The Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern (also known as
the Jacko) is a
college humor magazine, founded at
Dartmouth College in 1908.
The Jacko publishes print issues approximately four times a year, as well as regularly updated online content and occasional video productions. The magazine devotes one publication cycle each year to a parody of the campus newspaper, The Dartmouth.
One of the magazine's oldest traditions is "Stockman's Dogs." In the October 1934 issue, F.C. Stockman (class of 1935) drew a single-panel cartoon of two dogs talking to each other. That same cartoon has appeared in virtually every issue published since then, always with a different caption.
The magazine was referenced in the opening line of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Lost Decade," which was first published in Esquire in 1939.
Jack-O-Lantern writers Nic Duquette '04 and Chris Plehal '04 invented the unofficial Dartmouth mascot Keggy the Keg in the fall of 2003.
A 2006 video prank by the Jack-O-Lantern on a Dartmouth College tour group entitled " Drinkin' Time" was featured in an article by the Chronicle of Higher Education, posted by AOL on the Online Video Blog, and was mentioned by The Volokh Conspiracy. As of August 2008, the video has garnered over 319,000 views on YouTube.
Notable alumni
Many celebrated writers, artists, comedians and politicians began their careers at the
Jacko, including:
- Norman MacLean, whose novel A River Runs Through It, awarded a Pulitzer Prize, was made into the Robert Redford film of the same name.
- Theodor Seuss Geisel (also known as Dr. Seuss). Geisel began signing his work with his middle name so that he could continue to work on the Jack-O-Lantern after he was banned from participating in college activities for having violated Prohibition.
- Budd Schulberg, subsequently known for his 1941 novel, What Makes Sammy Run, his 1947 novel The Harder They Fall, his 1954 Academy-award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront, and his 1957 screenplay A Face in the Crowd.
- John S. Monagan, remembered, in addition to his service in the U.S. House of Representatives, for his biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- Buck Henry, founder and frequent host on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
- Chris Miller, who based his short stories in National Lampoon on his undergraduate experiences at Dartmouth, and subsequently turned them into the movie Animal House.
- Stephen Geller, awarded a Cannes Film Festive prize for his screenplay for the film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five.
- William C. Dowling, editor of Jack-O-Lantern during the period when its cartoon staff included Kirk Ditzler, James Fosso, and Robert Reich. Dowling subsequently wrote about his Jack-O-Lantern days in his memoir Confessions of a Spoilsport

- Robert Reich, whose Locked in the Cabinet, a memoir of his time as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, has been described as a classic of political humor.
References
External links