Word: Pasquinade

pasquinade

[pas-kwuh-neyd]

noun

1. a satire or lampoon, especially one posted in a public place.

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The thin pile of colored pages was dropped on the table.  There they sat, unmoving.  Principal Beston crossed his plump arms and glared at Taylor, who sat in front of the expensive looking, but still cheap, desk.

               “Do you know what this is?” Principal Beston asked.

               Taylor looked at the older man in confusion.  “The school paper?” He said.

               “And what is in the paper?”

               “The news?” He couldn’t help but think how weird old people could be.  It really was a mystery to the 16 year old.

               Principal Beston let out a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a grumble.  “On this page in particular.” He said.

               His finger pointed to what passed for a comics page in the small, student run newspaper.  Really, it was just three strips and a computer generated puzzle, but it was better than nothing.  And among that small selection was the inaugural entry into Taylor’s new comic strip.

               “The comics?”

               “Correct, Mr. Hawthorne, the comics.  More specifically, yours.”

               “What’s wrong with it?”

               “What’s wrong?  Everything is wrong.  It’s rude, disrespectful, offensive and inappropriate.”

               Taylor looked at the three-panel comic.  It was a satirical look at high school life that, with the term satire used loosely.  It was the kind of safe, banal humor that was seen in national newspaper comics.  He could probably get nationally syndicated with it, if he cleaned up the art a bit.  There was definitely nothing rude or offensive about it.  Well, the bland humor might offend someone, but not many.

               “Why?” Taylor asked simply.

               “It makes fun of this great institution and those who work here, that’s how.”

               One of the characters in the strip was indeed a teacher loosely based off one of his own, but that was about it.  That character only appeared in one of the three panels, and was not the main focus of the strip.  And it was not even making fun of the teacher in question.  Not really anyway.  Maybe a little, but nothing terrible.  He had even cleared it with the woman, and she had gotten a kick out of it and said it was fine.

               “How so?”

               “It paints teachers in a poor light.  Makes them objects of ridicule and leaves them open for insults and disrespect.”

               “What?  No it doesn’t.  And even if it did, so what?  It’s satire.  It’s supposed to make fun of stuff.  Nobody’s going to take it seriously anyway.  Pretty sure there’s only, like, three others outside of the newspaper club that’d even read it.”

               “And that is three students too many.  You will not publish any more of these sad excuses for comic strips, and I want to know who approved the inclusion.  Certainly it was not a teacher employed here, so it must have been another student.  Unless you were working alone and snuck it in.”

               “Actually, it was Mrs. Keller.  She thought it was nice.  And Ms. Green-Hall said it was okay too, and she’s the one I based the one I used as inspiration.  She thought it was cleaver.”

               Principal Beston’s eyes widened in shock.  “I will have to have words with those two.” He said quietly.  “But my decision still stands.  You will cease the publication of this horrid, insulting comic before it gets out of hand.  I will not have this…this insult to such a fine institution around where anyone can see it.”

               “Okay, fine, whatever.” Taylor said with a sigh.  He was not particularly invested, since he had only published one strip so far.

               “Good.  As long as you understand, we have an agreement.  You are dismissed.”

               Taylor stood and turned, waiting until his back was to the principal to roll his eyes.  He headed for the door and was about to open it, but a new thought came to him.  He paused and turned.

“You know this isn’t going to go the way you think it will, right?”

“What?” Principal Beston said, raising one eyebrow.  Taylor was momentarily impressed by that, but did not let it dissuade him.

“People love satire and hate censorship.  Think about that.”

And with those words, he left the office, leaving his principal to think.

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It's true.  People hate censorship, even when it has merit.  I mean, look what happened a few years ago when the US government tried to pass internet censorship laws.  It didn't go very well and had people in an uproar.  That's not to say all censorship is necessarily bad, but it does have to be used intelligently.  Something like this is probably not the smartest way to use censorship.