At a typical Gravity meeting, the only way to be taken seriously is to make a joke out of everything. Every week, at 7 PM in the Brandeis Media Coalition (Shapiro Center, 3rd floor) a small group of Brandeis students meets to discuss the humor of the week. Any topic – the Brandeis meal plans, recent club activities, the structure of someone's face- you name it, and it's open game for jokes and hilariousness abounds. Unlike more serious publications on campus, Gravity is intended to be, as put by its current President Benjamin Douglas, a magazine that “makes people laugh and have fun.”
Founded by Noel Rappin '93, Matthew Cohen '93, Jason Schneider '93 and a little Elf they called 'Pookie' '95, Gravity Magazine is currently in its 16th year of publication. Ideas have ranged from board games such as Pictionary- Hellen Keller Edition.
At Gravity, putting together the semesterly issues is entertaining, enjoyable and gut-bustingly hilarious. Referring to the atmosphere at club meetings, Douglas noted, “it varies a bit. Sometimes we are just sitting around…sometimes we are really on a roll. I really like the moments when we come up with a really funny idea, adding stuff to it or varying it for over an hour.” The result is a new, comedic issue available every semester.
The club's current achilles heel is a lack of active membership. Average meeting attendance for the past few weeks has been around three to four people, simply not enough to have a full out forum with people bouncing ideas off of one another. “A lot of people on campus don't consider themselves funny, but it's really not true,” Douglas stated.
“Once you are in the room with all the other people the ideas take off.. It's like hanging out with a bunch of funny people…with a purpose,” Douglas continued.
Current regulars include Douglas, Steve Ryals, a Brandeis Alum who was so attached to the club that he has shown up to almost every meeting since his graduation in 2000, and this author. All agree that more people need to show up.
Nevertheless, “we've come up with a good issue every semester,” Douglas added. He's proud of the team's work. “I like the moments when I see people reading our magazine and start cracking up. I feel like we've accomplished something. We've brought fresh humor into the world of comedy.”
People interested in gravity should show up to the meetings at 7 PM on Mondays, in the BMC. Also, check out the online forums, where humor gets shared online, at forum.gravitymagazine.org. Funny quotes made by professors should be sent to gravity@brandeis.edu by March 25th.
