Harvard Parodies "That's Why I Chose Yale," Makes Annie Le Barb (WATCH)

A Harvard University spoof of Yale University's much-maligned musical admissions-info video takes the old-school rivalry too far, according to some outraged students.

The satirical clip, posted online Tuesday by campus comedy news show On Harvard Time, pokes fun at Yale's "That's Why I Chose Yale" video -- which even Yale's Dean of Admissions deemed parody-worthy -- but things take a grim turn when it makes a jab at the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le.

"What happened to that girl that got murdered and stuffed in a wall?" One of the video's performers asks (see the full video below, the question comes around the 0:55 mark).

An editorial in the Yale Daily News expresses anger and disappointment in the Harvard video:

By making light of one of the most horrific tragedies to strike our campus in recent memory, the murder of Annie Le GRD '13 last September, the video's authors exhibited a gross insensitivity that they may not have intended, but elicited a response that they should have expected. For Yalies to ridicule Mark Zuckerberg, or for Cantabs to lampoon George W. Bush '68 is one thing -- but to poke fun at real suffering is inexcusable.

Yale senior Vi Nguyen told IvyGate that the "swift punches highlighted just how elitist, ignorant and insensitive Ivy League students can be," and made her "terribly ashamed."

Below, check out the video in full. What do you think of this spoof? Funny? Offensive? Disgraceful? Let us know in the comments section.

Comments

[Thien D Tran]

01:52 PM on 12/02/2010

I guess Harvard is #1 for smart but no common sense. I hope none of them is majoring in Psychology. Wow...from Harvard huh??? Rivalry in sports, games, and academic I can understand, but something like this shows Harvard doesn't care much about what their students do or publish to the world. Are they that confident? Institutions are for teaching. If you cannot teach your students the right manners, discipline, and common sense, then your degree will be worthless in terms of "having the right tool, but not doing the right thing with it." They might gain respect for what they've achieved in life, but as a person they might be struggling to gain respects from people. For example if you give an antidote to 2 people. One will find a way to use it and save another life. The other can use it to kill. People can be smart, and when they have the right tool what they choose to do with it is within their heart. And remember, don't blame people for making this a big deal. First, it is a big deal. 2nd...you're from Harvard, 3rd you're from Harvard with eyes watching you.

[conservicide]

12:13 AM on 11/19/2010

Doesn't Harvard hire trickle-down economists to pollute their business school?

Now THAT's embarrassing !

[113]

10:41 PM on 11/18/2010

video has been turned to "private" so i can't view the parody

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

08:29 PM on 11/18/2010

really this was not funny by any means however this was from MIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSt73eg0GXk

[ziggystardust]

08:06 PM on 11/18/2010

Ha, I saw a version of the video with that controversial line dubbed over as "What happened to the original line of this video?" ...This isn't a terribly witty parody, is it?

[sempronia]

07:20 PM on 11/18/2010

I couldn't get the video to work so I couldn't see it. However, I can probably imagine. After all, Penn kids used to walk around with Puck Frinceton t-shirts with a picture of Ben Franklin behind the Princeton tiger. Frankly, much as I loved Penn, you kind of got the sense that Penn people wanted a rivalry with Princeton because it made them feel more important; also, the Princeton kids usually responded by confusing us with Penn State. (The Penn State shirts did come out, as well as those of other state schools, as the fall wore on, so that our fellow students could demonstrate that they appreciated good football.)

But I've been in grad school at a state university for a few years now, and have done several intercollegiate programs and even took some time to work in between. Admittedly, sometimes the Ivies can put you in a bubble and make you think you're automatically better prepared than students from state universities or liberal arts colleges. Obviously, this is a delusion and can make one look like an a$$.

That said, what I've learned is that I was still well-prepared, and I still work hard. But I find that I'd rather not tell people right away where I went to school -- better to shut up and let the quality of my work speak for itself.

But I still have the Penn keychain...

[alexandracabot]

07:58 PM on 11/18/2010

This is pretty different than a simple college rivalry. It's about Harvard *making fun* of the *murder* of a Yale student. Not quite the same as "Puck Frinceton."

[sempronia]

08:13 PM on 11/18/2010

...ok, so we're pushing to a realm of douchebaggery deeper than when the Penn Owl guys poured gasoline on the Princeton debate guys and flicked cigarettes at them.

Severity acknowledge, but I still stand by and expand my point: I think there is a certain amount of self-congratulatory that builds in isolation. In this case, to think that this was in any way ok...

[MKM04]

05:50 PM on 11/18/2010

Has anyone ever thought that the reason that you think all Ivy League graduates are elitist and obnoxious is because only the obnoxious graduates brag about their school? I'm applying to college now, and I know a bunch of great people who will probably go to Harvard and Yale. Some of them are wealthy, some of them are not. But all of them are smart and pleasant people.
Do you ask everyone where they went to school? No. Don't judge a group of people based on a few of them.

[sempronia]

07:02 PM on 11/18/2010

Thank you. I will also add that I knew some of those obnoxious people while I was in college. Better to keep quiet about it, and let your work demonstrate your quality.

Good luck to you on college, btw -- it's been 9 years, but I can't tell you how stressed I was before I got in, how relieved I was after, and how happy I was where I ended up.

[Johnny Steps]

04:07 PM on 11/18/2010

In that video, white privilege.

[thundermummy]

03:58 PM on 11/18/2010

Oh, to be that poor sucker who went to a state school. To wallow in his pedestrian plebeiaty, non squash playing mundanity! There but for the grace of my father's father's father go I.

[sempronia]

07:05 PM on 11/18/2010

Yeah, but the image if you're the kid with the state undergrad degree who then beats out the Ivy kids to get into an Ivy grad school... (bearing in mind, of course, that humanities PhD programs provide funding to you...) I actually know quite a few who had this happen.

[Paul Weiskel]

03:19 PM on 11/18/2010

Go to a Harvard v Yale football game if you want to see elitism and douchebaggery. There are two sides to most Ivy League schools, the entitled trust funders who were pretty much accepted as soon as they were born. But then there are many people including immigrants and first generation Americans who do work for the right to go there.

[veritas88]

01:22 AM on 11/19/2010

that's this Friday.

[veritas88]

01:22 AM on 11/19/2010

oops, the game is Saturday at Harvard.

[Paul Weiskel]

02:49 PM on 11/19/2010

I know, I'll be there.

[Sean McCreery]

03:15 PM on 11/18/2010

all those kids are gonna get in trouble. they go to the harvard ad board and probable be expelled.

[NYC-CatLover]

03:06 PM on 11/18/2010

Expensive, exclusive private colleges & universities have arrogant, entitled brats as students? Who knew?

[TeacupKitten]

03:16 PM on 11/18/2010

I went to one of these "expensive, exclusive private colleges & universities" and guess what, my family income was below $40,000, so no, don't think I am entitled. The ratio of brats that jealous people like to comment on is surprisingly small.

[Tpy]

04:20 PM on 11/18/2010

No it's not.

[113]

10:57 PM on 11/18/2010

The fact that you called people who make fun of the brats at ivy league schools "jealous" shows you're one of them.

[Adam Koblenz]

03:02 PM on 11/18/2010

it's funny. if these kids weren't arrogant or entitled, why would they find it so scathing to say yale is surrounded by poor people? that's, like, every joke in this video. oooh your school is in a place where there are impoverished people! who else but the richest and most entitled would find that so insulting?

[Ravi Abunijad]

02:52 PM on 11/18/2010

I saw the video; they changed the line to "what happened to the original line in this video?"

I can see how the line had been used in context, and it doesn't seem to be over-the-top. Too soon? Yeah, probably. It's just a video of people asking questions about the university, though, and a lot of damning information comes up, including that.

It screams Ivy League elitism, which is pretty pathetic for a video that is trying to be humorous. I suppose from a Harvard perspective, it might be a little funny. If you aren't brainwashed into caring about the "image" of these schools, you're probably not going to laugh even once.

If you haven't seen the video - don't even watch it. It's a waste of time.

[TeacupKitten]

03:09 PM on 11/18/2010

Well, the audience are prospective Ivy students because they are the applicants and Ivy students because they are competition among each other on who's better. I think it looks elitist because you are not the target audience.

[Ravi Abunijad]

04:54 PM on 11/18/2010

I understand what you're saying. It could be argued that elitism is a subjective term.

On the other hand, everyone in this country is well aware that Harvard has the bigger endowment and likes to tout its higher selectivity. You don't think that it is condescending rhetoric to portray students who go to Yale simply because they couldn't get into Harvard? What that communicates to nearly every student in the country is that they are below Harvard, either socially or intellectually. It's arrogant and stupid.

That said, I am not upset by it. It's just a bunch of egotistical young adults trying in vain to be funny.

[fem56]

02:50 PM on 11/18/2010

The video is still on the internet but my computer is acting up. The students from my kids' school that ended up at Yale and Harvard were all wonderful and remarkable kids. I don't understand why people want to knock dowm some of the best universities in our country. I am a state college graduate, by the way, and I do not think Harvard or Yale graduates are superior to me as human beings, but I do think they received a better education.

[TeacupKitten]

03:09 PM on 11/18/2010

Thank you, now this is a fair and balanced comment.

[NWPennsy]

04:41 PM on 11/18/2010

You mean like the better education Dubya got? Yee-haw! Fair and balanced... where have I heard that before?

[sempronia]

07:08 PM on 11/18/2010

Is it really all that logical to hold up the example of one deplorable individual who had three generations worth of legacy and use it to smear the rest of us? I won't say "fair and balanced", but your assessment is poor.