Toike Oike (Newspaper)

The Toike Oike is the University of Toronto's Humor Newspaper. At the time of its creation in 1911 it served as a means of serious communication between EngSoc members, notably to provide a platform for the discussion of Engineering Society elections, but over time it has developed into a newspaper whose prime focus is humour. The Cannon (Newspaper) now fulfills the role of the old Toike. The Toike is run completely by a group of student volunteers and publishes on a monthly basis. Copies are available at news stands across campus and outside the EngCom office in the basement of the Sandford Fleming building.

History

The origin of the meaning of "Toike Oike" has been lost in time. One popular theory says that in the early days of the Faculty of applied Science and Engineering, there was a caretaker who worked in the Faculty buildings and had a thick Irish accent. This caretaker was fond of telling students to "Take a hike" when they were misbehaving, but because of his accent the phrase was heard as "Toik e Oike". When it came time to establish a new Skule Yell, the students decided to incorporate this saying into it, and later to use it as the name of the original Engineering newspaper.

Toiking

In recent years, the tradition of "Toiking" has become a popular use of the Toike Oike. It is a form of involuntary make-up application, where the back page of an issue of the Toike is rubbed vigorously against the face of a person. The back page always contains content printed with a lot of black ink so that upon completing the action described, the person being Toiked is left with black ink all over their face. However, this look is not a source of shame, and many students who have been Toiked choose to proudly wear this new look for at least some time before heading to a bathroom to scrub the ink off.

Famous Examples of people who were Toiked:
- Coal miners
- Chimney sweepers

Positions

The Toike Oike does not have as large a hierarchy as most professional newspapers, but there are still defined positions within the paper:

Editor-in-Chief
The Toike has usually operated with only one Editor (as opposed to certain newspapers which choose to have more). The Editor is responsible for all administrative tasks from organizing meetings, collecting content, and managing the budget.
See List of Toike Editors

Head Writer
The head writer is a large mountain of comedic material and potential. They typically provide a large volume of the written content in the Toike and are charged with making up new content on the fly as the Editor requires.

Head Graphics Editor
The head graphics editor is an encyclopedia of Photoshop effects and hot keys. They typically provide a large volume of the graphic content in the Toike and are charged with making up new content on the fly as the Editor requires.

Layout Editor
The layout editor takes the content and arranges it into beautifully-set pages ready for printing. Their weapon of choice is Adobe InDesign.

Copy Editor
The copy editor checks all spelling and grammar in the paper, ensuring that the Toike is both hilarious AND could be used as a sample to preserve the rules and etiquette of the English language.