Carolina Buccaneer
First published in 1924, the Buccaneer was a popular humor magazine on campus. There had been earlier, short-lived humor magazines, but the Buccaneer was one of the longest-lasting ones, published for more than a decade. With its glossy pages and colorful cover illustrations, the Buccaneer had the appearance of a professional magazine. Its content, however, was very much the work of undergraduates. The issues are filled with in-jokes and attempts at bawdy humor. The magazine was known for testing the limits of what could be published on campus. In 1928, as the Buccaneer was preparing a "Girls' Issue," the Tar Heel wrote that the content was so scandalous that it would have to be printed on asbestos paper. In 1939 the editors finally pushed too far. The Buccaneer "Sex Issue," which featured a drawing of a scantily clad woman on the cover, was immediately banned from campus. The student body president said that it would "seriously and permanently damage the reputation and lessen the prestige of the university in general." The Buccaneer didn't survive long after the scandal, publishing its last issue in 1940.
Date Established: 1924
Date Range: 1924 – 1940