College junior Elizabeth Beugg has been elected as the editor-in-chief of Under The Button on the 135th Board of Editors and Managers. Joining her is Wharton sophomore Natalia Joseph, who will serve as the publication’s managing editor.
Under the Button is Penn’s independent satire publication. “Like a not funny 'The Onion' site,” UTB is an online-only branch of The Daily Pennsylvanian Inc. that provides campus-based satirical humor primarily through writing and video.
Beugg hails from Los Angeles and studies Fine Arts and English. Outside of comedy writing, her interests include kawaii emojis, event photography, and oat milk. She joined UTB as a sophomore, despite widespread concerns that she used “lmao” too much in her articles. Former UTB editors are convinced that Beugg is roommates with at least 89 percent of UTB.
She is serious about her career in media and spent the summer of 2018 as an editorial intern for The Hollywood Reporter.
“I want to do this for the rest of my life — the comedy thing, the journalism thing, the writing thing,” she wrote in her letter of intent while running for the EIC position.
Joseph, a proud main line resident, joined UTB as a “lil bb” freshman. According to her LinkedIn profile, she is also a dedicated member of Penn’s rugby team and the off-campus organization, OAX Philanthropic Sorority. This year, UTB members can look forward to receiving “eekers,” “spookers,” and “yikers,” as comments on their pieces from Joseph.
UTB turned 10 years old in 2018, but it is thriving at the pace of a well-developed young adult. This past year, the publication debuted a redesigned website, hosted a comedy event with four major on-campus comedy groups, significantly increased its writing and video content, and even released a video game, “UTBiden.”
While UTB has made strides in recent years to sharpen its satirical edge and present comedy in new mediums, Beugg and Joseph want to push the envelope further. They are excited to explore new types of content, like quizzes, and make use of new platforms like Instagram.
Joseph said she wants to focus specifically on diversifying the characters that appear in UTB articles and draw on analytics to better engage its audience. Beugg agreed, adding that she hopes to make UTB more essential to Penn’s comedy scene through increased collaboration with outside groups.
“Elizabeth and Natalia have big shoes to fill, but we’re all confident they’ll do a fantastic job. The future is bright for Under the Button,” said 134 President and 133 UTB Editor-in-Chief David Akst, who hired the pair.
“UTB is a place where I have always felt loved and accepted,” Beugg said. “I am so lucky to be leading this publication for the next year, especially alongside Natalia Joseph and [UTB Media Editor] Hughes Ransom, who are just gems of human beings. I am so excited to give others the chance to feel what I have felt and be a part of this special group on campus.”
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