Jester of Columbia

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Jester of Columbia
Image:Jester.gif Cover of the March, 2007 issue, "Liquid."
Editor	David Iscoe
Categories	Humor
Frequency	4 per year
First issue	April 1, 1901
Company	Undergraduate magazine
Country	United States
Language	American English
Website	jesterofcolumbia.com

The Jester of Columbia, or simply the Jester, is a humor magazine at Columbia University in New York City. Founded on April Fool's Day, 1901, it is one of the oldest such publications in the United States.^[1] Printed continuously at least through 1997 despite reports to the contrary,^[2] it was revived in 2001 after a short lapse in publication and again in 2005 after an even shorter one. Jester has once again begun to produce magazines as well as sponsor comedy events on Columbia's campus. ^[3]

1 Issues
2 Other activities
3 Jester alumni
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Issues

The Jester has always had issues. Despite the Columbia Spectator story to the contrary, the Jester actually did continue to publish continuously throughout the 1990's, as verifiable by the first Jester Web site created during that era, which is currently available through the Internet Archive.^[4] During this period, many if not most of the Jester's features were in fact making fun of the Columbia Spectator, a detail which is not lost on the editors from this era who wonder if they have been erased by history (and Wikipedia) due to some sort of bizarre multi-generational quid-pro-quo.

Jester publishes four times per year, with articles loosely centered around a broad theme. These have recently included "Food," "Money," "Health," "Justice," "Liquid," and "Technology." Issues contain a wide array of articles and jokes, such as narratives, dialogues, and articles composed of short paragraphs discussing a theme. To heighten the effect of period pieces or specific jokes, articles appear as fake documents, as though they were found and scanned into the issue. Illustrations are a significant part of the magazine, with visual gags and fake ads bringing greater variety.

Jester attempts to not repeat jokes or features, except for a letters to the editor section, an editorial, called the "Editaurus," an obituary section succinctly named "Deaths," and a couple of "list" pages containing short jokes and lists. However, there are no recurring subjects, and news-style pieces rarely appear, except as "sampled" documents. Within individual issues, there are also recurring references, including ones regarding Picabo Street, the Zune, and Q-Zar.

To further reinforce the theme of the issue, titles and some other text appears in a different font each issue. The main body font, Adobe Garamond, however never changes.

[edit] Other activities

In addition to publishing the magazine, the group puts on comedy events, containing sketches, improv comedy, and even an event reminiscent of the antics of Andy Kaufmann, where an audience was forced to watch other students eat dinner for 30 minutes while listening to madrigals. ^[5] ^[6]

Jester has also performed a number of pranks, most recently establishing an only partially-true rivalry with the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal, culminating in a staged theft of issues, attached rebuttals, and a website parodying Time Cube. ^[7] ^[8] The Columbia Spectator described the event at face value. ^[9]