Tongue in cheek triggers gag reflex

All kidding aside, sometimes readers take our stories, headlines and illustrations more seriously than we do.

Journalists are a creative, playful bunch. More importantly, we see humor as a valuable tool in our efforts to help readers make sense of the world.

But it is hazardous to try to be funny in a publication that, for the most part, covers serious topics seriously.

It is especially perilous for The World-Herald, because our audience is so massive. We are read in four out of 10 households daily and more than five out of 10 on Sundays. Our audience includes a wide range of sensibilities about what’s funny — and about what subjects are fair game for poking fun.

Here are three recent instances where certain readers were not amused.

About a week before Halloween, we published a pattern to allow readers to carve Husker coach Bo Pelini’s likeness on a pumpkin. We meant our “Jack-Bo-Lantern” cutout to be pure enjoyment for Husker fans.

We know a lot of readers understood our intent. We heard a number of Husker players got a kick out of the idea of carving Bo’s intimidating scowl onto a pumpkin. We got several e-mails from the parents of happy children who had carved Bo’s likeness successfully.

But our cutout happened to run in the paper on Oct. 23, the week after the Huskers lost 31-10 to Texas Tech. It came just after our sports staff produced several articles analyzing the Huskers’ offensive problems.

Several readers — fans who thought we had been too tough on the coaching staff — called the Friday morning of “Jack-Bo-Lantern” and complained that the pumpkin amounted to “piling on” Coach Pelini. As a result of the calls, we adjusted our wording in our evening edition. We took out a silly joke at the expense of offensive coordinator Shawn Watson. It was regrettably snide and confused some about our intent.

A Nov. 10 front-page headline led to more than a dozen complaints from readers who thought we were promoting property destruction, specifically the harming of trees. I can see their point if you take our headline literally.

“Go carve it on a tree” was the headline of a story about the harmful graffiti being painted on the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. The city may spend $75,000 or more installing security cameras. Tree carving was offered tongue-in-cheek as an alternative to that costly option. But it raised the hackles of readers who earnestly lament the damage that tree carving can cause.

This was another instance where complaints came from morning readers, in time for us to consider making a change for the evening edition. In this case, however, we decided to stay with the playful headline. We thought it helped get people interested in the story, which, of course, is one of our main goals with headlines.

A story in our Midlands section Nov. 12 began with a bit of hyperbole that offended at least one reader. The Legislature had scuttled a plan to divert an agricultural marketing fund to help with the state’s budget shortfall. Because farmers had voiced such strong opposition, the story began, “Nebraska farmers can put away their pitchforks and lower their torches.”

A reader judged the statement “inflammatory” and claimed we had successfully alienated all of the state’s farmers. But he was the only farmer to complain, so I judged his complaint to be a bit of hyperbole itself.

All of these instances, though, illustrate that we have to be extra careful whenever we try to be funny. There is a danger that we confuse instead of amuse, that someone takes us more literally than we intend or otherwise misconstrues our meaning.

Forgive us if we keep trying. Our motive is simple. We want your newspaper to be an entertaining — as well as informative — part of your day. No kidding.

Contact the executive editor:

444-1277, mike.reilly@owh.com

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