Harvard Students Convinced Yale To Protest Its Own Football Team In Funny Prank Video
On Harvard Time, the university's student-run satirical news show, traveled to New Haven, Connecticut, to stage a fake protest of Yale's athletics program - and convinced real Yale students to join in the bashing.
The comedy group's "Beat Yale" video - commonly known as the "F--- Yale" video - is an annual tradition leading up to the Harvard-Yale football game.
Last year, senior correspondent Sam Clark gave prospective students of Yale a hilarious fake campus tour. The video has been viewed more than 1.3 million times.
This weekend marks the 131st meeting between Harvard and Yale's football teams, and Clark and company came prepared. On Harvard Time spoke to Business Insider exclusively before releasing the video Wednesday.
The video opens with Clark and four other correspondents, decked out in blue and white scarves, beanies, and "hipster" glasses, marching on Beinecke Plaza with signs. They say they're here on behalf of the Yale Society of Undergraduate College Kids Standing Against Sports Spending.
It stands for YALE SUCKS A--.
"We're spending more on Yale athletics than is being spent on public works in New Haven," Clark shouts from his soapbox. "What does that even get us? Every single year we lose to Harvard."
Pan to Yale students signing a fake petition to defund the Yale football team.
YouTube/OnHarvardTimeSam Clark on his pulpit.Athletics funding is certainly a hot, believable controversy on campus: one the Harvard students could convincingly rally Yale students against. In the 2013 - 2014 school year, Yale spent a total of $37.6 million on its varsity athletics program and $3.2 million on football alone, according to the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education. By comparison, Harvard spends $23.1 million on varsity teams and $2.7 million on football.
"Yale gives a lot of money to its athletics program, which is interesting, because Harvard beats them every year," Clark says. While Yale's football team leads Harvard 65 wins to 57, it hasn't won the big game since 2006.
The whole video is a montage of interactions with Yale students, embarrassed but forthcoming about their lack of faith in Yale's ability to win the Harvard-Yale game this weekend.
"[The team] could use some improvement," one Yale student says. When asked if "the Yale team is bad," he answers, "When it comes to the Harvard-Yale game."
Another student says, "I'm a senior and I've never seen Yale win."
One of the funnier moments in the video is when Clark runs into two Yale football players. He later tells me, "I am flanked by these identical twin line backers and I'm telling them why we need to take money away from their football team."
But Dennis and Dustin Ross, who play as center and offensive guard, respectively, graciously accept Clark's best wishes. "Hopefully we can finally get [Harvard] after seven years," Clark says.
More trouble brews later in the video, when Clark is approached by a Yale freshman who said on camera that he supports reducing funding for the Yale football team and volunteered to help hand out fliers at the protest. He pulls Clark aside and shows him a video on his phone.
It's On Harvard Time's "Beat Yale" video from last year.
"Yeah, I'm like fairly sure you guys are from Harvard," the freshman says.
"I have seen that video," Clark studders. The other correspondents' eyes kind of bug out.
"He bears like a stark resemblance to you."
Composing himself, Clark chuckles. "I like, I get that so many times. I've gotten that from a lot of people."