The weekly meeting of a local humor newspaper became notably more uncomfortable last Thursday, after one writer pitched an article which was significantly more racist than anyone attending the meeting was prepared to handle.
Upon hearing just the headline of the article, the mood of those in the room instantly shifted. The few chuckles and sharply exhaled breaths that were audible quickly dissipated into about ten seconds of agonizing silence. Most meeting attendees began gazing up at the ceiling, down at their shoes, or sidelong at each other. Reports indicate that some of them still refuse to make eye contact with each other.
“Yeah, I guess we could…uh, make it into a horoscope,” our Senior Staff Writer eventually mumbled at a significantly lower volume than normal.
Editor-in-Chief Colin Parker, seeing the creative energy leak out of the room faster than crude oil out of Exxon-Valdez, attempted to salvage the situation. “You know what else we could do? Another Top Ten Dicks list!” Colin exclaimed with a forced smile as he drew a penis on the whiteboard. A smattering of light laughter followed, but the damage had been done.
The writer in question, whose name has been withheld to protect his family, soldiered on with two or three slightly less racist – but still unpublishable – article ideas before eventually running out of steam.
The original idea, which is of course far too racist to be written here, was actually pretty funny without the whole race thing shoehorned in there, most of the staff agreed.
“You know, I could probably shape this into a workable article,” mused one writer as he reflected on the idea afterwards. “But low-effort meta-comedy is more my style.”
In other news, Editor-in-Chief Colin Parker has recently decided to fire all the lazy, uninspired, talentless hacks who think that low-effort meta-comedy is funny.
Adding that line was a form of meta-comedy, you idiot. You’re fired again.
