I admit, when I saw my first Buck the Fuckeyes, I chuckled but I quickly realized there’s little value in shirts like those. Swift makes the case that shirts like those really don’t belong in college fandom at all:
Spuck the Fartans, Huck the Fuskers, Buck the Fuckeyes.
All three play on a certain word that does not take a rocket scientist to figure out.
West Virginia is now offering their students $20 to buy back their inappropriate shirts seen on television during the team’s opening game against Marshall. This offer was given to students to prevent the same thing from happening again during this past weekend’s game versus LSU, decreasing the chance of an FCC fine for the television network. The fine would have been most likely given because of the shirt using one of the “seven dirty words,” that are usually recognized as words you cannot use on television.
But what about the T-shirts that you see using a play-on-words for football games here in Ann Arbor as well as many other campuses around the nation? Would the FCC frown upon them also? They probably would but no fines would be administered. As for all of the “Spuck the Fartans,” “Buck the Fuckeyes,” and “Huck the Fuskers” shirts, students should not only stop wearing them, but burn them. It makes the University look disgraceful and un-classy. They are not very clever, look trashy, and are usually only worn for one game out of the year. Instead of giving those shirts back for a $20 voucher like West Virginia did, let’s do Mary Sue a favor and just get rid of them ourselves.
It’s not the university, but a student group that offered the $20 for the t-shirts. The university actually licensed them.Report
Important distinction.Report
Err… no, the university didn’t license them. I read the story wrong. Ignore that. Also, I think the actual shirt is pretty funny (better than the silly Huck the Fuskers).Report
Really? I kinda like Huck the Fuskers.Report
I remember when I first saw a Huck the Fuskers t-shirt, sometime around 1992. I thought it was funny for a minute, and then thought it was kind of silly, similar to your reaction to Buck the Fuckeyes, I think.
But “West Fucking Virginia,” now that makes sense. When I was an undergrad and under 21, we occasionally drove to Huntington because the bars there were 18 and up (and as everyone knows, getting in is 99% of the battle). “West Fucking Virginia” was a common response to the question, “Where you going this weekend?”Report
In Oregon, the version is “Huck the Fuskies.” Not nearly as clever, though, as the bumper sticker reading “Support a Husky Free Northwest.”Report
There is a truck here in town that has a “I’m going NUCKING FUTS!” bumpersticker (and “nucking futs” is in a wacky font).
Stuck behind this truck at a stoplight, I am left alone to meditate on the sequence of events that led to this. The driver was, one day, walking through a store that happened to have bumperstickers. S/he saw this bumpersticker. S/he laughed. S/he said “I need to put this on my truck!” S/he purchased this bumpersticker. S/he put it on her/his truck. S/he continues to drive around town with this bumpersticker on her/his truck.
Then the light turns green and I move towards my destination.Report
Driving behind a guy today, “US ARMY VET” and Enduring Freedom service-ribbon bumper stickers, license place was “DIRKA2”.
uh…wow, just wow.Report
As a (mostly) proud Cubs fan, I’ll still proudly wear my “Muck the Fets” T-Shirt (in stylin’ orange & blue lettering) every time New York visits Wrigley.Report
There is funny, and then there is funny.
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The Buck Ofama shirts were… profitable.
West Fucking Virginia has a proud history, as Chris points out above. That one at least makes sense.
And, perhaps because I’m a Wolverine, perhaps because I’m a pedant, I have always had a soft spot for Buck the Fuckeyes. The word is still right there on the shirt! You haven’t achieved anything by switching the B and the F! I love it!Report
See now in Madison we have some folks that just wear shirts that say ‘F*ck ’em, Bucky!’, which is nice because you can wear that one every week.Report
Similar to OR State t-shirts that read ‘Duck a Fuck’Report
Similar to OR State t-shirts that read ‘Duck a Fuck’
You’re giving OSU students too much credit. They thought they were doing a “Huck the Fuskers” imitation and didn’t realize their error.Report
That, to me, is the one thing that makes these shirts bearable. The “Muck the Fets” thing is old-it’s not funny, and it’s not the classiest representation of your fandom.
But “Buck the Fuckeyes” is meta. It’s not so much a dig at the buckeyes, it’s a joke on the very concept of the “Muck the Fets” shirt. That’s why it works.Report
Profane. Silly. Pointless. These shirts do seem to have a place in college fandom.
What do you expect? Shirts with Susan Sontag quotes on them?Report
What do you expect? Shirts with Susan Sontag quotes on them?
Well, this one seems pretty appropriate for college sports.
“Ambition, if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of others.Report