Cynical Cartoon Crosses the Line, Distorts the Truth
I was offended by Lizzie Griesedieck’s March 24 “Kinky Lizard” cartoon captioned “The road to hell is paved by Georgetown tour guides” (The Hoya, A2). I am disgusted that The Hoya would publish such a grotesque and inaccurate cartoon.
In the cartoon, Griesedieck depicts a Georgetown tour guide named Ted spouting perceived lies about Georgetown. Through Ted, Griesedieck complains that: Leo’s is unappealing, the Southwest Quad lacks hot water, The Corp is a clique, SFS students lack souls, the administration fails to address student concerns, Georgetown lacks diversity, sex and alcohol are too prevalent on this campus, professors assign too much homework, the campus lacks easy-to-find “fun” and that course registration is too hard.
Some of Griesedieck’s comments were neither offensive nor inaccurate: They were just the bland, hackneyed complaints that The Hoya has published, in various formats, on innumerable occasions. Her claims that Leo’s may not sate students’ appetites and that the administration is deaf to students’ concerns fall under this category.
However, the vast majority of Griesedieck’s commentary was offensive and woefully unwarranted. For example, anyone who walks through Red Square realizes from the hundreds of fliers promoting student events that “fun” does exist on this campus. Individually, these claims are silly generalizations. Collectively, they insult the entire Georgetown community.
I do not question Grisedieck’s right to free speech: she has a constitutional right to express her thoughts, no matter how petty and insignificant those thoughts are. What I do question, however, is why on earth The Hoya would publish such trash. Does The Hoya really believe that Georgetown tour guides (or anyone who cherishes Georgetown as a fun, diverse and intellectually stimulating community), pave the “road to hell?”
Mark Schmidt (SFS ’12) March 24, 2009
To send a letter to the editor on a recent campus issue or Hoya story or a viewpoint on any topic, contact opinion@thehoya.com. Letters should not exceed 300 words, and viewpoints should be between 600 to 800 words.
Mar 27 2009 at 5:45 a.m.
Well apparently Lizzie forgot to mention that SFS kids also have no sense of humor.
Mar 27 2009 at 1:02 p.m.
For a cartoon to be useful in determining one's sense of humor, the cartoon itself needs to be funny. Saying that those who found the cartoon terribly unfunny and inaccurate have no sense of humor is like blaming your car's speedometer for not registering a speed while at the same time not stepping on the gas.
Mar 27 2009 at 2:51 p.m.
Freshmaaaaaaaaan...
Mar 27 2009 at 5:21 p.m.
Oh come on, it's a cartoon. It wasn't necessarily all that funny, but it wasn't offensive, either. The tour guides make stuff up all the time.
It's so clear that the freshman who wrote this is just so wide-eyed and naive about Georgetown that he'd get upset if anyone even implied that there's something wrong about this place.
Wait until his heat breaks next January and Facilities takes a month to fix it or ... wait, didn't his Georgetown career start with the norovirus outbreak? I guess he's got selective memory.
Mar 27 2009 at 5:32 p.m.
Did they really print this? The Hoya is a joke.
Mar 27 2009 at 9:56 p.m.
Congratulations to the Hoya for publishing a hilariously accurate cartoon. The doe-eyed freshman who wrote the editor's letter will soon realize the error of their ways.
Mar 28 2009 at 12:19 a.m.
oh please. we all know tour guides misrepresent the school and this points that out. well done cartoon -- and the overdone, overserious reactions are funny too! the first commenter was right -- no sense of humor.
Mar 28 2009 at 1:22 a.m.
You claim that the criticisms are "bland" and "hackneyed"(?) - and unfair - because the criticisms are, well, familiar and easy to make. What does bland have to do with anything? Why do her assertions need to be nuanced in order to ring true or valuable?
As for the rest, well, I think the point of the first post about a sense of humor is correct here. I mean, "grotesque?" "Spouted?" "Woefully unwarranted?" What is this, a Philodemic debate? Lizzie would have done well to toss in an additional criticism of students who sense that cartoonists who mock campus culture are perfectly reasonable points of outrage, of all the outrageous things in this world. "Petty and insignificant," indeed.
Mar 31 2009 at 8:49 a.m.
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