Tag Archives: college

Event – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Nationality: Irish-Canadian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Potomac, MD

Mustachio Bachio

“Mustachio Bachio usually happens in April on a Wednesday night (because that’s half price jack and coke night at the 90.)  What happens is everyone in the Caribbean comes and there is usually a few kegs and we have t-shirts or tank tops made.  1st thing you do is either grow out a moustache or draw one on your face with a marker.  There are all kinds (curly, handlbar, little, big) after you draw your moustache you get handed a red solo cup full of Jack Daniels and you have to drink the whole thing. There are always trash cans set up because people usually throw up when they drink. Once you drink your cup of Jack, everyone has a couple beers from the keg, talks, parties, and everyone walks to the 90 where you continue to drink more Jack.  Usually a night of debauchery, most of the time you black out.”

Kevin says that Mustachio Bachio is a very traditional party at his college, the University of Southern California.  He does not know who threw the first party, but he believes it has been happening for about five years.  Mustachio Bachio happens sometime in April, always on a Wednesday because that is when the 901 club has a half price deal on Jack and Cokes.  The event is exclusive to boys that live in an apartment complex called the Caribbean.  They all gather in the courtyard, where there are kegs of beer and Jack Daniels.  The boys design and wear matching shirts or tank tops.  They also have to have a mustache of some sort.  Some draw it on and some spend weeks growing one out.  There are always a huge variety of mustache styles, everything from curly to handlebar).  After the boys meet in the courtyard, they are handed a red solo cup of Jack Daniels and have a chugging contest to see who can finish fastest.  There are always trash cans set up because the boys often vomit.  Once everyone finishes their drinks, the boys head over the 901 club and continue to drink and party.  Kevin and the rest of the boys look forward to this night of debauchery the whole year.  The event is particularly important to these boys because it designates a time when they all hang out with each other, avoiding the typical distraction of other people, girls especially.  It is a good bonding experience for them.

College life today centers significantly around drinking.  Due to the drinking habits of college students, many articles of folklore have been created, such as events, traditions, and drinking games.  Mustachio Bachio is an annual party that serves as an excuse for boys to drink an absurd amount of alcohol.  This demonstrates how folklore is created to cater to the activities of college students.

Joke – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Nationality: Japanese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oahu, HI
Performance Date: February 2007
Primary Language: English

“ What do you get when you mix a black person and a Mexican?”

Answer: “ Someone who is too lazy to steal.”

BJ learned this joke from a friend at the University of Southern California during his freshman year of college at the age of 18. The joke came up as fellow students were discussing the issues revolving around race relations in the campus’ surrounding area. BJ claims that he did not understand the joke initially as he had grown up in Hawaii where he says there are very few Mexicans or Black people so the stereotypes do not thrive. After a friend explained the joke to BJ, he began to realize that this joke is an expression of racism towards two distinct groups of people. He believes that the joke intends to say that all black people are criminals and that Mexicans are not hard workers.

The joke seems to be a straightforward and outward expression concerning race tension within the city of Los Angeles. The city of Los Angeles has a history of gang activity involving both blacks and Mexicans. It therefore is easy to understand why they have become the subject of jokes. In addition, many people in Los Angeles are unhappy about the fact that there are many illegal immigrants from Mexico living in the city as well as legal immigrants who are not working at jobs but rather living on street corners and in the ghettos. In terms of the stereotyping about blacks, this joke seems to express a popular racist opinion that blacks are prone more than others to commit crimes. In combination of both of these stereotypes, one can see why the answer to the joke is a hybrid of two bigotry- based classifications of people groups.

Game – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Residence: Somis, CA
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English

“The Hat Game”

Ryan is a recent graduate from the University of Southern California. He received a bachelor’s degree in Print Journalism and Political Science. He is a fourth generation English-German-American and grew up in the small town of Somis, a farming community near the larger city of Camarillo, California.

Ryan learned this game at the University of Southern California during a Campus Crusade spring retreat. A friend of his by the name of Andy Hubert taught him the game, though Ryan says that he has come into contact with many people across the state of California who play this game or a variant of it.

Ryan told me that before the game begins each participant is to write on a small sheet of a paper, a word or short phrase. There are no specific limits on the length or content of the phrase, but players are encouraged to avoid phrases that would be completely impossible to guess. At this point in the game, everyone’s written phrase or word is placed into a hat or some other receptacle and mixed together. The players are divided evenly into two teams. Each player on the team should be sitting next to someone from the opposite team. Players are to be arranged in a circle, sitting side by side with opponents. At this point in the game, someone is arbitrarily picked to begin the game. During the first of three rounds in the game, each individual in order of the circle will have one minute in which they are to take a phrase from the hat or other receptacle and during the first round they are to attempt to get their teammates to guess exactly what is written on the piece of paper by using verbal clues, though the actual word or phrase itself cannot be mentioned. If they are successful with the first paper, they try to do as many papers as possible in a one-minute time frame. When the minute is up, they are to return the un-guessed paper into the receptacle without saying what was on the paper. When the minute is over the person keeps the papers, which he was able to convince his teammates to guess the phrasing on. The receptacle or hat is now passed onto the left or right depending on the predetermined direction. This person does the same with his teammates until all the papers are gone regardless of whether everyone in the circle has had an opportunity to play or not. At the end of the round, the team counts the number of correctly guessed papers and records this score. Round two begins then with the person after the last person from the previous round. All of the papers, regardless of whether they were guessed in the previous round or not, are then returned to the hat. Round two is the same idea as round one except that players have to this time, act out the phrase to get their team to guess. This is done without talking. Round three then proceeds, however in this round, the player only gets to say one word with hopes of clueing his teammates in on the word written on the card. The score for rounds two and three is calculated in the same way as round way and is therefore based on the number of correctly guessed papers. The team with the most points at the end wins.

“The Hat Game” as described by Ryan Webb appears to be lore in the form of a game that is passed on between a particular folk group. The folk group is known to at least expand beyond the USC community, as Ryan tells me that he has played with people from other surrounding universities. In addition, I personally, am aware of people who play a variant of this game who reside on the Eastern Coast of the United States of America. As the game is not known to have been created by a specific individual, the rights to this game can only be said to be equally shared by all of its players.

Ceremony – La Plata, Argentina

Residence: La Plata, Argentina
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Castellano

“ Graduation in La Plata”

Matias Meli is a Fine Arts major at the National University of Argentina in La Plata, Argentina. He was born and raised in the city of La Plata, Argentina- a smaller city extension of the capital city Buenos Aires. He speaks English and a dialect of Spanish referred to as Castellano by its speakers.

Graduation from University in La Plata, Argentina is an important stage of development and is a highly honored achievement. University education is free of cost to all eligible students in the city of La Plata- therefore the courses of study tend to be extremely rigorous and only a small percentage of students enrolled in each course actually receive passing grades. When a student successfully graduates from the University, he/she is rewarded in a quite unusual manner. His/her friends and family generally attack him/ her with rotten food and beverages. It is a common scene to see eggs and whipped cream along with all sorts of mashed up foods on the grounds of the University campus as well as the clothing of the recent graduate. This sort of practice is seen as hazing, but is a necessary hazing in the cultural life of La Plata, a university-dominated city.

According to Matias, the graduation ritual of food attacks is an important practice, which represents the student’s transition from university-life to the working world. The practice of dumping disgusting foods on the recent graduate is a public display of accomplishment and the emergence of a successful working individual from the university system.

The practice of dousing recent graduates with sticky liquids and covering them with rotten foods is a visible expression of the lore held amongst the student body of La Plata. These students all share a common experience, the university experience in La Plata, Argentina. All students in that university are subject to the high demands and often times seemingly insurmountable expectations required for graduation, that it seems purely natural that some sort of outrageous demonstration of accomplishment would be customary. In a word, the graduation hazing of La Plata is a way that students connect with one another and honor the achievements of their graduated peers.

Game – University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Residence: Athens, GA
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

“Andre Pong”

Wendy is a sophomore in college at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. She is originally from Marietta, Georgia a suburb of Atlanta located just thirty minutes out of the city center. Her parents are both from China and speak Mandarin as well as English. Wendy speaks mainly English but she is capable of understanding written and spoken Mandarin.

In order to play Andre pong, it is necessary to start with some basic materials. Andre pong requires, first and foremost, a large quantity of Andre (a cheap champagne that costs at average $4.99). In addition, it is necessary to have a table of substantial length along with twenty-two cups of the same brand and style as well as a ping-pong ball of regulation size. The table is set up as such: ten cups are placed on each side of the table in a triangular formation wherein the ten cups are in the same position as bowling pins. The remaining two cups are filled with water and used to clean the balls during play. Each team is composed of two team members who alternate taking turns in attempt to throw the ball into the opposing teams cups. Each time a ball lands in the opposing teams cup the team must remove to cup from the formation and subsequently drink the contents of the cup before play resumes. This process proceeds until one team has successfully tossed the ball into each of the opposing team’s cups. The ultimate object of the game is to beat the opposing team, though most players consider it victorious to consume that amount of alcohol in the process of the game regardless of the outcome.

Wendy says she was first taught the game upon her arrival to the University of Georgia in the fall of 2005. She encountered the game at a fraternity party at the Sigma Chi chapter at the University of Georgia. She says that the game is played both for the competition it provides as well as for its abilities to make the process of becoming intoxicated much more enjoyable.

It is interesting to find games such as Andre pong that involve both competition and heavy drinking. It seems that both of these: competition and heavy drinking are largely popular interests among college students in the United States of America. It is obvious that competition is valued at college campuses. If one is in doubt, he needs only to watch a college football game or basketball game and take notice of the intense rivalry and sense of school spirit found at most universities. In addition, teenage drinking levels have been increasing heavily over the last few decades to where it is no surprise that this is common practice at college campuses.