I think the band director is handling the situation appropriately...too many games are on TV now and nationally televised games cannot turn into national embarrassments. The next step is for everyone else to just ignore the few that are vulgar. That's what good parents do when their kids are having a temper tantrum. But seriously, what do you expect a bunch of pent up, drunked up College kids to do when they're away from their parents for the first time in their lives...not get out of line? I mean most of us adults use profanity in our own speech. I know I do in the kitchen. This is probably a good time for all of us to have a gut check about our own bad habbits... ...and try to quit the F%$&^*ing profanity !!
I sit right next to the student section and couldn't really make out what they were chanting. Now that I know what they were saying I'm pretty glad I couldn't. I usually don't have a problem with the little chants the students come up with. They are usually unimaginative and boring, but this one is just embarrassing and disrespectful to their own mascot. Although if they would have just let them continue to say "A-Hole" and "you suck" they wouldn't have tried to go ever the top.
Just so everyone knows. You Suck being chanted was tolerated originally. It was when we were playing the gamecocks in 2007 and the Student section decided to add their mascot to the chant that the Band Department decided to quite playing it. They have brought it back back and removed it a few times since because the students don't seem to get it.
I feel for the band members who work to learn these songs only to have it ruined. That's a lot of work to have it spoiled.
In defense of the student section I haven't heard the "You suck ****" version chanted there since that one game in 2007. Maybe they did and I just haven't heard it. My only issue with these decisions is the inconsistency with which they're made and no effort being made by Tiger Band or the administration to address this issue with the student community as a whole. Hell, we have a "town hall meeting" here every time somebody gets a hang nail, but nothing on Tiger Band removing songs due to vulgarity? If we're going to remove every one the students did this with, then we need to ditch the 1st down chant "Kick their *** (and beat the **** out of them)" and "Hey Baby" (won't you be my b****) too.
They brought back the "Oweeoo" song for WVU and "You Suck" immediately followed. The "Tiger Rag" version after a TD went away for a few years but when it was brought back the "a**h***" chant started right away. I agree with you about it needing to be addressed. I'm not sure why SGA (or whatever form of student government is there these days) doesn't bring it up. I know the Reveille had articles on it in the past. Maybe they gave it up as a lost cause. Maybe I'll show up at Free Speech alley...hand out some free Red, White and Blue beer and get on my soapbox. :hihi:
That's because we haven't played the gamecocks since then. It was the last straw. That statement is incorrect. When they reinstated the Oh-e-Oh song they tried to get the student section to chant "Tigers" where they were chanting "you suck." It worked for a while but reverted so they decided to take it away again. And to be perfectly honest, for all those students who say it has been tradition, the student section, as a whole, didn't start to notice we were doing that after a score until around 04 or 05. They didn't add the "you suck" to it till around early 07. Tigerband had been doing that since well before I was there. So the nonsense brought up by students that it was some big tradition for them to say that is complete crap when they didn't realize we were doing anything until 04 at the earliest. On the songs you are mentioning, the whole stadium is cheering here (or singing), not just the students, so the proper words are drowning out the vulgarity to a point where it cannot be heard on National Television. At the very least it creating enough of a difference that you cannot tell what is being said. Again, this has a lot to do with the perception of LSU on National Television.
Asking the students to do that in an email or Reveille article for one song is not the same as the AD enacting a broad-based policy, or making a public statement to the effect of "the vulgarity is becoming a big problem for LSU's national reputation and we need to come up with a way to combat this," and setting up a public forum/venue for participation by students, SG, alumni, etc. It can be an event promoted by the AD and SG through the Reveille and all the normal channels, and can even be the start of some broader initiative. If Joe Alleva can take the time to email ticketholders about booing, then he can do the same thing for potty-mouthed students. Here's the reality. If Tiger Band thinks simply yanking the "modified" songs is going to get the students to drop the vulgarity, they're dreaming. It's not working now, nor will it ever work. The morons who already do it are emboldened by the reaction they've forced Tiger Band to make, so even more of them do it. Think Prohibition: students are just going to insert vulgarity into existing songs where there was none previously (such as Neck). The problem is as bad as ever, if not worse, and the cycle continues until Tiger Band's only function is halftime entertainment. As SIU would say, Tiger Band is treating the symptom, not the disease. There has to be mass pressure brought to bear on the idiots to the point that the vulgarity is stigmatized and it's only a small minority of students. For example, somebody posted that other students need to confront the others about the vulgarity. There were about a dozen idiots in my immediate area during Ole Miss screaming "and beat the s*** out of them" on 1st down. Am I gonna take on that many people by myself? Any effort taken has to be large-scale. What Tiger Band is doing now is a quick fix that really won't fix anything, and nobody in the AD seems to want to do the hard work to seriously start addressing the situation. So all the alumni writing angry letters to the editor in the Reveille or Advocate can save their breath, because the vulgarity is not going to get better under the status quo.
I honestly don't see what's so horrible about the "You Suck" chant. As long as you don't throw in the C****. Chanting "Tigers" would be better but you suck is neither vulgar nor overly offensive. I still want to kill the people who started adding "and beat the .... outta emm" to the first down cheer. I remember people starting it in 07 near the place my friends and I generally sat and it always made me wanna punch them in the face. They looked like Freshman/Sophomores who started it and i've hated them ever since.
