shitty writer who did not execute satire, if that's how you feel, but let's get over the hurdle and embrace the fact that Langlieb does not want to change Greenpoint and loves it the way it is. In real life, he would rather drink mud than pay more than 75 cents for a cup of coffee.
For a person named David Langlieb (oi veh!), it is safe to assume that even a quarter would be too much... David - if you feel uncomfortable in Greenpoint, why don't you move down the Bedford Ave. to the south side of the Williamsburg Bridge. You should feel right at home there.
A great way to resolve this "problem" is certainly to make fun of Jewish people. Kudos. And again, can we stop pretending that this article was serious? It is the official stance of both Langlieb and this site that it was NOT.
mariusz -
I believe this is the text of the letter you were referring to that appeared in the Bico news:
Dear Editor,
I would like to express my grave discontent with the humor section of the newspaper. The Last Word serves no purpose to the campus community and succeeds only in making a mockery of all that is true and good in the world.
Allow me to explain. Right now, across the world, there are literally millions, if not billions, of people out there who struggle each day just to survive. Many nations of the world are constantly suffering from famines, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural disasters. Some, like those in Yugoslavia and Iraq, suffer not from natural disasters but from unjustifiable intervention by the United States. And, as if I have not made my point already, there are those within our very borders who never know if there will be food on the table in a week.
Yet, the Last Word is concerned with none of these things. Instead, it merely makes a mockery of all those people, especially myself, who try to correct those problems, by trying (unsuccessfully) to make us laugh and distract us from our important work.
Well, I’m not laughing. And I’d bet, that if you actually took a poll of the Haverford and Bryn Mawr students, you would find I am part of a silent majority. That is why I ask that David Langlieb stop his immoral page and replace it one that is more productive, one that attempts to address the challenging issues of the modern world.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Zachary-Higgins, BMC ‘05
You know what the funny thing about this is? This letter was a joke, was written by a friend of Langlieb's, and Jennifer Zachary-Higgins does not exist. Good job on your extensive google research, though.
but we're not making fun of Jewish people. that was SATIRE. ha ha! you're not smart enough to understand all of the nuances!
seriously though, you kids kind of brought all this on yourselves by responding so snidely towards anyone who criticized the piece at all. this is not the school newspaper in whatever suburb you guys are from. this is NYC, and if you want to be writers you should focus on becoming better at it. take your failures seriously and move past them. this also goes for the faux Ms. Zachary-Higgins, whose "satirical" letter is also a dog.
Yo, boobtubers, don't be so sensitive. Nobody is making fun of Jewish folks. I'm a little bit disappointed that you didn't detect the obvious sardonic tone of my comment. Although, there are quite a few good Jew jokes. You know this one?
-Why do the Jewish mothers like to watch a porn movie from the beginning to the end?
-Cause they wanna see if at the end the girl gets married.
-Why do the Jewish fathers like to watch a porn movie from the end to the beginning?
-Cause they like to see how the girl pays the guy for sex.
Nobody here is sensitive. We do know some great jokes, though.
Why don't anonymous commentors leave their true identities?
Because they're afraid people will come hunt them down, and they don't want any harm to come to their mother's basement.
the commenting features on this site do not permit non-bloggers to enter identities. if you want, we can all share our names, phone numbers, and myspace urls. kewl?
cristina (aka senator bentsen)
and which one of you boobtubers wrote that? you're so fearless...
Langlieb is a talent! For his Black Squirrel meister-shtick he gets a rollicking yellow star award. I’m sure Her David will place it, the yellow star that is, smugly on the lapel of his jacket just like his great grandfather Yitzhak did in Auschwitz.
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