In the hot summer of 1999, I co-founded an online satire mag which took a shot at becoming The Onion of college newspapers. We called it The Effenheimer.
Our crew was mostly staff from the Iowa State Daily or cast members of Grandma Mojo's sketch comedy troupe, and some of us were both - Greg Jerrett, Ben Gran, Dave Roepke, Cartoonist Carmen Cerra and Web Dude Cory Schmitz. We pushed out a new issue every two weeks for about eight months, then the site sat there until the domain expired. None of us thought much about archiving such things, so the whole deal was considered lost ... until we realized a few days ago that a fractured version was still accessible through the magic of the Web Archive.
So it was with equal parts excitement and fear that I browsed the archive last night. We built The Effenheimer from the ground up on a bed of enthusiasm, creativity, modestly priced draft beer and Cafe Beaudelaire's Pommes Frites. It was also something I did when I was 21 years old.
I found some sharp satire, plenty of bad taste and quite a few funny ideas that could have used more revision. It's a fine line between homage and rip-off, and we stood proudly on that line when it came to The Onion. We copped several of their go-to setups, like the straight and gag article written together - Iowans Enthralled by Politics, Barbecued Beef.
Several articles remind me instantly of the experiences they grew out of, like Freshman Coed Confident her High School Relationship Will Stand the Test of Time and Local Band Completely Sucks. I'm pretty sure I wrote both of those, but I have a hard time remembering for sure who did what, and we opted for no bylines for some reason. But I do have to give Ben Gran credit for the still transcendent Conspicuous Consumption for Christ article.
I love the polls, like "Who is your least favorite apostle or Beatle?", or little bits of absurdism like Standings for Effenheimer 9-pin No Tap Bowling League.
There were at least two other college satire startups at the same time, including the fledgling CollegeHumor.com. Greg and I even met some of our "competitors" at a journalism conference in NYC. We were funnier, but they were better organized. Guess who came out ahead?
Of course, it was soon after The Effenheimer I was asked to contribute to the legitimate (paying) satire site Suck.com, and only a few years after that I traded in a fairly successful career as a newspaper and online journalist for the quiet desperation of a screenwriter.
Still, it's with a heavy dose of nostalgia, a bit of pride and just a little embarrassment that I add these remaining traces of The Effenheimer to my archive.
