Where's My Sense of Humor?

From the Raleigh News and Observer today: Player who sent message is reinstated at Duke:

"Since then, administrators have said that while the message was in poor taste, it was sent in jest* as a take-off of 'American Psycho,' a Bret Easton Ellis novel about a serial killer that was made into a movie and was a team favorite."

Here's a copy of the email message, saved at The Smoking Gun:

To whom it may concern

tomorrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. i plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off while cumming in my duke issue spandex.. all in besides arch and tack please respond

41**

I read American Psycho as soon as it was released, because I really liked Less Than Zero. I would simply like to point out the following points that the administrators seem to have overlooked:

There are no email messages in American Psycho
There are no strippers in American Psycho
The only shows are television shows (almost always the fictional The Patty Winters Show)
There is no Spandex(TM) nor any sports uniforms
There is nudity
There isn't any skinning, which is about the only thing he missed since:
Bateman, the title psycho, prefers to torture his victims alive
Bateman did not attend Duke, but rather, Phillips Exeter and Harvard
While Bateman tells people after the fact that he's a psychotic serial killer, he never invites others to join in

So, there isn't anything in the admittedly brief email that refers to American Psycho, neither directly, nor indirectly. The details of the email have no relationship with American Psycho, the story of a Wall Street yuppie. There is, however, a direct reference to the party, to the team, to the strippers who were insulted, threatened, and assaulted. I agree with the administrators that it was in poor taste. But if they think this has anything to do with Ellis' novel, we'll have to concede they didn't even bother to read a movie review.



* When was the last time anyone used the word "jest?"
** $43K a year for tuition, I'd expect better writing than this. At least Ellis can write.