This Columbia College 1980 home video gets us every year. It’s comforting, because the students are not unlike us. They’re neurotic. They hate conservatives, business school students, bullshitters, and themselves. Never change, Columbia.
P.S. Turns out that Kevin Karn, the guy behind this video, made other stuff. Check out his 2003 “Nylon,” a campy flick about a lonely, middle-aged chemist who figures out a self-sustaining, world-ending process that turns organic matter into nylon. It’s pretty good 420 fodder.
P.P.S. If you were involved in this video, email us at tips@bwog.com.
57 Comments
@Anonymous well, i guess what i learned is that the halal cart outside of the law school has been there for at least 32 years (see 5:28)
@Anonymous Fat guy at 1:40: I think it’s cached, bro. There’s no smoke coming out of your mouth, even when you huff and puff like an autistic dragon.
@grammar provocative*, you mean?
@anon orthography, you mean?
@... so uh, i originally tipped this to bwog back in 2007. i still have the e-mail. what a trip. i dunno, i guess i was still in the nascent stages of my columbia bitterness, but really the reason why i thought it was hilarious was because columbia was not what i was expecting, i was annoyed with the arrogance implied by sky high tuition and crap financial aid and generally found that what i was experiencing was not materially different (except maybe elsewhere would have been less depressing) from what i would have found elsewhere at a fraction of the cost. in effect, it was a nice big exhibit as to why the elitism and arrogance carried by the institution were completely divorced from reality.
it’s fascinating to think that most of the respect this institution commands from the outside world has to do mostly with advantages conveyed by how long it has been around, in context of the reality that columbia’s past is actually pretty fucked up. long history affords it respect, long history holds it back.
@You illiterate asshole They’re not even in a fraternity. Too bad being in one is now the only way to have fun at Columbia in 2012 due to the wholly anti-social, competitive, Wall Street-cultivating cesspool of human talent it’s become.
@Anonymous preach. shit is bleak, nobody wants to engage with ideas, they just want the A and the easy ride.
@Anonymous It’s not just the Wall Street types: if you read any of the backbiting comments on anything theater-related it’s clear that it’s just about everywhere. Everyone here is always trying to “win,” whatever that means. But “cesspool of human talent” sums it up pretty well. Very few people, a lot of vectors for success.
@ban frats on campus! when exactly did bwog being a critical voice on campus, and start being complicit with it?
@Anonymous What happened guys!? Racism and sexism aside, this Columbia looks much better than the one I know and hate today. I am not giving a cent to this shit hole as an alumnus because it’s made me more miserable than I could ever imagine, but I’d certainly donate if I graduated in 1980 – at least they had some fun.
@Bro I agree fuck columbia as an institution I didn’t sign up for this shit
@Anonymous really cool that you’re a person who can say shit like “racism and sexism aside” because it doesn’t affect you
@CC '14 Actually, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Anonymous saying that. You don’t have to be racist or sexist to have fun– he/she is putting those aspects of the video aside as irrelevant to his/her point, which is that it would be nice if we had more fun, as the students in 1980 definitely did.
Personally I don’t smoke and I only drink lightly and not to get drunk. So their idea of a good time isn’t the same as my own, but the point is that they had fun, and I wish we did too…
@Repulsive What defamatory and completely unnecessary video. The reason why many of people are not happy here is because they idolize this lifestyle of perdition. Extremely immature and counterproductive to the social fabric that Columbia is striving for. This is especially repulsive given that it is Days on Campus weekend. Extremely hypocritical in terms of creating a “safe-space” for EVERYONE on campus. Bwog, you have, in effect, lost one more of your readers.
@Anonymous wow. Welcome to the real world. Go join a country club if you want to be in an environment where the intellectual culture is 100% curated and controlled. How about having a safe space on campus for the free expression and interaction of ideas? I don’t ask that you enjoy this video, but only that you respect the act of expression, even if it’s something you disagree with.
stop taking shit so fucking seriously.
http://bwog.com/2007/10/21/take-a-trip-in-the-time-machine/
@Repulsive ^Just so everyone knows, not everyone at Columbia enjoys living in this person’s so-called “real world” (which apparently involves consumption of drugs as an everyday standard), or not taking life seriously. And yes, I am exercising my right of expression by disagreeing with the video. See if I hadn’t said anything, then I wouldn’t be using my right would I?
@Anonymous Don’t you think it’s possible to observe and engage with something without validating and agreeing with it?
It’s probably impossible to go four years here without studying some horrible epoch in human history, and in comparison this drug-adled romp is meaningless. It’s not that we all or anyone need to agree with this, but we should be willing to confront the darker side of our humanity.
That, or, you know, just scroll down to the next article…
@Repulsive I completely agree with you! But there is a key difference with confronting this darker side and celebrating it. And the clear tone of Bwog’s post with is video is celebratory.
@Anonymous A safe space for everyone? That’s called daytime television.
@Anonymous that’s seriously wrong man. this is university. we need to be engaging with as many ideas as possible, and arguing against them, NOT dismissing them out of hand because they our immediate reaction is distaste, and saying they ought to be banned.
And when did Bwog say it meant to be a safe space for the entire campus?? start your own boring blog.
@anon who is this kevin karn figure…? did he graduate?
@SEAS '13 Bwog is sometimes funny and usually quick with updates, but posts like these make me want to stop reading it entirely. I didn’t mean this to be a pro-spectator comment but that’s my only other option so that’s what i’ll be reading from now on
@stfu monkey man?
are you fucking serious?
and then you guys get mad when we call out this school for its racist past.
this shit bothers me. but i’m not suppose to say anything? i’m suppose to “go out and fix it”
SHUT THE FUCK UP
@Bro Fresh air is good for you. So yes GO OUT
@Fg Somethings never change, for instance – Barnard chicks are still ugly and fat.
@YASSS i hate the sparkles bwog added on my mouse cursor…take it off wahhhhh
@Anonymous I laughed as much as the next guy, but I just find it so hypocritical that the same students who regularly insist, for example, that a safe space is necessary for those who are made to feel uncomfortable due to their sexual identity, find it totally acceptable to openly claim that the typical student “hates conservatives”. Why is the standard different for sexual and political identity?
@oh lawd can o’ worms, girl, can o’ w o r m s
@Anonymous No one was born a conservative.
@anon I think the difference in standards lies in the fact that political identity “supersedes” over sexual identity in the sense that politics is a struggle through which it is decided which individuals and which groups get power, rights, and resources so that a political ideology can oftentimes become a stance against certain groups, and if that ideology would oppress me, it is okay for me to abhor it.
@If I were Bwog's editor... However funny a video might be, I would be more careful with how content is posted. Yes, the post specifies: “the students are not unlike us. They’re neurotic and provokative with a hint of insecurity. They hate conservatives, business school students, bullshitters, and themselves”, but the video clearly contains racist and sexist comments. I would want to avoid the slightest impression that it is the attitudes reflective of those comments what you would “never want to change”.
I think the video is fine; the problem is how you frame it.
@Shut up Kindly remove the stick that’s lodged in your ass and have a laugh. Stop being a politically correct prick and try to enjoy life. Clearly no one in their right minds supports the racist and sexist tendencies exhibited in the video – least of all, Bwog. Clearly these guys had a great time at Columbia; that’s not something I can say.
@Real Talk Irritating sarcasm of the original post and the absurd nature of BWOG aside, attempts at engaging in public discourse are ways of “doing something with your time to fix it.” Need it be recognized that this video is 32 years old and inherently created in an era different from our own? Yes, obviously. Does that it excuse it entirely from the standards by which we–as the modern bastion of liberal bullshitters– gauge our own society? No, not at all. If they dropped a blatantly racially insensitive slur in the video that was at the time acceptable it would be proper to acknowledge it. Therefore disparaging Barnard women entirely on the basis of their physical attraction does come across as unpleasantly misogynistic. Talking about the “wuss”‘s “homosexual lover” in a mocking tone, and voicing over one of the few non-white individuals in this video as the “monkey man” who “doesn’t belong here” is worth noting. In all honesty, even 32 years ago, I thought Columbia was liberal in more meaningful ways than its consumption of recreational drugs. I am super dissapoint.
@school spirit ^ my thoughts, worded much more eloquently
@Master now you are understanding why obama hated it here
@Anonymous This is history, the way it was. Someday you look back at Barnard and not believe that a single sex school even existed.
@Yeah Barnard is completely sexist, why should guys not have equal rights, why can women only attend college. All male school these days would be protested to hell by barnard students
@Anonymous it’s called Morehouse College.
@Anonymous …or Deep Springs.
@school spirit misogyny and racism is like sooo cool and awesome guyz let’s celebrate columbia
@zero fucks given if we wanted your opinion on this hilarious video from another time we would have asked for it. If you care so much about “racism and misogyny” do something with your time to fix it beside commenting on bwog. On the other hand I will continue to laugh my ass off at this video because it is the best thing on bwog since boobs.
@hey! looks like we got an asshole over here!
@the track button affirms this
@anom I was a freshman at CC in 1980. You would not believe what a cool place Columbia was then. Don’t get me wrong, it is much better today–remember, it was all guys then. But, we had a great time. Drugs and alcohol were the thing. People would actually walk around campus smoking dope. Hanging on the steps drinking beers and smoking pot was a typical night. I don’t think we studied as hard as you guys do now. We mainly had a good time. I am still best friends with several guys from my class and we are all very successful even though we had so much fun in college.
@Anonymous Wait, wasn’t Obama here during this time?
@anon No wonder he seems to not think too highly of Columbia.
@Anonymous Columbia got him into Harvard Law School. He never would have gotten in from Occidental.
@Neat. Wasn’t the acceptance rate right around 50% in the early 1980s?
@Anonymous “we are all very successful”
right, that’s why you read bwog.
@6:54 YOUR NOSE!
@OMG This is beautiful
@Anonymous 7:41 – The best afro i have layed eyes upon.
@This is probably my favorite video of all time. Also this purple cursor is fucking with my mind.
@LOL “these girls are ugly, we have to face the facts”
@Yeah Still true today man.
@lady What ever will I do without your validation?!? OH FUCK.
@No I will not fuck without a lady’s validation that would be rape you scumbag