Thoughts on the "Hey Song"

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In case you didn't see my article today, the Penn Band will no longer be allowed to play what students refer to as the "Hey Song." It's a great debate on the singing of "Rock and Roll Part II," and the athletic department has a good point, but I believe it is wrong in a few ways.

Having the band play the "Hey Song" does sort of reflect poorly on the University, and while it's not offensive, it doesn't look good for a wing of the athletic department to tell its opponents that they suck.

But there are also many things that bug me about this decision. Saying "you suck" is offensive, but it's not that bad. In fact if you average all of the Penn chants I'd guess that it's below-average in obscenity. It was fine to have the band stop playing "Hang Jeff" in which at one point all of the fans yell "No, f__k you!"

While parents, not I, are the judge, kids aren't going to have the same reaction to hearing "suck" as the word that rhymes with that. When I was a 12-year-old West Philly kid going to Penn basketball games, me and my friend would pray for horrible shots by Penn's opponent so we could yell "airball, airball, airball, you suck!" (Needless to say, Dartmouth games were always a hot ticket.)

That brings me to my next point. If you are going to try to stop fans from singing the "Hey Song" a capella, then why aren't you banning people from chanting "asshole!" or "bullsh_t" or the airball chant, or even the ridiculous things that fans scream at players when they shoot free throws. Are they saying that it's fine to chant "virgin! virgin! virgin!" When Noah Savage goes to the line, but saying "you suck!" collectively to the other team is going to far?

And even if the song is considered offensive, does the athletic department believe that telling the band not to do it is going to stop the fans from singing? Can Brian Head stop 500 (25 if there's an obscene chant five minutes before tipoff) fans from singing? Even Band director Greer Cheeseman doesn't think so. And don't they know that without the band to mediate when the "Hey Song" is played, it will be sung earlier and earlier, and perhaps more and more often?

You might not think this is a concern to them, but according to the E-mail from Mary DiStanislao to the Penn Band, they won't stop fans from singing if it's done at a reasonable time. Something smells fishy...