Nowadays, it seems like so many news sources are becoming more and more negative. A team of students decided to offer a new option: a comedy newspaper covering satirical topics around Monarch—The Doanion. The paper’s first issue was published and distributed throughout the halls of Monarch on Jan. 15, with many students and staff picking up the article, reading the stories, and solving the crossword puzzle on the back.
The writers found inspiration from reading other satires, realizing that Monarch could use its own.
“I look at The Onion and pages like that, so I thought it would be fun to bring it here,” one of the founders said.
One writer also explained his reasoning behind why we needed a comedy newspaper here on campus.
“I have always lived by the message that nobody should be up on their high horse,” he said. “Everybody deserves to get made fun of just a little bit, no matter who you are.”
As to why the writers chose to separate their names from The Doanion, they said: “We want to stay anonymous because we aren’t making The Doanion for our own personal gain. We just want to make the school laugh, and if people find out who we are, that’s okay.”
Their idea came to life on that January morning when they published articles poking fun at the new phone ban and vaping, along with a side column about language arts teacher Taryn Cawlfield.
“Mrs. Cawlfield said she really loved that one. She told me she liked it and she’d shown it to a bunch of people in her life.”
Many other teachers also enjoyed the first issue, even aiding the writers by getting their work out to the student body.
“Some teachers have put it up on their whiteboards and promoted it, which has been really helpful.”
The authors believe that getting The Doanion out to more and more students will help them bond over the comedy.
“It’s a nice way to talk about the things that all of us are thinking about,” a writer said.
Throughout the remainder of the school year, The Doanion plans to publish more articles poking fun at different things happening around the school.
