"Ask yourself, is your candidate smarter than an Aggie?"
September 6, 2011 10:39 AM   Subscribe

"Ask yourself, is your candidate smarter than an Aggie?" The Marching Owl Band ponders the next election. At the same UT-Rice halftime show, they also had something to say about upcoming conference realignments. (Full show script.) The MOB has a bit of history (show script) with Texas A&M.

The MOB, like most scatter bands, is known for irreverent humor, often at the expense of the opposing team.
posted by kmz (17 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
As a a proud Texas Aggie, I have to say, this was pretty funny. Not the MOB's best, but funny. A bit of background for some folks: Aggie jokes have a long and rich history in Texas. And you'll not find a greater fan of Aggie jokes than Aggies themselves.

Texas A&M: More square heads per capita than any other school in the country.
posted by Xoebe at 10:45 AM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


As a former band geek, as well as a long-suffering Vanderbilt ($EC) devotee, I think this is awesome.
posted by rhythim at 10:47 AM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


Hook 'em Horns!
posted by orrnyereg at 11:02 AM on September 6, 2011


This was almost, but not quite as good as, the Alex Jones thing on Perry getting invited to a Bilderberger meeting and the youtubes of him on the sidewalk outside of the (I believe vacant) governor's mansion with his bullhorn yelling "we are not your slaves!"
posted by bukvich at 11:19 AM on September 6, 2011


I was a member of the MOB for exactly one season, and it's good to see them getting a little bite back into their halftime performances. For a while they used pretty toothless jokes, kind of like a Jay Leno monologue..

But one of the weirdest experiences from those days has to be the thrill of running out onto the field in front of 30,000+ people, without having the slightest idea what the music or the formations were...
posted by sharkitect at 11:22 AM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


I grew up with aggie jokes more than polish or blonde jokes..
posted by k5.user at 11:31 AM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


The current director of the MOB at Rice (Chuck Throckmorton) was, many years ago, my high school band director. We were also a "scramble band," although I didn't know that term at the time and thought we were very clever and unique for just running out onto the field like crazed nerds. Funny story of why we stopped doing the scramble thing: after a particularly ridiculous halftime "show" that saw us doing a complete lap of the field, some rather irate parents and officials from the other school came over to inform us that we had interrupted and disgraced a memorial tribute they were having for a student who had recently died. D'oh. Chuck almost got fired over that, I heard.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:50 AM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


For me, the MOB will always be best known for its rendition of "Louie Louie" that was played in The Naked Gun when Vincent Ludwig was trampled and then flattened with the steamroller.
posted by BobbyVan at 1:26 PM on September 6, 2011


I was the student ringleader of an Ivy scatter band a few years ago, and man, do I miss those days. Sure, most of the jokes didn't have a ton of punch, but when we hit, we hit.

Every band has the tradition of a show that went too far/resulted in trouble. We did a show at Holy Cross that was over the line in many ways. Columbia got in trouble for doing a tribute to partial birth abortion and for saying that Fordham tuition was going down like an alter boy.

It's fun when when you're right at the edge, though. Go MOB.
posted by SNWidget at 1:28 PM on September 6, 2011


I've always though politicians should take tests for psychopathy, basic science, basic statistics, and maybe intelligence which're published. And any electronic voting machines will let you sort candidates by ranking.
posted by jeffburdges at 1:48 PM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


For the record, the time they had to be escorted off Kyle Field (A&M's home field), it was because they played "Where oh where has my little dog gone" right after Revellie (a much revered and practically worshiped mascot at A&M) had died.
posted by Gilbert at 2:33 PM on September 6, 2011


For the record, the time they had to be escorted off Kyle Field (A&M's home field), it was because they played "Where oh where has my little dog gone" right after Revellie (a much revered and practically worshiped mascot at A&M) had died.

Just so we're super clear, that didn't happen at A&M, and the mascot was alive. The Aggie Corps of Cadet pinned them down in their own stadium in Houston just because they thought they'd disrespected their traditions.

Link.
posted by SNWidget at 3:32 PM on September 6, 2011 [3 favorites]


Horselover Phattie, I was in no way trying to excuse the Aggies; I just wanted to give the incident a little context. As a former Longhorn, I am essentially required to have a rivalry with the cow college. We should also note some of the other "traditions" beside the grass on the quad, and the standing the whole time during the football games.
All members of the corps come in uniform. They are required to have a date. The date must wear a dress.
Every time the Aggies score, your date is required to kiss you.
If someone says "Howdy" to you, you are required to say "Howdy" back.
Back in the 90s, I visited College Station (I was working a student loan fair). While wandering the halls, I passed a youngish girl. I made the mistake of looking her in the face. It made me feel so bad when she timidly mumbled "Howdy" and cast her eyes down.
Truly a weird place.
[On preview] looks like the tea-sip got his history wrong.
posted by Gilbert at 3:42 PM on September 6, 2011


Who goes to university to just be a mindless tradition bearer?

When I went to college in the '70s, the answer was "Business Majors" (and yes, I was one of them) and I doubt that has changed much.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:20 PM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


Hey, I was at Rice when this happened (second link in the FPP)! You have to understand, at the time Rice had an undergraduate enrollment of probably ~2000 students, and a stadium that seated 77,000. You can imagine the disparity between the size of MOB and the stadium itself. Since Texas and A&M had huge marching bands, what were the tiny MOB to do? Obviously, the only tack was to poke fun at the other bands.

This was actually the only fun part of the games at the time, since the Rice football team generally sucked.
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:09 PM on September 7, 2011


For the record, the time they had to be escorted off Kyle Field (A&M's home field), it was because they played "Where oh where has my little dog gone" right after Revellie (a much revered and practically worshiped mascot at A&M) had died.
posted by Gilbert at 2:33 PM on September 6 [+] [!]

Gilbert, you might want to
check your facts.
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:14 PM on September 7, 2011


Hhhhsssssssssssssss.
posted by tamitang at 5:30 PM on September 7, 2011


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