This post was updated June 4 at 2:20 p.m.
Editors note: this article contains descriptions of sexual assault and abuse that some readers may find disturbing.
Ammi Lane-Volz has dedicated themself to the art of using comedy to make people both laugh and think.
As a freshman on their first day at UCLA’s Enormous Activities Fair, Lane-Volz said they weren’t planning on joining a satire publication. Years later, the fourth-year linguistics and anthropology student is graduating as the editor in chief of the Westwood Enabler, a student-run satirical news publication, as well as the head of stand-up comedy for UCLA’s Shenanigans Comedy Club. Under their leadership, the Enabler published their first print newspaper in a decade with 10,000 copies this week.
“I always think it’s fun to play with form,” Lane-Volz said. “I didn’t realize that that was something you could do – write satire.”
For Lane-Volz, they said they never considered themselves to be an especially funny child. Yet, their early sense of humor came from bits at home – from waving their arms around to inside jokes and poking their stepdad, Lane-Volz added. They said this would then evolve into watching comedy YouTube channels in middle and high school, such as Dropout – previously referred to as CollegeHumor – sketches and stand-up sets.
As a writer for the Enabler in their freshman and sophomore years, Lane-Volz said they were consistently publishing articles every month. Things changed, however, as Lane-Volz began focusing on the role of executive decisions and proofreading publications of the Enabler, they added.
“I feel like that’s where my creativity and funny energy often goes,” Lane-Volz said. “Putting energy into other people’s articles now, passing it forward.”
This creative drive isn’t simply limited to satire. Lane-Volz added that their venture into stand-up began after attending a backyard comedy show with other Enabler members toward the end of their first year. Although they said they had seen their first live stand-up performance the day before, it was seeing people their age – who they personally knew – that allowed the idea of performing on stage to feel possible.
While both forms center around humor, Lane-Volz said satire and stand-up comedy feel distinctly different, and the material they develop for each approach rarely overlaps. Stand up, they said, draws more heavily from personal experience that invites the audience to believe the stories are true. On the other hand, Lane-Volz said satire operates from a distance and relies on more fictional scenarios.
“One thing that was definitely instilled in me by the stand-up heads before me – (the) same kind of ethos that I use in my satire as well,” Lane-Volz said. “Don’t punch down.”
The importance of this standard – that comedy shouldn’t target those who are vulnerable – became especially clear, Lane-Volz said, after hearing about a satire publication at another university that frequently published offensive material, varying from racial slurs to jokes about assault and revenge porn on a member of the student government. This example, they said, illustrated the responsibility that comes with writing satire, due to the genuine harm it can have on people.
“When you can’t differentiate from the satire and actual bigotry, they’re just the same thing,” Lane-Volz said. “To be able to satirize something, you need to be able to comment on it, and the thing that they were doing was just imitating bigotry.”
Dana Badii, a fourth-year cognitive science student and an editor of the Enabler, said Lane-Volz has a quote pinned in the Enabler’s workspaces that serves as a mantra to the publication: “Satire requires a clarity of purpose and target, lest it be mistaken for, and contribute to, that which it intends to criticize.” Lane-Volz’s commitment to the Enabler, Badii added, extends past editorial decisions. Their attentiveness, both administratively and interpersonally, helps foster an inclusive and supportive community within the publication.
Badii said that this year the Enabler’s spirit has extended past the usual 6 p.m. Monday meetings, with regular social events like movie nights and Oscars watch parties. While previous years felt more confined to the one-hour editorial block, Badii said this year’s culture made the publication feel more interactive and community-driven, filling her weeks with familiar faces.
“It’s been super cool seeing Ammi go above and beyond,” Badii said. “It’s full circle that we had our (freshman) orientation together, we helped lead a club together and we’re going to be sitting next to each other at graduation.”
Along with humor, Lane-Volz said the Westwood Enabler plays a critical role in reflecting on and responding to campus events, often in real time. When major events arise on campus, the team is quick to flag them in a Slack channel dedicated to pitches, prompting a rush of rapid-fire submissions, sometimes within hours and even beating traditional outlets to the punch, they said. With a large editorial staff, the Enabler is able to draw on a diversity of thought to better engage with student sentiment, particularly around repeated conflicts like administrative hypocrisy, Lane-Volz added. This range, they said, has helped build an audience but hasn’t been received well by the university.
“I have received wind that admin doesn’t love us,” Lane-Volz said. “Which is super cool.”
Gabe McNeill, a third-year history student and another editor, said satire allows the Enabler to fill gaps left by traditional publications, whose pursuit of objectivity often reinforces the very systems the Enabler seeks to critique. Thinking back on the publication’s increased reach during the encampments in spring 2024, McNeill added that the Enabler’s coverage gained traction because other student publications did not reflect the sentiments of many students.
“We blew up during the encampments,” McNeill said. “It’s because places like the Daily Bruin did not cover it in a way that a lot of students were happy with – that I certainly wasn’t happy with. That’s why I write for the Westwood Enabler.”
Looking back on their time at UCLA, Lane-Volz said their background in linguistics and anthropology has shaped their approach to comedy and publication, especially when it comes to the intersections of language and power. They said this awareness has informed their editorial decisions at the Enabler, such as flagging phrasing that imply bio-essentialist ideas – the assumption that biology strictly defines identity – such as saying all women menstruate. A choice such as referring to students as activists instead of protestors also reflects the Enabler’s commitment to integrity in satire, they added. As they prepare to graduate in a few weeks, Lane-Volz said they intend to continue comedy through stand-up, a place they know always offers community and connection.
“I’ve done a lot of other performing arts before, and I never really felt entirely connected with the people there,” Lane-Volz said. “But I think the comedy scene, because everyone is funny, … I’m always going to have a good time.”
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