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The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

The Forum

The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

The Forum

The Roman Radish: Latin's Finest News Source?

Henry Block and Noa Rosenberg

Everyone knows John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and their respective satirical journalism shows. Their use of humor makes them popular and allows them to talk about issues facing our society in a way that appeals to a large audience. Latin’s “satirical” publication is the infamous Roman Radish.

The Roman Radish has great comedy at face value. At first read it hits hard. It is call out filled and topical, but it does not go much further. You can’t deny the benefits of a good laugh and, honestly, The Radish supplies that. It dares to talk about things that, frankly, don’t get discussed in the Forum because they’re too student-driven: the politics of the student body, teachers, general events, and parts of events not exactly deemed serious enough for the Forum or other more central publications. It is clear why the presumed satire of the Radish draws in a huge number of readers looking for a laugh.

But is the Roman Radish even satire in the first place?

Well, it is sometimes. Satire is the use of humor, irony, and exaggeration in order to expose and criticize the flaws within a person, organization, and institution. While the Radish does this occasionally, they do have strong affinity for the quick joke. This has a lot of bark and little bite in terms of social impact.

Their twitter states that the Radish is, “Funnier than the Forum.” No lie there.

However, good satirical journalism isn’t only about being funny; it should cause us to think and create a more approachable way to start dialogue about tough issues. The Radish does have a huge following and drums up a lot of conversation, but currently it’s just empty words. They could use this power and readership to make Latin better, not just crack obvious jokes about the easy targets.

The Radish should be using its power to change things. It makes us laugh, but does it actually have an objective besides that? The answer is unclear, but for the Roman Radish to be a satirical publication as it advertises instead of being merely a humor website, it needs to have an agenda too.

“What Pattern are You?” was really funny though.

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The Roman Radish: Latin's Finest News Source?