Word: horselaugh
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...college trends) are not sure whether an article is to be taken seriously (the article about the sukkah is an example of this). More often though, satire is inappropriate because it could not be made to work well in a particular instance. The Review claims "We believe in the horselaugh as a weapon against pipsqueaks in power," and it acts on this belief with satires ranging from the amateurish and low to the amusing. The problem, obviously, is the former, and even to give the paper the benefit of the doubt by conceding that its more offensive satires were inspired...
...even these instructions are offered more in fun than in malice. For early on, the skeptic's skeptic acknowledges that the most obvious evidence of fraud will not budge the True Believer. Instead, Gardner writes for those who agree with the 1920s observation of H.L. Mencken that one horselaugh was worth 10,000 syllogisms. As Science: Good, Bad and Bogus proves, it still is. -By Frederic Golden