\documentstyle[marc,doublespace,palatino,newmargins]{article}
\setallmargins{1.25in}
\parindent=0.4in

\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\vspace*{1in}
\setstretch{1}
{\Large\bf Hacking
\footnote{In this essay, I use ``hacking'' to refer
to prank-like hacks, not to computer hacking or roof-and-tunnel
hacking.} as Comic Ritual}

{\bf\large Marc Horowitz \\
Comedy --- 21.021 \\
May 4, 1992}

%\vspace{0.2in}
\end{center}

\setstretch{2}

\XXX Need to make explicit references to papers

Hacking is a form of humor which is unique to MIT.  As such, the comic
frame is often specific to various traits of the MIT culture.  But,
there is much more to hacking than meets the eye.
\XXX

A simple example of a hack is the story of a group of students turning
in a final project.  They were told to slide the write-up under the
TA's door, but the write-up was about 800 pages long.  The solution
was to enter the TA's locked office\footnote{This is left as an
exercise to the reader.} and leave the stack of papers (about five
inches thick) in front of the door.  This story might be humorous to
someone who is not familiar with MIT, but it also has deeper
significance to someone familiar with the culture.  In engineering,
there are often problems which cannot be solved through everyday
means.  Like engineers, these hackers took an ``unsolvable'' problem,
and solved it by removing a constraint which most people would find
impassable.  The MIT student recognizes this as a ``clever hack''.

Some hacks are more dependent on the MIT frame for their humor.
Recently, a water fountain on campus was surreptitiously converted to
a hydrant with a working fire hose from which a person could drink.
To an outsider, this is at best weird.  But the insider sees the
connection to the famous expression, ``Getting an education at MIT is
like getting a drink from a fire hose.''  This is a truly great hack,
one which brings to life a part of the global MIT culture.  But there
is much more that the casual observer, and even the MIT observer,
might not notice.  This hack, like the quote which gave rise to it,
creates several comic inversions.  A person would never drink from a
fire hose, but here is a fire hose from which people can drink.  The
participant-observer also feels that by association, he is not only
controlling the fire hose, but his MIT education; this is an feeling
which, especially during the last week of classes when this hack
occurred, is lost by most students.  Many good hacks are ones which
make the MIT student feel that he has come out on top.  A good hack
also has some sense of rebelling against authority.  One of the common
targets of hackers is Physical Plant.  The hydrant is installed in a
400 pound slab of sidewalk.  For Physical Plant to remove this, they
would probably use either brute force or heavy machinery.  But MIT
students are more resourceful than this.  The hack disappears without
a trace as quickly as it appeared.

Humor can often be used as a vehicle for political speech.  At MIT, it
will never be too long before any controversial subject is hacked.
More thought and effort goes into these sorts of hacks than any other.
Since hacking is an activity which is somewhat dependent on the
Administration, a political hack will often walk the fine line between
making the hackers' point and not alienating the Administration.

A few years ago, MIT chose artist Mags Harries to design a scuplture
for the MIT Student Center.  Her idea, a shaman's cap made of hair,
was immensely unpopular with the students.  So, when a preliminary
test was conducted in the student center, it was only hours before it
had been hacked.  Rather than attacking the artist or her ideas
directly, the students made fun of the physical form of the hack
itself.  At MIT everyone understood that the hack was merely a
political comment, meant to deliver a message from the students, not
to insult the artist.  But there was an excellent example of one
member of the audience not understanding the hack.  As the artist came
down the stairs, she berated the students nearby for their rudeness
and insensitivity.  As an outsider to the community, she was unable to
perceive the comic frame.

Another common type of humor is the play on form.  All hacks are, to
an extent, a play on form.  One popular hack of this type was also a
response to the hair sculpture.  An eight-foot long fully functional
slide rule was constructed and hung in the place which the hair
scupture mock-up had recently been.  This was a play on form in
several ways.  The physical form of the hack was clear lucite; the
sculpture was going to be black.  The subject of the ``art'' was a
quintessential example of nerdliness, a slide rule.  In a comic
inversion which could not have been anticipated, the MIT Museum asked
for the hack art and put it on permanent display in its slide rule
collection.  The real art has never been seen again.  Again, we see
humor which could only exist withing the frame of MIT.

Another effective kind of hack is the theatrical hack.  A theatrical
hack is a very carefully planned and choreographed display of some
kind.  During this past R/O Week, a group of hackers arranged a parody
of the arrest scene from the movie ``Brazil'', directed by Terry
Gilliam.  A group of students, posing as a strike team from SPODSA,
the Secret Police of the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs,
attacked a presentation.  They shut off the lights and slide
projector, and amidst a created scene of noise and chaos, read off a
list of charges satirizing the MIT lifestyle, bodybagged a person in
the front row, and carried her off.  The charges included ``getting
eight hours of sleep in one night'', ``eating three meals in one
day'', and other similar activities.  This hack simultaneously
assaulted the life of an MIT student and projected the MIT
Administration as a destroyer of freedoms.  The hackers were able to
make a social comment about their superiors without risking a direct
attack.

Although humor is a large part of hacking, there is much more to it
than this.


\end{document}
