Harbus Humor is the Rodney Dangerfield of the editorial room.
Around the end of October Harbus Humor got the feeling that the Harbus editorial team wasn’t taking him seriously. Actually, Harbus Humor always had that feeling. Sure Harbus Humor complained whenever editorial meetings ran over, but one has to realize that Harbus Humor seeing the battle of soap opera stars on Family Feud is far more important to his personal and professional growth than debating foreign policy or wireless access or zzzzzzzzzzzz.
That didn’t mean Harbus Humor wasn’t a serious journalist. Granted, over the past year Harbus Humor did repeatedly push for several more “April Fools” editions, none of which would be published on “April Fools Day” (or even in “April” for that matter). But why not? We’re here to sell frigging papers. It’s all about positioning, and finding our niche, Harbus Humor tried to tell the editorial board. Harbus Humor bets you can tell him more what Jon Stewart said last night on the Daily Show than what Dan Rather said on CBS. Wait, we’re at Harvard Business School. Damn. Harbus Humor should have gone someplace less mature.
Rebuffed in these efforts, Harbus Humor decided to take matters to the next level. While details probably aren’t necessary at this point, suffice to say all those “serious” sections of the paper didn’t get us national media coverage. On the map, baby. All of you “serious” journalists can kiss Harbus Humor’s ass for ignoring him. I sold papers!
As you will note, Harbus Humor prot‚g‚ Allen Narcisse is the new Editor in Chief. Coincidence? I think not. Pay your respects.
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Time to dole out the sappy hugs. Harbus Humor dislikes this part so will format it in coldly calculating HBS bullet points. Seriously, thanks to:
o All my Humor section writers, especially featured columnists Allen Narcisse, Barry Gittleman, and Ali Ashurov, for their timely contributions over the last year
o Nick Will, for the opportunity
o Editorial Board, for putting up with my suggestions
o Design Staff, for dealing with my cryptic instructions and unicorn photo requests
o The Business Staff, for frequently listening to my rants.
Harbus Humor feels like he’s signing a high school yearbook here. It’s been a long and wild ride. Peace out. BFF. Love, Harbus Humor
