'The Minor' creators leave legacy of comedy with satirical website

After a campus-wide outcry over the reveal of the six anonymous authors and the end of The Minor, the creators of the satirical site say they hope someone will pick up where they left off.

“Just because we are six gorgeous dudes, no one’s going to be like ‘I can’t do what they did,’” said sophomore Griffin Unger.

With two graduating, the group decided to disband, announcing the decision on its website Monday.

Junior Jacob Rosenberg said although they could continue publishing, The Minor just wouldn’t be the same without the original members.

The Minor began during spring 2013 in John Cruickshank’s dorm.

“For a few months we spitballed headlines and just kind of joked around with ideas and came up with the name. It’s been pleasantly ambiguous,” he said. “I’ve always liked the idea of mining for the truth or the idea of striking a minor chord.”

The group said it is happy to step back and pass along the torch to other students. For now, they plan to keep meeting each Friday, as they’ve done as friends and co-writers for two years.

“I laugh a lot more because of The Minor,” Unger said.

Rosenberg said he hopes the group helped fellow UNC students as much at it helped them.

“We hope that comedy is thriving more at UNC because of what we created,” he said.

A self-described reserved person, co-contributor Ross Slaughter said joining the group gave him a voice.

“I was trying to take a nap, and these guys were having an inconsiderate meeting just feet from my bed,” he said. “So I aroused myself from slumber and said, ‘Hey guys, this sounds awesome, can I help out?’”

With Cruickshank and Rosenberg as the primary editors, the early days of The Minor saw two published articles per day with four writers. Rosenberg said it consumed his life.

“We were all writing constantly. It just consumed our lives in a lot of ways.”

In the spring of 2014, Unger and fellow sophomore Erik Schoning were hired as “cabin boys” and teamed up to write one story per week. Coordinating their busy schedules led to some unconventional writing spaces.

“I would dip out of my desk job at the Hillel center, and we’d go write raunchy things — things no one has any business talking about at a Hillel, but we were crying with laughter,” Unger said.

Unger said there were two parts to learning to write for The Minor.

“The first important thing is to be on the right side of the issue — call someone out without seeming malicious. And the second thing to know was how to hammer down a single joke,” he said. “Every step of the way you need to know what the joke is.”

Rosenberg said many of the articles were about the group members.

“We got known for zinging people, but most of the time we were brutally making fun of ourselves. Like the McAlister’s date not being a date? That’s so us.”

Rosenberg said the The Minor went through phases.

“It followed our trends. The Minor cared about what we cared about. We’ve been very silly, sometimes very political. We’ve had phases where we spit fire, too.”

Slaughter said one of the best things about the publication was its anonymity.

“It’s not about who is the best writer,” Slaughter said. “It wasn’t one person’s thing.”

arts@dailytarheel.com