Honi Soit has a strong history of irreverence, impudence and creating humour from lists of three in which the third thing being listed is incongruous with the first two things being listed to create a “sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing”, as theorised by Immanuel Kant on the subject of Incongruity Theory in comedy.
Simultaneous juxtaposition aside, this history has seen satirical articles and “comedy jokes” take on their own pages and even establish brands away from the paper.
Today, however, we bid farewell to the online presence of one such brand. The Facebook Algorithm has spoken, and The Cursor’s entire social network has dissolved into thin air, never to be seen again.
The Cursor’s ironic “glitch aesthetic” cleverly paid homage to the interface between print and online media. However, online media proved be the cruellest platform of all.
While this is a very sad day for student comedy writers in the Camperdown-Darlington region, it is also a day of celebration for anyone who has ears. Along with dissolving The Cursor, Facebook’s algorithm has entirely dissolved the Australian rapper, Kerser, who is…was not very good online either.
Honi comedy has often rebranded to soak with the relevant. The Garter Press lived from 2011-12 and arose from the dead for a 2015 resurrection. The Soin parodied The Sun in 2013 and 2016 gave birth to The Cursor.
The only remaining relic of Honi Soit’s irreverent jest writing is the Twitter profile of Andy Slacks, deputy to the satire editor at The Garter Press.
Just setting up my Twitter. #myfirstTweet
— Andy Slacks (@andy_slacks) May 5, 2015
The spirit of The Cursor contacted Slacks for comment and received this response:
I was always the only jest writer. This is a message from the cosmos.
– Andy
does anyone know how to delete tweets? @nytimes @NewYorker @JaneCaro
— Andy Slacks (@andy_slacks) May 5, 2015
When the spirit of The Cursor also contacted the Facebook Algorithm for comment, the sky trembled with a howling wind and ejected confetti onto our office roof.
So we bid farewell to the Cursor Facebook page. May you forever enjoy cheap Honi knock-offs.
The Cursor will be back in print in August.
