Laughing through the pain

Staff Editorial

Sometimes, fear gets the best of us. With all that has been going on in the world lately—the terrorist attacks in Paris, the mass shootings at a holiday party in California and a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado, Donald Trump’s call to bar Muslims from entering the U.S.—it can be easy to succumb to fear. And that is what has happened.

A recent New York Times/CBS survey shows pollers’ fear of terrorism in the U.S. at its highest peak since 9/11. In the wake of these tragedies, it’s not surprising that fear of terrorism has skyrocketed. Yet, it’s also important to realize that there is still laughter in the world.

We’re here to guide you to some of that laughter (and perhaps an excuse to stop studying):

Feeling frustrated by or just sick of talking about Trump’s desire to discriminate against an entire group of people? Check out a video the Kasich campaign created called “What’s at Steak.” It features a very real announcement for Trump Steaks with very real—and very bad—reviews superimposed over the video. (Trust him, steak is his favorite food.) Plus, the link at the end of the video takes you to a website with a Pac-Man-like game replacing the title character with Trump’s head and the pellets with steaks.

Lately, there’s also been talk about presidential candidate Barnie Sandler’s platform: “The Revolution begins with your memes.” The candidate’s site gives regular folk an opportunity to create their own “dank maymays.” The candidate’s Facebook page, with a following of more than 23,000 users, features more of Sandler’s political messages.

“South Park” is almost always a good choice when it comes satirizing everything and everyone. The current season offers a look at ads and how they’re taking over not just news but the entire world. Sometimes we are just trying to read more about the conflict in the Middle East and are manipulated to click on the slideshow of the worst celebrity plastic surgery jobs ever, which directs to another slideshow, or so you thought, it isn’t even a slideshow it’s just an ad for face cream and suddenly a Whole Foods has been erected to help gentrify the entire town until ads are the only ones left.

While the world can be a dark and depressing place, try to lift your head up from time to time. And if the darkness doesn’t pass for a while, at least we’ll have a surplus of raw material for comedy.