Since starting the “unofficial St. Ed’s comedy magazine,” Fool’s Gold, Economics senior Eric Boshart has, in collaboration with fellow senior Nick Fuentes, filled a void in the way students see and express themselves, both this year and perhaps into the future.

The publication’s witty, informed humor has a way of perfectly exemplifying some of the more ridiculous aspects of St. Edward’s University student life. Fool’s Gold touches on the things seen around campus every day, from chain-smoking foreign exchange students and Capstone courses to the new Munday Library, putting into words what we are all thinking in the back of our heads as we pass through that nicotine cloud outside Moody Hall or risk hypothermia in the North Reading Room.

Boshart felt inspired one night watching “Serious Jibber Jabber with Conan O’Brien” as they talked on the show about Harvard’s ancient, holy comedy magazine, the Harvard Lampoon, which Conan was president of. On “Jibber Jabber,” Conan and a few other big name comedians discussed how difficult it was to write really good comedy on a deadline. After reading a few Lampoon articles, it did not seem that difficult to Boshart.

“If a bunch of nerds could do it [at Harvard], then we could too,” Boshart said, talking about the reason why he decided to create a comedy platform for St. Edward’s.

Beside the Harvard Lampoon, the writing style of Fool’s Gold is based off Woody Allen’s smart, sardonic style of humor (see “Sleeper” or “Manhattan”). Allen’s movies are a little irreverent, but never crude, something that Boshart thinks is very important in the publication’s approach to humor.

“We wanted something clean and witty, for an educated reader,” Boshart explained. “If we just dropped F-bombs every paragraph, it would just be like everything else. Not that that style isn’t funny, but that’s not the aim of the magazine.” So think less Adam Sandler, more Steve Martin.

Boshart and Fuentes get together weekly to bounce ideas around and discuss what they would like the magazine’s theme to be. This week’s is partying. The stories are centered around the theme, sort of, and then published onto the Fool’s Gold website. Most stories go through, but some get shot down for being too dirty or not going with the “personality” of the magazine.

The outstanding thing about Fool’s Gold is that, while not yet an official St. Edward’s publication, Boshart and his team act like it is.

“I would like [Fool’s Gold] to stay because we need it. There is a lot of academic writing and serious prose and poetry being published by St. Edward’s, but a little humor wouldn’t hurt at all.”

Boshart is hopeful for the magazine to be picked up by the Humanities department and physically published soon.

Fool’s Gold is currently floating in the digital ether at stedscomedy.wordpress.com, on Twitter as @stedscomedy and Facebook. If you would like to write a humor piece, draw an illustration or cartoon for Fool’s Gold, contact Eric Boshart or Nick Fuentes on Facebook or post a comment on the publication’s Twitter feed or Facebook wall.