Mother Fuckin' Artist
June 1, 2012 8:03 AM   Subscribe

 
Sideshow Bob: You wanted to be Krusty's sidekick since you were five. What about the buffoon lessons, the four years at clown college?
Cecil Terwilliger: I'll thank you not to refer to Princeton that way!
posted by Roentgen at 8:14 AM on June 1, 2012 [13 favorites]


I don't get this. UPenn and Princeton are both Ivy.

And why do Princeton students need to make silly youtube videos about their being humble when they're not?
posted by gen at 8:15 AM on June 1, 2012


I don't get this. UPenn and Princeton are both Ivy.

Wait, I thought Penn State was a public school. After all that Joe Paterno stuff, I'm pretty sure I'm right about this.
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:18 AM on June 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


Penn State and UPenn are not the same school.
posted by jonmc at 8:20 AM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


UPenn is ivy, and private. Penn State is public.
posted by gauche at 8:20 AM on June 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


So, the State College campus of Penn is public, but the Philly campus of Penn is private? That's confusing. Why would someone pay tens of thousands of dollars more to go to a school with a worse football team?
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:21 AM on June 1, 2012 [6 favorites]


More Ivy League gangsta rap
posted by Trurl at 8:24 AM on June 1, 2012


They are completely unrelated institutions. Their only connection is that they are both Universities with Pennsylvania in their name.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 8:25 AM on June 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


So, the State College campus of Penn is public, but the Philly campus of Penn is private?

No, the University of Pennsylvania is not a land-grant school (unlike most of the other "University of X" schools), has no connection to the public schools in Pennsylvania, and was founded in 1740. Pennsylvania State is a land-grant school founded in 1855.
posted by jedicus at 8:25 AM on June 1, 2012


The video does raise an important philosophical question. Which is the more obnoxious type of braggart: the smug MBA student or the angry hip hop artiste? Please include examples from your assigned reading. You may open your blue book now. You have 15 minutes.
posted by Longtime Listener at 8:27 AM on June 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


Wait, I thought Penn State was a public school. After all that Joe Paterno stuff, I'm pretty sure I'm right about this.

I think this was a joke. UPenn kids hate...HATE...when people mistaken them for Penn State.
posted by windbox at 8:28 AM on June 1, 2012 [7 favorites]


"No, the University of Pennsylvania is not a land-grant school..."

I think you wuz being trolled.
posted by sutt at 8:28 AM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


That rap supposed to be funny? Okay.
posted by General Malaise at 8:29 AM on June 1, 2012


I think you wuz being trolled.

It's ok, they don't teach critical thinking at Penn, just partying. Go Nittany Lions!

It's way more fun to act dumb in person because it's really embarrassing for people to try to explain this knowing that they sound pompous.
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:31 AM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


I was sold at 40 seconds, and I don't even get much of the cultural references to even that point.
posted by Mezentian at 8:32 AM on June 1, 2012


Also, I think part of the joke is that people at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton don't really think Penn is a full Ivy. Especially Wharton. This level of elitism is particularly gross and often tinged with class issues that can be hard to take apart. In some sense, Penn is seen as new money. So yeah, gross setup for the video.
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:39 AM on June 1, 2012 [5 favorites]


At one point in my life I had the very real chance to attend Princeton. I turned it down cause it cost too much but i always wondered what if.

Thank you Metafilter, I am now secure in my decision.
posted by The Whelk at 8:40 AM on June 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


Thank you Metafilter, I am now secure in my decision.

I'm not sure I believe you without some sort of musical number.
posted by Mezentian at 8:45 AM on June 1, 2012 [10 favorites]


This whole thing has been not funny for a really long time. The whole white-people-doing-rap-that-parodies-rap thing (ironic and acoustic NWA covers, the Whole Foods thing, the Soccer Mom Rap thing, etc etc etc) is stupid, unfunny, and insulting.
posted by broadway bill at 8:46 AM on June 1, 2012 [6 favorites]


It's ok, they don't teach critical thinking at Penn, just partying ... it's really embarrassing for people to try to explain this knowing that they sound pompous.

I have no connection to U Penn, Penn State, or any Ivy. I was just trying to clear up a common misconception. Thanks for the insults, though.
posted by jedicus at 8:47 AM on June 1, 2012 [4 favorites]


I laughed at the Terrace bit, of course Terrace.
posted by atrazine at 8:55 AM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


"I went to Princeton, Bitch!/ It's a point I don't beleaguer . . . "

Yep.
posted by The Bellman at 8:55 AM on June 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


Also, I think part of the joke is that people at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton don't really think Penn is a full Ivy. Especially Wharton. This level of elitism is particularly gross and often tinged with class issues that can be hard to take apart. In some sense, Penn is seen as new money. So yeah, gross setup for the video.--allen.spaulding

But the rest of the video makes fun of this liberal arts elitism. She's raps about how she has an Master of Fine Arts and can't get a job making $14 an hour.
posted by eye of newt at 8:56 AM on June 1, 2012


How icky of them.
posted by discopolo at 8:58 AM on June 1, 2012


Most of the Ivies do a better job at (re)inforcing existing power structures and perpetuating systems of social and economic inequalities than they do at actually educating young people.

-TheWhiteSkull

A.M. 2005, University of Chicago
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:01 AM on June 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


broadway bill: "This whole thing has been not funny for a really long time. The whole white-people-doing-rap-that-parodies-rap thing (ironic and acoustic NWA covers, the Whole Foods thing, the Soccer Mom Rap thing, etc etc etc) is stupid, unfunny, and insulting."

You know, I think that in most of these cases (this one included) the intent is more self-parody than lol-black-music. I didn't find this video particularly funny because, well, it's just not very funny, but I certainly didn't find it insulting. Do you honestly take issue with White and Nerdy?
posted by 256 at 9:02 AM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


TheWhiteSkull, I'm pretty sure that's a feature of institutions generally, at least at some level. It seems worse when it's schools, and especially "good" schools doing it, though.
posted by gauche at 9:05 AM on June 1, 2012


So I just watched a rap about how one rich white person is morally superior to the other rich white person? Awesome.
posted by elwoodwiles at 9:08 AM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


256: Oh, I didn't mean, exactly, that it was insulting based solely on the racial component or the "lol-black-music!" thing (although I can see how my comment could be read that way). Primarily, I find it insulting as a lover of rap music and comedy.

I do, though, think that there is some current of racism that runs through these things. I have never been fully able to unpack it and articulate it adequately, and today is no different, but it always makes me a little nauseated.

And, yes, White and Nerdy is stupid for all the same reasons (and I, in general, LOVE Weird Al).
posted by broadway bill at 9:11 AM on June 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


Maybe it's that, in these things, it usually seems like the performer has a really limited relationship with rap music. It's like the one takeaway these people got from a really really influential and expansive cultural movement is "BE AN ASSHOLE AND CUSS!" and then turned it into ironic parody because, hey, white people aren't assholes! HA!

I dunno, I need to think about why it bothers me so much. I've honestly been trying to come up with a simple answer for over 10 years now.
posted by broadway bill at 9:15 AM on June 1, 2012 [9 favorites]


Yeah this would have been funnier if the dude had been touting a pac-10(+2) education.
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:20 AM on June 1, 2012


broadway bill: I hear what you're saying and there's definitely some cringe-inducing wtf minstrelry out there. But, as a lover of hip-hop, I generally enjoy well-done parodies like 'White and Nerdy' or 'Natalie Raps' (and I even have a soft spot for that Ben Folds Five 'Bitches Ain't Shit' cover). I mean, the genre's certainly strong enough to not be harmed by it. And as time goes on and more and more brilliant, earnest, non-black artists like Sage Francis and MC Lars and, yes, Eminem come into the genre out of an honest love and affinity for it, the racial aspect to these parodies gets thinner and thinner.
posted by 256 at 9:30 AM on June 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


All MBA mills deserve mocking, including Wharton.
posted by jeffburdges at 9:31 AM on June 1, 2012


16 seconds to screen-punchin' rage.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 9:33 AM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


I do, though, think that there is some current of racism that runs through these things. I have never been fully able to unpack it and articulate it adequately, and today is no different, but it always makes me a little nauseated.

I've been thinking about this since you mentioned it, and part of what bothers me about this sort of thing is that it's often used as shorthand for unbridled aggression. The “joke” is that these nice white people can't possibly be that angry and in your face, because white people aren't like those angry black* folk.

I doubt it's intentional, 99% of the time, but it's got something to do with the appropriation of it only ever as shorthand for "angry and thuggish", and the reverse-association of those values on the races and cultures that the music is often associated with.

I'm only about 70% sure of what I'm saying here, but it's my off-the-cuff analysis of "why this bothers me more than if it had been a country song or a heavy metal parody."

On preview, 256 has a real good point.

*and I know that hip-hop has progressed far, far beyond being a "black thing," but I do not even have the faintest hint of a shadow of a doubt that the people that make these "comedy videos" don't know that.
posted by Shepherd at 9:35 AM on June 1, 2012 [6 favorites]


Also, I think part of the joke is that people at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton don't really think Penn is a full Ivy. Especially Wharton. This level of elitism is particularly gross and often tinged with class issues that can be hard to take apart. In some sense, Penn is seen as new money. So yeah, gross setup for the video.

Whoa, I totally disagree. I think they were riffing on condescending financial sector d-bags, who are pretty ubiquitous throughout the Ivy League. The dude could have easily gone to HBS and the joke would have been equivalent, I think.

NOT FINANCIAL SECTOR-IST
posted by en forme de poire at 9:43 AM on June 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


The premise is tired and unoriginal, and the execution is shit. However, it forces us to miss that the guy at the beginning is AWESOME. Believably awkward, stilted business school type. Not over the top, not too subtle. He's the real star.
posted by Mayor Curley at 10:10 AM on June 1, 2012 [6 favorites]


Totally with broadway bill and the other people viewing this with extreme skepticism at best, but my objection to this "white people doing tongue-in-cheek rap on YouTube" thing is mainly just that it's all so bad. It seems like it all has the exact same sing-songy cadence, no attempt at internal rhyme or integration with the beat, no indication (like broadway bill pointed out) that the perpetrators have more than the shallowest notion of what makes rap music appealing. Clunky. I'm not expecting some amazing flows in parody YouTube videos but Jesus, surely you can do better than this.

Mayor Curley is right, though: The writing and performance in the first part was right on the mark. That guy had my eyelid twitching after about ten seconds.
posted by valrus at 10:15 AM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


>I do, though, think that there is some current of racism that runs through these things.
>99% of the time, but it's got something to do with the appropriation of it only ever as shorthand for "angry and thuggish", and the reverse-association of those values on the races and cultures that the music is often associated with

This "Watch me adorn myself in the musical plumage of Downtrodden and Righteously Angry" bit strikes me as unsavory. It's basically a more aggressive update of the Noble Savage.

>I think they were riffing on condescending financial sector d-bags, who are pretty ubiquitous throughout the Ivy League. The dude could have easily gone to HBS and the joke would have been equivalent, I think.

It wouldn't have made it any better.

YOU STUDIED BUSINESS. I STUDIED ART. YOU MAY HAVE MORE MONEY BUT I AM SMARTER AND COOLER THAN YOU. BUT SEE I ALSO LAUGH AT MYSELF. BUT HA HA I AM STILL BETTER THAN YOU.

Anyway, I would imagine that the creator of this video views it as a self-promotional piece, her own little Humble Brag commercial, and probably has other, quite different works that are intended to be funny.
posted by darth_tedious at 10:41 AM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


The most upvoted YouTube comment, "You should be writing for SNL!" is more telling than I think its author intended it to be.
posted by Shepherd at 10:45 AM on June 1, 2012 [4 favorites]


See, it's hilarious, because we aren't thugs—we are darling girls, and real thugs are black people who do crime!

Also, I want to echo broadway bill and valrus. These are just not funny, and they often make me wonder if these people have ever heard a rap song. They don't function effectively as parody because they seem to have only the most cursory knowledge of what they're parodying. "Weird" Al's parody rap works relatively well because he has technique. (Previously)
posted by chrchr at 10:53 AM on June 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


TheWhiteSkull, I'm pretty sure that's a feature of institutions generally, at least at some level.

Yes, that's why I mentioned my degree.

We teach a dry wit at U of C.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:06 AM on June 1, 2012


See...I liked it... I took it as the story of a female (actually 3) were proclaiming their accomplishments over a boring, stuffed suit who assumed that because they were female, and pretty that they had gone to a public school. I'm bookmarking it to save for my 12 year old (when she's old enough....) Girl Power!!
posted by pearlybob at 11:41 AM on June 1, 2012


Ugh.

So this one time in my early twenties, when I was a brand-new college grad with incredibly complicated feelings about my own education, I went to a party that was largely attended by Wellesley and Swarthmore alumni, most of whom I hadn't previously met. The conversation turned to some overseas fellowship that one of the women had participated in, and after she'd described her experience I sighed and said something about how I wished I'd been more aggressive in pursuing that sort of thing when I was in school, as the fellowship was perfectly aligned with my interests and I'd never even heard of it before.

She raised her eyebrows and asked me where I'd gone to school. When I told her "NYU," she made a sort of smug, pitying face and told me that the fellowship was only available at elite schools. And then the conversation moved on as I sat there in silence, angry at myself for feeling humiliated.

The thing I don't like about videos like this one is that they're often not really a joke. I've learned through irritating, frustrating experience that there are plenty of "elite" graduates who really do think that they must be smarter than other people because of where they went to school; who honestly think that attending a university like Princeton says something about you and your worth as a human being; who just assume that everyone who's capable of going to that sort of school would, so attendance at a "lesser" university genuinely says something about your lack of intelligence or ambition or ability.

And this is part of why I have spent so much of my late twenties and early thirties telling my brilliant, fantastic friends to stop beating up on themselves, because they still feel self-conscious and inadequate for not having the fanciest possible educations.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 12:19 PM on June 1, 2012 [6 favorites]


pearlybob -- See, that's actually part of my problem with the video. When the guy is sort of smugly dismissive about Rutgers students, my reaction is that he's an ass for being smug and dismissive about Rutgers students. Whereas the video thinks he's an ass for suggesting that she might be a Rutgers student.

Lots of smart, capable people go to state universities for all kinds of reasons, and lots of idiots end up at Ivys.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 12:23 PM on June 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: belabored analysis rules the comments but the Simpsons reference will always get the most favorites.
posted by quadog at 12:41 PM on June 1, 2012


However, it forces us to miss that the guy at the beginning is AWESOME. Believably awkward, stilted business school type. Not over the top, not too subtle.

Total agreement. He nailed that part. "...a butterfly in Asia... if you get that reference" made me simultaneously want to laugh and want to punch something.
posted by en forme de poire at 1:21 PM on June 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


The whole white-people-doing-rap-that-parodies-rap thing (ironic and acoustic NWA covers, the Whole Foods thing, the Soccer Mom Rap thing, etc etc etc) is stupid, unfunny, and insulting.

I like rap music and I enjoyed Baracka Flacka Flames...

Lazy Sunday was pretty funny too. It's not easy to make a good rap parody, but it's surely doable. This one, not so much.

the guy at the beginning is AWESOME.

Yes, I wanted more of him. Solid acting, good comedy.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:55 PM on June 1, 2012


No, the University of Pennsylvania is not a land-grant school (unlike most of the other "University of X" schools)

More "half" than "most", I think, so I'm not sure it's a good distinguishing characteristic for UPenn.
posted by fleacircus at 2:09 PM on June 1, 2012


Not Penn State T-shirt. Here's another one.

Universities in Pennsylvania have weird names. I've been affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, so every so often some smart web site thinks I might be interested in the California University of Pennsylvania. There's also an Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

And every so often someone suggests renaming Penn, either to Franklin (because you can't go anywhere on campus without running into a statue of him) or to Wharton (because Wharton has a better reputation than the rest of the university anyway).
posted by madcaptenor at 2:25 PM on June 1, 2012


mrgrimm: I completely agree. Good parody rap is possible, but it's rare.

I also really liked the Baracka Flacka thing too (well, the first one, then it wore off), mostly because it's obvious that the whole thing was put together by people who know and love hip hop. Lazy SUnday is much much better than a lot of parody songs, but only because it is skillfully written and because Andy Samberg actually is a pretty good rapper.
posted by broadway bill at 2:27 PM on June 1, 2012


She raised her eyebrows and asked me where I'd gone to school. When I told her "NYU," she made a sort of smug, pitying face and told me that the fellowship was only available at elite schools. And then the conversation moved on as I sat there in silence, angry at myself for feeling humiliated.

Woo-ow. I wish I could go back in time and laugh in this person's face for you while pointing at her and saying, "I've never been this close to a real douchebag before!"
posted by Snarl Furillo at 2:37 PM on June 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


I'm applying for jobs right now. Every so often I find a listing saying that they want people with a degree from an "elite" or "top-tier" school. I have such a degree but that's still a strike against those companies. Enough of the smartest people I know have went to schools that wouldn't fall in those categories -- and enough of the dumbest people I know went to schools that do fall in those categories -- that I don't have much faith in the power of a degree from such a school to predict how well someone can do their job.
posted by madcaptenor at 2:43 PM on June 1, 2012


I think that the (very rare) 'good rap parody' is good because it comes from a real love of the stuff that's being parodied. The subject of this post and 99% of the rest like it on youtube comes off as mockery or shallow appropriation, not tribute.
posted by thedaniel at 3:00 PM on June 1, 2012


Hey, at least there wasn't any dubstep in this terrible excuse of a video.
posted by PipRuss at 3:34 PM on June 1, 2012


The premise is tired and unoriginal, and the execution is shit. However, it forces us to miss that the guy at the beginning is AWESOME. Believably awkward, stilted business school type. Not over the top, not too subtle. He's the real star.

Truly perfect and obviously based on familiarity with that type of guy. Most people would have written and played that over the top, but it really is just right. The "butterfly in Asia" was sublime, it's cliché and tin-eared without being so outrageously dumb that you don't believe it. It also sort of makes sense when you first hear it, but actually is total nonsense - the butterfly in Brazil from the original quote is not an active participant nor a leader in the disproportionately large and fundamentally unpredictable storm system it causes. Not only that, he's not the butterfly, he's the wing! Straight out of a goofy-ass Thomas Friedman book.

What really makes that line though is, "if you get that reference", because it's simultaneously condescending and reinforces the point from the first clause - that he doesn't quite understand the reference himself.

His "Rutgers" response is also great. It's condescending while also trying to relate and say something nice. The lazy way to do this is to have him sneer, but real people rarely do that and anyway the scenario is him hitting on her so he's not going to be openly negative.

He also keeps looking at his phone (which is in his hand the whole time). I thought that was a nice touch.

It's funny how touchy people are about alma maters isn't it? Have you ever noticed how graduates of their country's most prestigious universities always leave a little pause right before they name it? I used to call this the Oxbridge Caesura but it works equally well in the US. Like so: "I went to // Harvard".

Also, I wish someone would ban the false modesty of just naming the town or the state where they studied. If anything, it's even more condescending because it assumes that anyone worth knowing will know exactly what they mean already. Enough with "in New Haven", or even worse "Slough Grammar" (only spotted that one in the wild once).
posted by atrazine at 3:42 PM on June 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


Like so: "I went to // Harvard".

Actually, at least according to the Boston Globe, it's "I went to school in Boston".
posted by madcaptenor at 4:13 PM on June 1, 2012


In some sense, Penn is seen as new money

Re: Princeton vs Penn: any institution in New Jersey, no matter how venerable and august, will never need concern itself with being mistaken for old money.
posted by zippy at 12:59 AM on June 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I've heard that Princeton offers less assurances that "the right students" actually pass their classes, not nearly old money friendly as Yale or Stanford.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:57 AM on June 2, 2012


Yeah this would have been funnier if the dude had been touting a pac-10(+2) education.

YOU LEAVE MY BERKELEY OUT OF THIS.
posted by psoas at 6:59 AM on June 2, 2012


Yeah, I've heard that Princeton offers less assurances that "the right students" actually pass their classes, not nearly old money friendly as Yale or Stanford.

Stanford was founded in the late 19th century and is definitely not old money!
posted by atrazine at 8:34 AM on June 2, 2012


Stanford is however well known for grade inflation, making them old money *friendly*. I've friend who taught advanced classes there who were given strict lower bounds on their grade distributions.
posted by jeffburdges at 8:40 AM on June 2, 2012


Arguing about which of the Ivies+Stanford is the most elitist institution is splitting the tiniest and thinnest of Drosophila hairs.
posted by en forme de poire at 10:07 AM on June 2, 2012


madcaptenor: "Actually, at least according to the Boston Globe, it's "I went to school in Boston"."

"Well, not in Boston, but nearby."
posted by Copronymus at 10:35 AM on June 2, 2012 [3 favorites]


I also went to college in Boston. Well, not in Boston, but nearby. And not the school that's not Tufts.
posted by madcaptenor at 10:40 AM on June 2, 2012


> I wish someone would ban the false modesty of just naming the town or the state where they studied

I've run into this only once, and I have such a case of l'esprit d'escalier over it. I was making small talk with an editor at a magazine where I worked, and it came up that I used to live in Boston.

Editor: I used to live near Boston.
Me: Where?
Editor: Um, Cambridge.
Me: Oh, where in Cambridge? I used to live in Somerville.
Editor (anguished): Harvard Square. The dorms.

I let it drop. But why oh why didn't I say "Don't be embarrassed. Harvard is a perfectly fine school."
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:27 PM on June 4, 2012 [6 favorites]


I think it's hardly fair to post this during Reunions; none of us are around to defend ourselves...Nikki is an awesome person; I feel the choice of a genre shouldn't automatically brand something as offensive, though I recognize it's a multifaceted issue. It's so strange to watch Metafilter slam someone I actually know. As far as I can see, the concept comes from being underestimated because of gender and how much money one makes at one's chosen career, rather than just slamming people at schools deemed "less acceptable." In any case, it's amazing how far a video that was just supposed to be a fun lead-up to Reunions has gotten.

I feel you're damned if you do or don't - if you feel conflicted about mentioning the name of your school because people treat you differently afterward, you're a jerk; if, when it comes up, you're proud of the hard work you had to do to get to where you are, have a sense of school spirit, and mention it without reservation, you're a bigger jerk. (Is it okay if you're not old money, and have no connections?) I know I'm biased due to my membership in Terrace and Mother Fuckin' Artistry, but I've certainly had the privilege to meet some truly wonderful people along the way. To be fair, we have our share of jerks, but I don't think we've got a monopoly on it. Oh well. Everybody makes assumptions; I suppose that's the point.
posted by ilana at 9:20 PM on June 4, 2012


Stanford is however well known for grade inflation, making them old money *friendly*.

Nonsense. I went there, and Stanford inflated everyone's grades, independent of wealth. And what's so bad about that? GPA is a stupid measure anyway. (Also, they got rid of most of the student-friendly grading policies like no-fail long ago. OMG, it was 1 day after I graduated, lol!)

Stanford gives much less priority to legacy admissions than Ivy League schools and is really doing some good things with its tuition policies (it helps to have an endowment the size of France).

I don't quite understand the conflation of Stanford with the Ivy League. Aside from (too high) acceptance standards and the elitism that entails, and a bad choice of sports nickname for Stanford ... OK, maybe there's a little connection.

I remember a quote from "Dean Jean." Paraphrased: "Some people call Stanford the Harvard of the West or the Disneyland of the North, but Stanford is Stanford, and Harvard and Disneyland don't even come close." :p
posted by mrgrimm at 9:16 AM on June 5, 2012


I feel you're damned if you do or don't - if you feel conflicted about mentioning the name of your school because people treat you differently afterward, you're a jerk; if, when it comes up, you're proud of the hard work you had to do to get to where you are, have a sense of school spirit, and mention it without reservation, you're a bigger jerk.

That's a good point, but I stopped caring long ago and that was a big part of growing up (learning not to care about what other people think). If someone cares that much about where I went to school, fuck 'em. I support my alma mater not b/c I want to brag about my schooling; I support my alma mater because that place was and is a very important community to me, and friendly simulated tribal warfare (i.e. Div. I sports) is a lot more fun and rewarding than the real thing.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:21 AM on June 5, 2012


I don't quite understand the conflation of Stanford with the Ivy League.

People think that "Ivy League" means "very good private school". They forget that it's (first, and more historically) a bunch of old-money schools founded by Northeastern Protestants, and (second, and perhaps more relevantly now) an athletic conference.
posted by madcaptenor at 9:28 AM on June 5, 2012


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