Step aside, Gravity magazine—there’s a new satirical platform on campus for all the latest memes. “The Brandeis Bagel,” started by Dane Leoniak ’20 and Perry Letourneau ’20, posts daily on Instagram and Facebook with joking headlines formed by the creative team at The Brandeis Bagel.

The Bagel is “an Onion rip-off for Brandeis humor,” said Leoniak in an interview with The Brandeis Hoot. Letourneau put it more eloquently as “an outlet for Brandeis-focused satire,” in an interview with The Brandeis Hoot. The staff at The Bagel follows the style of The Hard Times newspaper, another news outlet known for its satirical and quirky articles depicting news with a funny twist.

The Onion and The Hard Times are news outlets that publish fictional, comedic stories in a news format for readers to enjoy. While The Onion and The Hard Times publish full-length articles, The Bagel just publishes headlines.

“And really it emerged out of us thinking there were jokes about Brandeis culture that needed to be made, and no one was making,” explained Letourneau. “Brandeis is weird. There’s a lot of weird, funny and annoying things about this place to tackle…but I think our goal with every headline is to try to find a new angle or ideally something which no one’s even talking about yet, but which is on people’s minds.”

Even though Gravity magazine, another satirical journal on campus, has a popular following, Leoniak and Letourneau highlighted the key difference between The Bagel and Gravity. “That’s why The Onion and The Hard Times and stuff like that do well, because you see a funny headline are like ‘yeah, that’s relatable.’” He noted that while Gravity publishes full length articles, The Bagel produces just headlines with photoshopped photos to go along with the headlines.

“A friend told me that we’re funny while Gravity is just negative; I think that’s pretty accurate. Some of our stuff is just for fun, like we made a post about Coiner. No negativity there, that headline was 100 percent from a place of love for Coiner,” Letourneau further reiterated.

The Onion was a large inspiration in coming up with the title for the newspaper. Leoniak asked himself, “What’s an onion by Brandeis?” when deciding the name. “What’s a Brandeis food? Bagel,” and the name was formed. Letourneau also searched for the most “Brandeisian food possible” and cited that “Sherman cantaloupe” was also a very Brandeisian food, but it did not have the same alliteration and charm that “The Brandeis Bagel” has.

None of the writers for The Bagel expected the publicity and popularity that came with their posts, but they greatly appreciate the support.

Leoniak’s personal favorites headlines by The Bagel so far have been “Raccoons in Dumpster Behind the SCC Just First Years Who Thought Einsteins Was Open Later” and “Student Studying Abroad in Japan with Asian Girlfriend SWEARS He Doesn’t Have an Asian Fetish.” The first one was because of personal experiences and the latter was “a personal attack on a terrible person I know,” said Leoniak.

Letourneau personally enjoys the headline, “BREAKING: Student in Philosophy-159A Wants to Push Back on That.”

Those interested in submitting headline ideas to be published by The Bagel can message their page through Facebook or Instagram @thebrandeisbagel.