"Still crazy after all these years..."
It warms the cockles of my heart (and what the hell is a "cockle" anyway?) to know that, years later, Vanderbilt students are aware of, and still talking about, the "Gee Dead" incident.
Apparently, The Slant printed this memorial article as part of another fake Hustler. How creative. At least this time, they did it with Chris Carroll's permission (something it honestly never occurred to us to do. Now I can't help wondering if he'd have said "yes"). They also had to steal the Hustler templates instead of painstaking creating them from scratch, as we (by which I mean Brad Ploeger) did. (You can see the actual fake Hustler here. I love the inclusion of Thes Lant in the Rites lineup, a throwback to another Slant prank from 2005.)
In keeping with the tradition of fake Hustlers providing false information, there are several inaccuracies in the "Remembering 'Gee Dead'" article. First, it was a Tuesday, not a Monday (apparently, the Hustler prints Mon-Wed-Fri now instead of Tues-Fri, so it's easy to understand the mixup). Second, like I said, the template wasn't "obtained", it was reconstructed by Ploeger's talented eye. Third, we didn't misspell the title as "Huslter" to avoid copyright issues, we did it to make fun of the Hustler's propensity to have typos (though in retrospect if copyright was also an issue, I'm glad we did). The author also left out one of my favorite "errors", the jump to nowhere (which did actually occur in one issue of the Hustler).
Finally, and most egregiously, there's no mention of me. But oh well. (More egregiously, there's no mention of Ploeger, who was the major driving force, but oh well.)
Anyway, I'm glad to know that The Slant hasn't given up pranking the students. And I'm also glad to know the students are still naive enough to fall for it.
UPDATE: Right after I posted this, I noticed that David Barzelay posted several of my above corrections on the article itself. I'm particularly amused that he used the same phrase, "painstakingly created", as I did. I swear that's just an amusing coincidence.
"But I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers
Still crazy after all these years"
- Paul Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years
Apparently, The Slant printed this memorial article as part of another fake Hustler. How creative. At least this time, they did it with Chris Carroll's permission (something it honestly never occurred to us to do. Now I can't help wondering if he'd have said "yes"). They also had to steal the Hustler templates instead of painstaking creating them from scratch, as we (by which I mean Brad Ploeger) did. (You can see the actual fake Hustler here. I love the inclusion of Thes Lant in the Rites lineup, a throwback to another Slant prank from 2005.)
In keeping with the tradition of fake Hustlers providing false information, there are several inaccuracies in the "Remembering 'Gee Dead'" article. First, it was a Tuesday, not a Monday (apparently, the Hustler prints Mon-Wed-Fri now instead of Tues-Fri, so it's easy to understand the mixup). Second, like I said, the template wasn't "obtained", it was reconstructed by Ploeger's talented eye. Third, we didn't misspell the title as "Huslter" to avoid copyright issues, we did it to make fun of the Hustler's propensity to have typos (though in retrospect if copyright was also an issue, I'm glad we did). The author also left out one of my favorite "errors", the jump to nowhere (which did actually occur in one issue of the Hustler).
Finally, and most egregiously, there's no mention of me. But oh well. (More egregiously, there's no mention of Ploeger, who was the major driving force, but oh well.)
Anyway, I'm glad to know that The Slant hasn't given up pranking the students. And I'm also glad to know the students are still naive enough to fall for it.
UPDATE: Right after I posted this, I noticed that David Barzelay posted several of my above corrections on the article itself. I'm particularly amused that he used the same phrase, "painstakingly created", as I did. I swear that's just an amusing coincidence.
"But I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers
Still crazy after all these years"
- Paul Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years
7 Comments:
I could have sworn Brad told me the L-T switch was to fend off copyrightish complaints. After all, you can't be blamed for faking a copy of the Hustler...it was the Huslter, right?
So, I'd blame him for starting that rumor.
Yeah, the more I think about it, you're probably right. He would've been on top of that sort of thing.
1. We initially proposed the titular misspelling to goof on their typos. Then it occurred to us that it would also give us an argument that it was clear it was a fake. It wasn't copyright, per se (though we discussed that), just a shield for any accusations. At the time, I pointed out that there can't be any copyright infringement between two divisions of the same corporation. You can't sue yourself. In retrospect, I anticipated Coke Zero's taste infringement ad campaign.
2. They didn't steal the Hustler's templates, they asked the Hustler for them, and the Hustler obliged.
3. It most certainly did occur to us to ask Chris Carroll about it--not necessarily for permission, more just for advice on how to do it without getting into legal trouble. We decided not to because we were positive that he wouldn't keep it a secret. In retrospect, Chris Carroll has a... non-lawyer's understanding of the law anyway. That was diplomatic of me.
4. Contrary to your statements, Mike, the most egregious error was that they misspelled my name!
5. Current Slant editor Brendan Alviani struck up a conversation with me on Facebook after this. That prompted me to look up the Slant's new stuff for the first time since Ceaf fucked up the website. The magazine is still exactly the same. Same features, same layout, everything. So they are definitely respecting the old traditions. There's even still a lot of ties between The Slant and McGill (Alviani lives there, and others).
hahaha...first of all, I never noticed #4. : )
Second of all, that was kinda my impression as far as #1 went.
Re: #2, I never claimed they stole the Hustler's templates. It was very clear they asked for them.
Re: #5, yeah, I know it's pretty much exactly the same (other than the horrific website). Ben and I picked up copies when we went back for reunion. The primary change seems to be the center spread which is now usually some sort of graphic or game, which I like.
And I didn't notice #4 either.
Oops, upon rereading, I did say "steal". I just didn't mean it.
For a while there, I felt like the Slant was going downhill. But I like the issues I've seen under this Alviani dude.
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