Comedian Considers OC

Comic Indecision: Comedian Lewis Black said he will consider visiting Oberlin if the College splits the bill. (photo courtesy Comedy Central)

Oberlin has a world-renowned art museum, an Environmental Studies building that makes grown hippies weep and a huge concrete library. What are we missing? A Comedy Central news correspondant, obviously!

For those of you who have been in practice rooms since Fall Break, a little background: Lewis Black, a news anchor/comedian for "The Daily Show," ranted in his coverage of the Republican National Convention that he was quitting everything and going back to school. Comedycentral.com then conducted an online contest in which people voted for the college he should attend, and/or sent in e-mails explaining why their suggested college was best. The funniest e-mails were posted on the website, and the authors won Lewis Black T-shirts or CDs.

"The letters were really spectacular, well worth putting up. Oberlin really trampled the other colleges," Black said. When asked if he was glad that Oberlin won, he said, "Yes. It's nice to know I'm appealing to an intelligent group."

Oberlin originally wasn't even on the list of nominated colleges, but eventually closed the contest with 40 percent of the total votes - an enormous lead above its closest competitor, Texas Tech. In addition, Oberlin students wrote the first four winning e-mails posted on the site.

This impressive victory was due in large part to junior Aaron Mucciolo, who organized an e-mail and postering campaign to make Oberlin students aware of the contest. "I found the page on Comedy Central's website and immediately began thinking how great it would be if Lewis Black came to Oberlin. The fit would be perfect - he's cynical and funny, we're cynical and provide plenty of things to make fun of," Mucciolo said.

Oberlin won the contest, so why isn't Black coming? The main problem appears to be miscommunication between Comedy Central and Oberlin College. Most College officials at the time of this writing believed that Oberlin would have to pay the entirety of Black's fee, in all likelihood making it financially unfeasible for him to come.

The Comedy Central website, whose budget is separate from the network, indicated that it did not have sufficient funds to send Lewis to Oberlin.

All hope of a Lewis-Oberlin connection, however, is not lost. Debra Bard, an associate producer of Indecision 2000 and co-sponsor of the contest, said, "If you look, there's nothing in the official rules about actually sending him to the college ... [but] he'd be delighted to come to Oberlin. He's totally psyched about it."

Black said, "I'm not interested in gouging the student body. I told Comedy Central to talk to Oberlin, see if they'd pay some and the College would pay some." At the time of publication, no one from the administration has responded to the latest inquiry.

"In the end, I think this just goes to show that activism can succeed on this campus with a little hard work and a large e-mail list," Mucciolo said.