E-Mail This Article to a Friend CAMPUS PRANKS Sex jokes at Harvard BY CAMILLE DODERO

This past February, Harvard University gave the thumbs-up to H-Bomb, a student-run literary magazine about sex. Still in its embryonic stages, H-Bomb was pitched to the school’s Committee on College Life as a kind of Nerve for blazer-clad nerds: an arty dialogue on campus concupiscence explored through works of fiction, features, poetry, and — how shocking! — nude photos of amenable Harvard pupils. (This isn’t the first university-sanctioned sex magazine: Vassar’s Squirm: The Art of Campus Sex has been around since the late ’90s.) The Harvard Crimson called it "porn." News reports appeared everywhere from the Washington Times to the Boston Herald. "Are you sure this isn’t another Harvard Lampoon parody?" asked a user of the current-events blog "WizBang!"

A funny thing you should ask. No, H-Bomb doesn’t seem to be a prank — despite the fact that its feminine founders (Camilla Hrdy and Katharina Baldegg) both coincidentally have procreative last names. But the Harvard Lampoon did manage to get in on the H-Bomb action when it distributed its own debut parody issue this past Sunday, replete with full-color centerfold, a tongue-in-cheek spoof Web site, and a fake press release touting this as the real thing.

At first glance, it’s a convincing gag. Especially since the real H-Bomb doesn’t exist yet — its premiere issue is scheduled to come out later this spring. And the Lampoon’s pasquinade has full-color pages of two college-age nude models (one male, one female) playfully cavorting in front of bookshelves, in Harvard gear, and seated on a leather armchair. But on closer inspection, the spoof becomes obvious: with its bright, juvenile layout and pixilated front-cover logo, the Lampoon’s H-Bomb looks like Highlights for Children or one of those health magazines in the high-school nurse’s office.

"We thought it was great idea," says Zachary Kanin, Harvard Lampoon’s public-relations manager (his title on the fake press release), who insists that the parody isn’t an insult, but rather a sign of support. "We totally agreed with [H-Bomb] that everyone’s so stuffy here. And we just wanted to show the sexual side of things, the beauty of the human body." Maybe so. But the imitation isn’t without mockery. On the front cover, the Lampoon takes a dig at H-Bomb’s promise to be an artistic foray into sexuality by declaring, INSIDE: ART.

Kanin is featured prominently on the front cover, dressed in a tan jacket and brown bowtie, holding a tobacco pipe. He pretends to be shocked as an anthill-shaped breast hovers over his right shoulder. Inside, Kanin is featured again (clothed) in "Diary of a Harvard Nudist," a goofy photo-essay of one naked man’s attempt to assimilate into the Harvard community. But the funniest feature in the Lampoon’s H-Bomb is its own Onion-style corrections: "On page 24, Miss Holworthy, Amy Davis ’07, should have been better looking"’; "In last month’s advice column, we advised our readers to put snakes in their vaginas. We shouldn’t have done that."

Although Kanin won’t divulge who the models are ("It could hurt their political careers," he says cagily), the two nude models aren’t actual Harvard students — they’re paid professionals hired through Boston Models, an agency run by Dan Ryan. "They picked them," says Ryan. "There were supposed to be three, but one couldn’t make it."

Kanin says he doesn’t think he offended the actual H-Bomb staff. (H-Bomb faculty adviser Marc D. Hauser didn’t return calls seeking comment; Baldegg and Hrdy have unlisted numbers in the Harvard directory.) "We think they understand," he says. And the Lampoon’s parody issue does have its own fans. "My mom really likes it," Kanin says. She’s a progressive mom, eh? "She just appreciates the human form."

To get your copy of Harvard Lampoon’s H-Bomb, visit www.harvardhbomb.com.