Hundred of students have been talking about Yale’s newest publication over the past few weeks, known as The Yale Bubble. While many Yalies read The Yale Bubble’s various articles on a daily basis, many are still unclear about the actual purpose and platform of the publication. Satire, gossip or non-fiction? Funny or perfectly awkward? Her Campus decided to tackle many of the campus’ most pressing questions regarding the new phenomenon that the Yale Bubble has engendered. We spoke with the three Yalies who decided to innovate this new platform to clear up the general misconceptions with the thought-process of The Yale Bubble’s innovators, Andrew Goble, Caleb Madison, Jake Dawe, and Brett Anderson. Read below to find out more about the quirky leaders of The Yale Bubble and what drove them to create it!
HC: Where did the idea for The Yale Bubble come from?
Andrew Goble: The idea of The Bubble was conceived by Caleb Madison. He and I were in Intro to Digital Video together last semester, and it seemed like it just gradually blossomed toward the end of the semester. Sometimes he and I would talk about it, and sometimes he would come back with ideas and people he had found from different comedy groups.
Caleb Madison: Cody and I have been obsessed with the Onion since we were roommates freshman year. Last semester, Goble and I were in a Digital Video class together, and we bandied around the idea of turning some of our more comedic ideas into video sketches. Brett and I had a conversation about Brown’s satirical newspaper on a car ride up to New Haven from New York, and we both agreed that it would be fun to start something like that at Yale. Jake and I were talking about this idea on the way to the American Film Comedy class we were taking last semester, and he, who was also taking a humor-writing seminar, loved the idea of getting a venue to write more stuff like that. We were all so excited! (laughs) We had a meeting before the break and all decided this was something we would dedicate ourselves to starting over the Winter break. And that’s how it happened, haha!
HC: Why call it The Yale Bubble?
Andrew: The name came from Brett Davidson, and we really thought it was great for what we were trying to do.
Brett Davidson: Some guys from the Crew team approached me and Caleb, and they were like, “We have this idea for a new satirical publication on campus . It’ll be like the Onion, but about Yale. We can call it the Yale Bubble.” They wanted us to help them make the website and write jokes. We eventually realized we could do it better without them. So we kept telling them we didn’t have time to work on it, and that it would be ready soon. Meanwhile, we were assembling our content. They were shocked when we launched.
HC: Why did you start the Yale Bubble?
Andrew: I think we all started the Bubble because we thought there were a lot of opportunities for humor relating to campus culture and anxieties that are tough to talk about in any other format besides satire. There are an incredible amount of talented humor writers at Yale, and more generally it’s been exciting to see a ton of them adapt to this medium and see a wide audience that you can really only get through the internet.
Caleb: The real question is, Why didn’t you?
Brett: For our CVs
HC: What is the main mission of the publication?
Caleb: Three-pronged mission: Make everyone laugh, make people think, make us grow as a society.
Jake: Our main mission is to introduce a satirical voice to Yale. Like Andrew said, satire cuts through anxieties, cultural norms, and social taboos; it allows you to address things head-on through humor, safe and risqué. Yale is obviously prestigious and influential, and I’m so grateful for the opportunities it’s afforded me, but I think we can all agree that sometimes we take ourselves, and this place, too seriously. We want the Bubble to open Yale up to a little more levity.
HC: What is the purpose of the publication?
Caleb : Same as our mission, but add the fourth prong of being chill about things.
HC: How do you decide the topics and content of articles?
Caleb: Right now it’s sort of a freelance system, where anyone who wants can submit an idea for a headline or an editorial at anytime. If we like it, we’ll tell them to write something. Sometimes we change details. Fine-tune the piece of work, you know? Then we just upload it to our website. Often, when there’s a time-sensitive event, like YBB+gate, we’ll email our “pan-list” of people who write headlines, and ask if they have any ideas. We’ll rush the best one to print.
HC: Where do you see the website going over the course of the next year?
Brett: Nowhere, baby!!!!!!
HC: Is there a formalized staff?
Andrew: We are somewhere in-between. We have about 40 students signed up to contribute. As a web-only operation, we can afford to work with a pretty informal staff—write when you have funny ideas, don’t write when you don’t have funny ideas. It’s always exciting to see a new writer with totally new perceptions of events at Yale.
HC: Is it completely student-run? Or is there a faculty presence on board?
Andrew: Completely student-run.
HC: If you had to explain the Yale Bubble in three sentences, what would you say?
Caleb: Hey, we’re the Yale Bubble, and we’re here to make you think about some stuff and maybe laugh a little. Come close, we promise we wont bite. Unless, you want us to.
P.S. Did you know Andrew Goble is a Her Campus Cutie? Read his interview here!