Citizen Poke

First of all, I have a bias against sites that rely on the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format. I'm not a big HTML purist, but using the web as a mere delivery system for static, offline publications seems like an unwelcome subversion of an emerging art form. It's like turning the web into a big fax machine. That said, Citizen Poke, a humor magazine published by those clever lads at elite little Amherst College, is amazingly professional and often surprisingly funny. Like all humor mags, the material is hit and miss. Some pieces are overlong and others fall flat. But there are plenty of gags worthy of the big time. Issue No. 7's "Sexual Harrasment Trading Cards" still draws the yuks after repeated viewings and No. 8's "American High," a eulogy to Jerry Garcia to the tune of "American Pie" (Bye, bye you American High/The acid made me placid but the Ganja was dry) is downright necessary! With their exposure on the Web, the Pokers must be surpassing the venerable Harvard Lampoon in college humor mag preeminence and no doubt these guys will go on to write for Letterman, Saturday Night Live or something in that genre on the strength of their work here--if anyone in a position to give them a big break has the patience for 8-1/2-minute downloads (and that's with a 28.8K modem). There's also the option of getting Citizen Poke by FTP. (JV)

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