Oh, what better place to observe human hilarities than at a college football game? Specifically, the University of Utah - University of Southern California game. Which, by the way, was supposed to be an easy win for USC and ended up almost being a win for us; rather it would have been a win for us, had we a quarterback who isn't mentally deficient from time to time. Argh, that's all I have to say about the game itself, it still irritates me to think about it.
The game itself doesn't really matter anyway, my focus here is the tailgate. Holy cow, USC has one of the biggest tailgates I have ever seen! There are people everywhere, virtually half of the campus had to be covered in people. And props to the roving Utah fans, there were WAY more of us there than I expected. My friends and I even made the local news, but that had a lot to do with the fact that we had giant red and black letters painted on our chests.
The funniest part about messing with people at the tailgate is the fact that, even though they were playing against us and making fun of us, most of their insults, even those that were actually intended to be offensive, were far from it. The majority of the people there clearly knew absolutely nothing about Utah, save for the one fallback joke: the "aren't you all mormons" joke. Which is confusing because were I even Mormon I still wouldn't find that offensive, I'd probably be proud of it. However, even that joke fell short for us as not a single person in our group of 10 happened to be Mormon. We got a lot of jokes about "not being allowed" alcohol in Utah and so we quickly began playing that one up; we would run up to a tailgate, point to their drinks and act like we'd never seen them before... the best part about it was that people believed us! They actually thought that it was illegal in Utah and far be it from me to quash someone's beliefs. I guess the most amazing part to me was how easy it was for someone to believe something outrageous when they already wanted to believe it. I convinced a couple people that I did in fact have 6 wives waiting for me at home and that I was looking to pick up at least one more before heading home... after all, I didn't drive 700 miles just for a football game, I'm coming home with another wife in tow too. They found that hilarious and a couple of people even tried to offer me their friends.... I almost accepted a couple of them.
All in all, I think I've realized that the best place to observe people is a place where they just let themselves go. It makes for much more interesting stories and kept me entertained for hours.
The game itself doesn't really matter anyway, my focus here is the tailgate. Holy cow, USC has one of the biggest tailgates I have ever seen! There are people everywhere, virtually half of the campus had to be covered in people. And props to the roving Utah fans, there were WAY more of us there than I expected. My friends and I even made the local news, but that had a lot to do with the fact that we had giant red and black letters painted on our chests.
The funniest part about messing with people at the tailgate is the fact that, even though they were playing against us and making fun of us, most of their insults, even those that were actually intended to be offensive, were far from it. The majority of the people there clearly knew absolutely nothing about Utah, save for the one fallback joke: the "aren't you all mormons" joke. Which is confusing because were I even Mormon I still wouldn't find that offensive, I'd probably be proud of it. However, even that joke fell short for us as not a single person in our group of 10 happened to be Mormon. We got a lot of jokes about "not being allowed" alcohol in Utah and so we quickly began playing that one up; we would run up to a tailgate, point to their drinks and act like we'd never seen them before... the best part about it was that people believed us! They actually thought that it was illegal in Utah and far be it from me to quash someone's beliefs. I guess the most amazing part to me was how easy it was for someone to believe something outrageous when they already wanted to believe it. I convinced a couple people that I did in fact have 6 wives waiting for me at home and that I was looking to pick up at least one more before heading home... after all, I didn't drive 700 miles just for a football game, I'm coming home with another wife in tow too. They found that hilarious and a couple of people even tried to offer me their friends.... I almost accepted a couple of them.
All in all, I think I've realized that the best place to observe people is a place where they just let themselves go. It makes for much more interesting stories and kept me entertained for hours.
What a great perspective you have shown about the way people view Utahans. I have never traveled with my home state painted on my chest, instead having to meet people one on one and engage in conversation about the culture of Utah. My way is less bold and confrontational, but not as entertaining. I really like the way you messed with people, I love to see peoples paradigms and believes manipulated.
ReplyDeletekeep up the good work.
That is amazingly hilarious! Sounds like something me and my friends would do. It can be eye-opening going to a more "well-rounded" state where people are generally submerged into more cultures than you would generally find here in the bubble we call utah. And somehow find that people can still be ignorant of other peoples cultures and make judgements out in the open. I find it funny though and its even better spent making amusement and your own entertainment out of it. good job!
ReplyDelete