Temptation and the "You Suck" Chant
One of my favorite things about the Michigan band during the game is when they play "Temptation" after the defense comes up with a crucial 3rd down stop. I love the song.
When the band plays Temptation, the students start chanting "You Suck" to the opposing team/fans. I graduated in 2002 and I don't remember this chant at all emanating from the student section when I was there.
I know that I have participated in much worse chants at Yost as a student, but I am not a huge fan of this chant.
I think that it is kind of tacky and lacking in creativity and class. Furthermore, sometimes the "You Suck" chant actually drowns out the band and you can't even hear Temptation. I don't think that the students should be forced to stop the chant, but I do find it a bit annoying.
Have I already turned into a grumpy old fan? Anyone else have an opinion on the issue?
EDIT: Here is the band playing Temptation -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRTUnZEl43o&feature=related
To answer your first question, yes.
:-) yeah yeah...I bet I still make more noise than you. I lose my voice at games.
doubtful dunesman doubtful.... come see me at yost man im one of the guys holding the mondo swedish flag. You lose your voice, I lose my fucking mind.
Well I give you credit for Yost and the flag - you help make Yost what it is - the best place to watch hockey in the country. Thank you for that. I haven't been to Yost since I was a student. I have seen the team play eslewhere, including Munn this year.
At Notre Dame stadium in 2006 I had the usher talk to me 4 times for being too loud and standing. At Michigan Stadium the guy next to me has ear plugs in and still covers his ears. My point is that I don't want the stadium loud, I just don't see the creativity, imagination, or soul in chanting "You Suck" 50 times during Temptation - especially when we are losing to a top 10 team.
What part of thousands of drunken 18-22ish year olds says class to you? Let us (the students) have some darn fun. We like our chants, and most of us like piped in music. We're the loudest section in the place and anything to get us riled up is a good thing IMHO.
(With that said I refuse to do the chant when we are losing)
Part of why I think it is tacky, is that Penn State is creaming us, we only have 1 win in the BigTen and we are chanting "you suck" at them?!?!
I don't think it should be banned, just prefer we didn't do it.
wait....so you're saying there's a 1st quarter?!?!
I expect more creativity from Michigan fans than the generic "you suck".
Now if you want to call them a chump, a dick, a wuss, or a douchebag? I'm all for it.
...because sulking is much better than an active student section.
Who is saying we should sulk?
Half the time I am ticked off that more fans aren't rowdier.
Can't we come up with something more creative that works better like we do at Yost?
One of the differences between the Stadium and Yost, is that at Yost, creativity is expected and encouraged.
Over the years, I think that there has been too much complacency in the student section during football games, and going with the flow is accepted. It's going to take a lot to change that status quo.
To start, students have to remember why they're there. It's not to text your friends, and it's not to converse with your sorority sisters. It's to be loud, and to cheer for Michigan.
Fans at Yost not only know why they're there, but they know they have a reputation to uphold, and they embrace it.
You pointed out the main issue. Those that go to Yost are there to watch Michigan hockey and make it one of the toughest arenas to play in. While many do the same thing for football games, there are a lot of people that go there to socialize and don't care all that much about the game.
How is the new venture going?
and must correct you.
They don't converse; they BBM. And then I chide them for being a waste of space. And I get ignored. And then at dinner three of them will be arguing over how much to sell their OSU tickets for, and my roommate will have to drag me from the dining room before I combust.
will... will you marry me? or give me your autograph at least. i think i love you.
MUDBOWL
(but seriously I met some of my best friends there and living in was awesome... personal chef anyone?)
Yo, don't knock the BBMs. They're lifesavers.
The only part of the whole process I find annoying is when they show up late and still demand their seats in row x. You're late, deal with it.
that comes with the caliber of students that go the games. At Yost the students actually care about the game being played, which is standard for fans of a niche sport like college hockey. At football, I would say a good portion, unfortunately, is there is just to be seen or are too drunk to even know what the heck is going on. For a perfect example, see the greek members that attend, especially the ones that wear the stupid greek life tshirts that are an opposite color to the student section shirt. Most of those "fans" couldn't care less about the game and are only at the game for the social aspect.
The cheer seemed to originate some time between when I started in 03, and when I graduated. I think I remember it starting in 04, and from the start I always hated it. Maybe I'm just an old man at heart, but I think it's among the most unoriginal, and dumbest chants around. It kind of embarasses me for the Michigan fanbase when I hear it.
The chant really picked up in intensity during the '05 PSU game, with the 200 or so odd PSU students causing trouble in the middle of our student section.
I too am class of 2002, and I hate the addition of the "You suck."
It's just too unoriginal.
I don't understand why people are calling it unoriginal. Is it very creative? Not really. But it is pretty original. I don't think any other student section has its band play temptation and do the "you suck" cheer.
I personally love it because it keeps the section invovled and its fun to do (when you're not losing).
It seems like a lot of high schools do a "You Suck" chant to whatever the band plays and have been doing it since before the Michigan student section started doing it to Temptation. That is why it doesn't seem original to me...just keep chanting you suck over and over to the rythm of the band.
I am not saying ban it, just that I don't like it. If that chant is what it takes to help keep you involved during a 3rd down defensive stop - then go ahead and keep doing it.
ANYTHING is better than the addition of the PSU chant to the White Stripes. Why??? We taught OSU how to script Ohio and we take one of PSU's chants?? Blech.
to do script Ohio and all, but has anyone ever wondered what exactly we taught them? Did we teach them how to spell Ohio? I mean, how hard could that have been for them to figure out on their own? I guess we forgot to tell them that they are Ohio State and not just "Ohio"
It is the trump card against any "tradition" delusional smack talk OSU fans can bring.
That particular meme has always been a bit of a misnomer. The MMB merely made a formation of a cursive Ohio, which is a far cry from the OSUMB spelling out the Script Ohio letter by letter. There's really no evidence to suggest the formations are linked in any way.
That being said, it's still fun to rub it in on them.
The chant is tacky and somewhat Sparty-esque (akin to the "First down bitch" cheer that they do). Let it die.
If memory serves me correctly...
In the 99-02 season, I remember it progressing from "the chop", to "the rock", and then to "the claw". I believe the "you suck" chant started in the 2003 or 2004 season. However, it only started as saying "you suck" at the end of temptation. However, as the seasons progressed it has evolved into saying "you suck" during the entire song/cheer/chant.
I too find it unoriginal and plain stupid. I just hope it evolves itself out. However, I can't see how.
I think the push for the change from the chop to the claw came during my freshman year, 2003. Another change I wasn't a fan of, not because the chop was un-PC (something that is way overdone these days) but because the limp wristed claw everyone waves looks totally unfierce and half hearted.
As far as the chop, I remember people protesting it in 1999-2002. Since the defense had a 3rd down stop when Temptation is being played, I thought that the "Chop" could easily be explained as a 1st down signal...that Michigan is about to get when the other team punts. Oh well.
I've been here since 2000 and the chop definitely went directly to the claw. I've never heard of the rock (which may have been a transition, but if so it died out quickly and we went back to the chop). The Michigan Daily sports section pushed the claw as a way to replace the chop because the chop was affiliated with other schools.
I actually liked the chop better--it was a mocking first down sign rather than a seminole chop or anything like that--so I kept doing the chop with a handful of others during the transition year, but I eventually gave up and joined in the claw.
Not sure I remember it, but I do remember being a part of a group of students trying to make the gesture into more of a fist during that timeframe.
We called it "the hammer" - as in our Defense bringing down the hammer.
Then the Daily stepped in and started promoting the claw and it was over. And hammer supporters were sad.
I, too, am anti "you-suck" - but would support something a little more creative in there.
I absolutely love the Temptation song. Not sure how I feel about the "you suck", I do the chant but usually will yell at other students who participate when we are losing (ie Penn State) and when they sing terrible Journey songs. One chant that I think really lacks class though, is the chant after "ahhh See ya" at the hockey games...
They should play Hawaiian War Chant more often, and that's my opinion on band affairs.
I vote for a Muppets sing-a-long before the third quarter.
Just imagine the students trying to follow along with lyrics like this: Auwê ka hua`i lâ
I vote for Cabin Fever!
The Athletic Department has been putting the pressure on the MMB for a few years now to stop playing Temptation entirely in order to stop the "You Suck" chant. So far the directors have managed to prevent this by promising the shitstorm that would arise would not be fun to deal with, but it may get to the point where Temptation gets axed.
Something to consider when you next decide to participate in that chant. Is ending a 40+ year old Michigan tradition worth it?
As a current student I don't like the "you suck" chant very much for the reasons people have listed, but realistically it's going to be very hard to get enough people to change it, even if we had a good idea for a replacement, which we don't.
I have to say, though, that if the AD would really threaten to stop playing "Temptation" over people chanting "you suck" (which I find very doubtful) I know which side of that battle I'd be on. Michigan needs their crowds to be more intense and trying to police them more strictly is ridiculous.
I will do whatever chant I feel like doing without you trying to put me on some guilt trip.
The Michigan AD, the man whose hobbies include screaming at student employees, striking them, and screaming vulgar insults in front of children on game day, wants to ban 'you suck' because it isn't nice?
i will still do the cheer despite your disapproving attitude.
i like temptation, don't really like "you suck." but its important in life to remember that jackasses are jackasses and they are going to do whatever jackassery they see fit whether or not you regard them as a jackass. that is why they are jackasses.
It's not even so much of a chant rather than just said one time really loud. Anything that makes our stadium louder I am for. It's dwarfed in vulgarity compared to any chant said at Yost.
Not true, I'm pretty sure everyone sings "Suck, yoooooou suck, yoooooou suck, yoooooou suck", and then at the end is a big unison "YOU SUCK!"
This very subject for the past few years. I dont have a problem with the student section saying it, but I correlate the rise of "you suck" with the troubles of the past few years, so I personally refrain.
Anyone know the etymology of "You Suck" becoming an insult? I've seen a couple theories, mostly a shortening/bastardization of "sucking eggs," and the more prominent "you perform oral sex often" contingent.
In that context, I try not to use it as an insult myself, because oral sex is OK in my book, and I don't want to discourage willing participants by using to degrade people. Can't say I always succeed as it's pretty ingrained, but I try.
And thus, don't participate in the new, oh-so-witty lyrics. Maybe some of the students can start just bah-bah-bah'ing along with the band or something? That would mellow out the words, but keep the noise.