When it comes to making a joke, The Kumquat’s motto is, “no one is safe.”

The Kumquat, Syracuse University’s only satirical news show, was founded on the idea that all campus stereotypes can be made fun of. This year, the organization has caught the attention of the campus community for making jokes about everything from sorority girls to Student Association officials socializing with Osama bin Laden. 

For The Kumquat, the difference between what is funny and offensive is often ambiguous, and in its depiction of campus stereotypes, the group is faced with the challenge of walking that line.

The organization was created by three S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications students with the intention of providing satire to the student body.

“We all were just interested in satire and satirical news and we didn’t really see an outlet on campus for that yet,” said Alex Kuzoian, one of the founders.

The first project that created buzz was a video titled “Sh*t Newhouse Kids Say.” The video, which has more than 3,000 hits, was the starting point for future Kumquat projects.

“It started off joking about being a kind of stuck-up, think-we’re-better-than-everyone-else-Newhouse kid … that isn’t necessarily applied to everyone, but it’s a stereotype,” said Sarah Schuster, the group’s president and humor columnist for The Daily Orange. “From that just stemmed this joke of, ‘What if we acted like we’re three stuck-up Newhouse kids presenting news?’”

The Kumquat comes several years after the satirical show “Over the Hill,” which ran on the HillTV network. The show was shut down for publishing content that contained “potentially offensive jokes about black people, Indians (both American and those from India), women, date rape, eating disorders and even lynching,” The Daily Orange reported on Oct. 28, 2005.

All of The Kumquat’s founders are aware of the show’s history, and said they thought that particular content went too far.

Schuster said what happened to “Over the Hill” doesn’t worry her. Regardless of the show’s history, she said she believes the group has an ethical responsibility to not take any joke too far.

“We’re all about making people laugh with us or making people laugh at us, but never something hurtful. Never something like that,” Schuster said. “That made me uncomfortable, so I’d never want to do anything like that.”

Nick Sessler, one of the founders, said making a statement about a specific group is not what satire is about.

“Satire isn’t supposed to enforce generalizations or stereotypes, it’s supposed to make fun of the fact that they exist,” he said.

One of The Kumquat’s most recent and successful videos was “CAMPUS: Bid Day 2013,” which covered the final day of the Panhellenic sorority recruitment process, comparing it to the observation of wild animals in Africa.

The video was picked up by The Huffington Post and college blog Total Frat Move, and got more than 100,000 views in four days, Schuster said.

“Dalai Lama Rages, NFL Refs Resurrected, and Romney” and “’Connecting ‘Cuse’ — PJ Alampi for SA President” are two of the other most viewed videos on The Kumquat’s YouTube channel that were produced during the current school year.

While the response to The Kumquat’s videos has been mostly positive so far, group members said they did receive some negative feedback about the Dalai Lama video, which showed the Dalai Lama with scantily clad girls drinking beer.

The group also received negative feedback for its attack ads on Alampi’s opponents during SA elections, one of which showed SA President Allie Curtis shaking hands with Osama bin Laden.

Curtis was also the subject of the The Kumquat’s most recent video, “Special Report: CURTISGATE.”

Curtis said being the butt of jokes comes with the territory of being a political figure on campus, and thought The Kumquat did a good job with “CURTISGATE.”

“I was really glad to finally see a campus publication finally shed some light on some recent SA events in a way that’s not horribly biased or too serious,” Curtis said. “They’ve brought a lot of comedy to a situation that really needs comedy.”

Alampi said he thinks The Kumquat pushes the boundaries as a student organization in a positive way.

“They take media and allow it to be a platform for students to question our own behaviors and our own views on life,” he said.

Alampi said he heard a lot of positive feedback about his endorsement from The Kumquat, but also said he thinks there were some jokes made — specifically about immigration and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students — that some people might not have found funny.

“I think a lot of the videos are very successful in that they make people think. If you’re thinking about it, then their job is done,” Alampi said.

Schuster said she didn’t think any of the negative comments about the videos were serious enough to warrant a response.

While Kumquat members work to point out stereotypes that exist on SU’s campus, this idea is also reflected in mainstream satirical shows such as “The Colbert Report,” said Sherri Williams, who teaches COM 346: “Race, Gender, and the Media.”

Satire has to be nuanced for it to be done well, Williams said, pointing to “Saturday Night Live” as an example. She said “SNL” does a good job with gender in the sense that it portrays women in a variety of settings, such as in the home or in politics.

But she said “SNL” does not do as well with its depictions of race.

“When it comes to people of color, especially black people and Latinos, it’s always stigmatizing language and culture … trying to replicate stereotypes is not analyzing them,” she said.

Darcy Clark, a freshman and sister of Kappa Alpha Theta, said she didn’t think the “Bid Day” video portrayed an unfair stereotype of girls involved in greek life, and did not hear any sorority sisters complain about the video.

“None of my friends at home rushed, so I shared it with them and was like ‘This is what my life is going to be like.’ I thought it was funny,” said Clark, a child and family studies major.

Monica Bermudez, The Kumquat’s manager, agreed there is a fine line between making fun of a group and being offensive, and it is one The Kumquat does not want to cross. She said even within the group, there are sometimes disagreements among members about whether something goes too far, she said.

Looking forward, the Kumquat hopes to become even more recognizable on campus, continue to grow its presence on social media and develop a consistent style.

Said Bermudez: “In terms of people’s responses, we shouldn’t be afraid of putting something out there that might not be funny. I think we’re still at that field where we’re playing around with what works. It’s trial and error.”

Published on April 15, 2013 at 1:45 am

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