By Sarah Krumholz

A new magazine is going to be hitting the Mac Campus this week. It’s a humor mag called Hegemonocle that will hopefully keep you in a good mood as finals approach. Here we talk with two of the founders, Daniel Rocklin ’11 and Michael Freedman ’11, about what that magazine is all about. The Mac Weekly:How did the magazine get started?

Michael Freedman:The idea came to us around second semester of our freshman year.The group of ten or so friends that Dan and I are sort of a subdivision of had always kind of bonded over how funny we found it that Macalester students and orgs sometimes take themselves so seriously. We all loved political philosophy and cultural studies, but could not really deny the humor inherent in students looking like they are about to fight (no one ever fights at Mac, but sometimes people look like they are about to) over whether or not the oppression inherent in sexed bathrooms required a Foucauldian or Gramscian model of power to explain it best.

Anyway, the original conception for the magazine was as a mock radical newspaper, sort of making fun of the whole super over serious, maybe a little self important, as we (us at the Hege included) can all be at this school sometimes. Oh yeah, and also I like to write and be funny, I hope.

When it became apparent that we were not going to be able to generate volumes of satirical radical writing without repeating most of the jokes, we just switched it to a humor magazine with vague traces of its original intent still left in. Then it only took a year for Dan and I to actually stop being lazy and create the org.

TMW: How often do you plan to publish the magazine?

MF: Right now it’s once a semester. We have a small staff because we are new so that’s really all we can do. Hopefully that will jump up to a few times a semester as the org grows. I think our long-term goal is monthly. But if interest gets high enough we would consider bi-monthly, weekly, daily, hourlyor every other minute, although the last few would put a terrible strain on our writers wrists.

TMW:What does the name Hegemocle mean?

Dan Rocklin: It’s just a nonsense word. A misuse of the word Hegemony seamed consistent with a satire radical publication.

TMW: What material is the magazine going to cover?

DR: The Hegemonocle will cover the full gambit of all possible topics, including orphan riots, mustache advisories and Greek poetry.

TMW: What sort of humor are you trying to channel within the magazine?

DR: Really, it’s going to be very pun-centric. We’ve always thought that puns are the highest form of humor, and the magazine will really reflect that preference I think. Also, there will be highly sophisticated satire and some French absurdism, but mostly puns.

The magazine will be available Monday in the Campus Center.

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