Spring Rules April fools

Some how April fools has sustained a popularity and notoriety despite it's "unofficial holiday"tag by the government. April 1st, the one day where anyone is vulnerable to be pranked, and anyone is capable of becoming the "prankster".

I had just walked into my spanish class on a friday morning a little bit tardy, already tired and in the wrong state of mine from my wild night before hand. And my teacher mentioned to the class the prospect of having class on saturday morning at 8 am because she could not make it into class on monday. I was furious when I heard this news, wanting nothing more then to sleep in on my lovely saturday off from school and football.

Upset and deflated, I eventually told the professor I would attend class in the morning. The entire class erupted in laughter as soon as I agreed to come. I was confused, did I say something wrong, or did they know something I didn't know. At that moment I glanced at the black board where my professor rights the agenda and the date.

It read April 1st.

Right away, I knew I had just been the butt of a prank. While I was embarrassed for my vulnerability and position as the one being pranked, I felt a bit uneasy. This sure didn't stop the rest of the class from laughing at me. This uneasiness quickly vanished into happiness as the reality that I could officially sleep in on saturday had returned to my concious!

Sure it's inappropriate to laugh at people being pranked when the prank is harmful, but on April Fools day, ANYONE IS AN OPEN TARGET.

Laugh away, it's appropriate after all.

Charlie Sheen, Funny or Unacceptable?

It seems you cant go very far now adays without hearing a "biwinning" comment or another one of actor Charlie Sheen's now famous tacky and slick one liners.

Sheen, once the celebrated star actor in the cit-com "Two-and-a-Half Men", is now celebrated for a far more unique reason. His drug habits and rockstar lifestyle.

It seems that the world has turned a blind eye to responsibility and morality when it comes to Sheen. We embrace his addiction to hard drugs like cocaine, and we embrace his arrogance about the illegal and dangerous life he leads. But instead of demeaning his behavior, the public has placed Sheen on top of a pedestal.

Bi-Winning song

Songs like this are produced every day to make humor out of the situation, when in reality, this is a man in great danger of losing his life, while simultaneously putting drugs in a "GOOD" light.

Charlie Sheen should be ashamed of his actions, but he celebrates them. We as the public should not enjoy his problems, rather recognize the severity of the situation!

Pursuit of happiness turns into Pursuit of "Jappiness"

If you have listened to the radio in the past year or so, im sure you have heard the song by Kid Cudi, Pursuit of Happiness. Now listen to University of Michigan student's remix to this song called Pursuit of Jappiness.

This remix shows a parody of kid cudi's song in a hilarious portrayal of the life of Jewish students at the University of Michigan. While it's arguable that this is a harmless description of their life using comedy. Some Jewish students could easily be angry at this portrayal since it gives them all a bad name in a sense.

This video further proves the idea that comedy now a days is more focused on making fun of things, and remaking songs is an easy vehicle in producing these comedies. We seemingly laugh at the remarkable truth involved in these parodies. Being from Ann Arbor Michigan, I can attest to the amount of Jewish students at the University, and as portrayed in the song, most of them have a large amount of money among other perks.

"Pursuit of Jappiness" is just another example of our increasing inappropriateness of college humor. While we find it funny, we certainly know we would not want our employers or parents knowing about them, which exemplifies our knowledge of the inappropriateness.

Keep chucklin'

Pranks are so funny, but are they okay?

One of my favorite internet websites is youtube.com and on Youtube, exists a page called CollegeHumor. The object of their page is simple, show as many pranks, insults, funny videos, and just plain god awful jokes as possible.
I was visiting the site yesterday, and I came across the video The Half Court Shot

This is one of the funniest videos I have seen In a while, most likely because I am so glad it did not happen to me. The superiority of being "in" on the prank made everyone in the crowd extremely happy and excited when the opportunity came to be involved in the joke.

I think the main reason why this joke was so acceptably funny is the fact that Amir and his friend have an ongoing "Prank-War". Since we know Amir has done terrible things to trick his friend, we have little sympathy for the emotions he might be feeling.

The real question is whether or not this would be funny if it had happened to an ordinary fan. In the case of an ordinary person, the crowd might be a little hesitant to play such an emotion wrenching joke on them, I know I would.

The fact of the matter is, Pranks seem to only be acceptable when they are "deserved" in some form or way. When an innocent person gets a prank played on them, the joker is toying with them in an unconditional way that is very morally questionable.

It's okay to laugh...because that wasn't real, Right?

I stumbled across a video last night while talking to a couple of my floor mates, it was on youtube, and titled, Wobblegirl-this is how you dance to dubstep. It is a video of a girl who "suffers" from Dystonia, a neurological disorder, triggered from a seasonal flu shot. In the original video she is proving to the news how "tragic" it has been, and what it has done to her life. Take a moment to watch this:

Measure your laughter

If your sense of humor is anything like that of the four of my friends that were watching this, you most likely laughed, if not laughed hysterically. The syncrony of her "Dystonia" outbursts and the music, prove to be hilarious. But I could not help but wonder if I was laughing merely because this situation was completely fake. If in fact Dystonia had truly ruined this beautiful woman's life, would we still be laughing at such a disgusting display of mockery?

I caught myself often saying, "Wow, we are messed up for laughing at this" quickly to remind myself that it was fake after all. The relief factor of laughter is so powerful. And it often goes unnoticed. But next time you are laughing at something that is fake, that would be unfortunate if it was real, ask yourself, how would your laughter really change if it was in fact real, and would you really laugh at all?

-Dr. Giggles