The Yale Record


The Yale Record is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it is the oldest humor magazine in the United States.
The Record is currently published eight times during the academic year and is distributed in Yale residential college dining halls and around the nation through subscriptions. Content from the magazine is made available online and entire issues can be downloaded in.pdf form.

History

19th century

The Record began as a weekly newspaper, with its first issue appearing on September 11, 1872. Almost immediately, it became a home to funny writing, and later, when printing technology made it practical, humorous illustrations. The Record thrived immediately, and by the turn of the century had a wide circulation outside of New Haven—at prep schools, other college towns, and even New York City.
As Yale became one of the bellwethers of collegiate taste and fashion, so too The Record became a model—F. Scott Fitzgerald referred to the magazine as one of the harbingers of the new, looser morality of collegians of that time. But it wasn't just laughs The Record was serving up—during the 1920s, The Record ran a popular speakeasy in the basement of its building at 254 York Street.
Along with the Princeton Tiger Magazine, the Stanford Chaparral, and the Harvard Lampoon, among many college humor magazines, The Record created a wide-ranging, absurdist style of comedy which mixed high-culture references with material dealing with the eternal topics of schoolwork, alcohol, and sex. Comedy first published in the magazine was re-printed in national humor magazines like Puck and Judge.

20th century

In 1914, J.L. Butler of The Yale Record and Richard Sanger of The Harvard Lampoon created the first annual banquet of the College Comics Association, which drew representatives from 14 college humor magazines to New Haven. The college humor style influenced—or in some cases led directly to—the Marx Brothers, The New Yorker, Playboy, Mad magazine, underground comics, National Lampoon, The Second City, and Saturday Night Live.
The character "Whit" in the Sinclair Lewis story Go East, Young Man drew caricatures for the Yale Record.
From the 1920s to the 1960s, The Record placed special emphasis on cartooning, which led many of its alumni to work at Esquire magazine and especially The New Yorker. Record cartoonists during this time period included Peter Arno, Reginald Marsh, Clarence Day, Julien Dedman, Robert C. Osborn, James Stevenson, William Hamilton, and Garry Trudeau.
From 1920 through the 1940s, many Record staffers and alums contributed to College Humor, a popular nationally distributed humor magazine. Additionally, comedy first published in The Record was re-printed in national humor magazines like Life and College Humor.
File:Garry Trudeau 2012 Shankbone.jpg|thumb|Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau in 2012
By the late 1940s, the magazine's ties to The New Yorker were so strong that designers from that magazine consulted on The Record's layout and design.
By the 1950s, the Record had established the "Cartoonist of the Year" award, which brought people like Walt Kelly, the creator of Pogo, to New Haven to dine and swap stories with the staff.
In the early 1960s, cartoons and comic writing from the magazine were regularly re-printed in Harvey Kurtzman's Help!, a satirical magazine that helped launch the careers of Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, R. Crumb, Woody Allen, John Cleese, Gloria Steinem, and others.
In the late 1960s, the magazine played an integral role in editor-in-chief Garry Trudeau's creation of his epochal strip Doonesbury. Trudeau published the pre-syndication Doonesbury collection Michael J. through The Yale Record. In addition to editing the Record, Trudeau organized Record events such as a successful Annette Funicello film festival, a Tarzan film festival and a Jefferson Airplane concert featuring Sha Na Na.
The 1970s and 1980s are known as the "Dark Ages" amongst Record staffers. Economic conditions in New Haven were abysmal and despite its impressive pedigree, The Record sputtered along, self-destructed and was revived numerous times throughout this period. Boards were convened and issues were published intermittently in 1971–1981, 1983, and 1987.
Then in 1989, Yale students Michael Gerber and Jonathan Schwarz relaunched The Record for good. Their more informal, iconoclastic version of The Record proved popular, and a parody of the short-lived sports newspaper The National garnered national media attention. Gerber also created an ad hoc advisory board from Record alumni and friends, including Mark O'Donnell, Garry Trudeau, Robert Grossman, Harvey Kurtzman, Arnold Roth, Ian Frazier, and Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil.
In the fall of 1992, Record contributor Ryan Craig founded popular Yale tabloid the Rumpus.

21st century

While The Record continues to publish paper issues, the magazine began publishing web content on April 1, 2001.

Themed issues

Each issue of the current magazine features a particular theme. Aspects of the magazine include:
  • Snews - One-liners in the form of headlines.
  • Mailbags - Humorous letters to the editor, historical figures, or inanimate objects.
  • The Editorial - Written by the editor in chief of the magazine each issue, giving a brief overview of the contents and making of the issue.
  • Cartoons - Captioned, "New Yorker style" cartoons that hail back to the magazine's early beginnings.
  • Lists and Features - Staff generated content pertinent to the magazine's theme.

    Parodies

From time to time, The Record publishes parodies. These include :
  • The Yale Daily Record, a parody of the Yale Daily News
  • "Yale's 50 Best Personalities," a Yale Rumpus parody
  • The Yale Daily Record, a parody of the Yale Daily News
  • Yale Bulldog Days Program Parody
  • "The Please Your Man Issue", a parody of Cosmopolitan
  • "The Yale Protest Club: Fill Out Your Very Own YPC Petition!"
  • "Parents' Weekend Brochure"
  • Yale Blue Book Parody
  • "Yale Map"
  • Yale Blue Book Parody
  • "Yale's 50 Best Personalities," a Yale Rumpus parody
  • Yale Blue Book Parody
  • "YaleRecordStation", parody of "YaleStation"
  • Yale College Coarse Critique, a parody of the Yale Course Critique
  • Yale Handbook Parody
  • , a parody of The New York Times
  • The Yale Harold, a parody of the Yale Herald
  • Parody of The National Sports Daily
  • Football Program Parody
  • New Haven Abdicate, a parody of the New Haven Advocate
  • National Enquirer parody
  • New York Times parody
  • Yale Daily News parody
  • The Reader's , a nationally distributed parody of The Reader's Digest
  • Parody of The New York Times Magazine
  • Parody of the Yale Alumni Magazine
  • Sports Illstated, a parody of Sports Illustrated
  • Pwayboy, a parody of Playboy
  • Twue, a parody of True
  • Liff, a parody of Life
  • "Fallout Protection" from the Department of Offense
  • Yew Norker, a parody of The New Yorker
  • Reader's Digestion, a parody of Reader's Digest
  • Timf, a parody of Time
  • Sports Illiterate, a parody of Sports Illustrated
  • Ployboy, a parody of Playboy
  • Daily Mirror Parody, a parody of the New York Daily Mirror
  • Le Nouveau Yorkeur, a parody of The New Yorker
  • Yale Alumninum Manganese, a parody of the Yale Alumni Magazine
  • Esquirt, a parody of Esquire
  • Tale, a parody of Male
  • Yale Daily News parody
  • Paunch, a parody of Punch
  • Yale Daily News parody
  • Yale Daily News parody
  • The Smut! Issue
  • Yale Daily News parody
  • Record Comics, featuring "Supergoon", a parody of "Superman", and "Hotshot Stacy", a parody of "Dick Tracy"
  • The Shattering Review of Literature, a parody of The Saturday Review of Literature
  • Happy Hollywood, a movie magazine parody
  • New York's Fiction Newspaper, a parody of the Daily News
  • Record's Digest, a parody of Reader's Digest
  • Phlick, a parody of photo magazines
  • Parody of The Harvard Crimson
  • Yale Daily News parody
  • Real Spicy Horror Tales, parody of pulps
  • Yale Daily News parody
  • Vanity Fair parody
  • The New Yorker parody
  • Parody of Time
  • Yale Daily Clews, a parody of the Yale Daily News
  • Yale Record's Film Fun Number, a parody of Film Fun
  • Collegiate Comicals, a parody of college comics

    Master's Teas

Throughout the year, the Record invites notable figures from the world of comedy to "Master's Teas", informal interviews hosted by the Record in conjunction with residential colleges, at which tea is, in fact, not even served upon request. While residential colleges frequently organize Master's Teas, The Yale Record is known for its humorous ones. Guests have included: