A week ago, the education world still felt like it couldn’t pick one lane. Misryoum newsroom reported a string of stories that, honestly, read like they were written to test how much disbelief a reader can handle.
Sadly, Misryoum revealed on April 1 that Ms. Weiss’ speaking engagement was secretly canceled, and UCLA employees had intentionally sabotaged her event under her nose. They had been writing internal emails since February, begging UCLA to pull the plug on Weiss’ speech due to their own distorted fears about potential consequences. In addition, 11,000 people signed a bizarre petition to prevent the university from hosting the event. The whole thing landed like an absurd act — but never as funny — as an April Fool’s Day prank. Still, it’s hard not to keep thinking about what it means when the “caution” side gets so frantic it moves into sabotage, not just concern.
Seeing Your Teacher at a No Kings Protest
Misryoum newsroom found that quite a few professors participated in the “No Kings” protests on March 28. The protestors and event coordinators argue that the “No Kings” protests are supposed to be playfully satirizing President Donald Trump and their intentional silliness is to expose his flaws, but they make themselves look hilariously absurd as one could argue that Trump has helped improve our country. One may also say that portraying him as mainly self-motivated is inaccurate based on Trump’s track record of healthy policies, and possibly a knee-jerk “cut-and-paste” stock response in any event; the very ridiculous antics and narrative of the protest indicate a willful refusal to think beyond the premade “egotistical Trump acting like a dictator” argument.
There’s another angle, too. One may add that the buffoonery at No Kings and similar demonstrations within the U.S. appears a bit “copy-paste” because the protests are strikingly similar to each other, as well as to the public screaming demonstration at a park for International Women’s Day 2026 and the notorious “election cry-ins” at Cornell University during Trump’s first term. That comparison might feel like it’s stretching—actually, maybe it is. But when the formats rhyme, you start noticing it even if you try not to.
Where’s the Oversight? UNL Should Recognize That Simply Including Unsettling Content Does Not Equal Creativity
Joseph Willette, once a student at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, created a sacrilegious drag show titled “Mass of Perpetual Indulgence.” He graduated from UNL with a doctoral degree in music, and Mass was his final thesis before he earned the degree. The show was likely pretending to be satirical, akin to “No Kings” attempting to satirize Trump. It may have been disguised as satire so that if anyone pointed out that the show featured unsettling content, Willette could claim it was designed that way to fit the genre requirements and format of satire, and that most criticism of his show came from people misunderstanding it.
Misryoum editorial desk noted that some comparisons used in defense of Willette—like claims that Flannery O’Connor used bizarre content in her stories and filled them with satire, or that Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe also leaned into nightmarish or dark themes with social commentary—don’t automatically settle the question. Disturbing content and no clear “good vs. evil” plot alone does not follow the format or demands of satire, and the simple inclusion of unsettling themes does not make the writer so creative. Many believed that the performance had a warped worldview, where being bad was shown as being good and the audience was expected to be confused about right and wrong.
There’s a practical, messy part to all of this that people can overlook. Many Christian audiences—including a local Catholic bishop—did not see value in it. They saw it as a superfluous violation of Christian values and moral principles and felt that the skit had no artistic or social value. The Plains Sentinel of Nebraska wrote that UNL showed no accountability. UNL brass were allegedly scheduled to hold a meeting to address “concerns of anti-Catholicism” prompted by the drag show. Sadly, the meeting never took place. The Sentinel even reported that “no paper trail” ever existed leading up to the meeting. In a way, that’s the part that sticks—like burnt coffee smell after a long day, it lingers whether you want it or not. The whole kerfuffle was irresponsible for UNL, as the lack of accountability was egregious and the subject matter sacrilegious… though of course, the next meeting, if it ever comes, would be the real test.
