Corn Flakes

12 Sep

Posted on 2007 under Miscellany of Humor |

cornflake01 One of the best things I liked about being in the fraternity I was in was that we were very good at messing with our recruits in time-honored and classic tests of their trust in us. One of these methods is affectionately known as the ‘Corn Flakes’ game.

The funny thing was, the pledges bought into it. Not because they were drunk, but rather that we were aware of the notion that sleep deprivation is very helpful to messing with people. We were fun like that. We would call them up at all hours, just to wake them up for no reason. We would round them up at three am to do something stupid like run around the fraternity house naked six times then send them back to their dorm rooms.

The game began with the customary lining up of the pledges along the ‘wall’ after a heavy night of drinking by us. Not them, just us. By limiting the pledges to alcohol we not only insured minimal problems but had designated drivers for the weekends. When we did get in trouble it was for parties that were too big, never abuse to a future member.

We once got suspended. Was it for recruiting violations? Nope. Was it for hazing? Nope. We had 1,000 people in a club that was allowed to max out at 800. We got in trouble for breaking the fire code. Thankfully, Great White wasn’t there.

Practical jokes on recruits that teach lessons are the way to go every time. Hell, one time we played one on our recruits on initiation night. We got them thinking they weren’t getting in because of information they don’t find until the formal initiation. That is a story for another time of course, just one of the many examples of how to do things right.

The plebes would spend many a night in front of the concrete foundation of our basement, sometimes standing, sometimes doing push ups. Some of them even gave the wall a name. We had weird recruits.

So we got angry, fake angry of course and started yelling at them because of something stupid, much like a dysfunctional relationship. We began smashing bottles on the floor and making a scene. Then we led all the pledges to the second floor and blindfolded them.

If someone ever walked in at that moment, they would have thought it was some kind of a hostage situation. There was screaming and yelling in the basement, and a bunch of people blindfolded on the first and second floors. Did I mention this was all taking place about 5 am EST? I have no idea why I included the time zone, consider me being thorough.

One at a time, we marched them down to the basement, made them take off their shoes and stand on a chair. We asked them about trust and if they trusted us. Eventually we got them to jump off the chair into the broken glass. Actually we ‘asked’ in the form of yelling.

Wow were we twisted or what? Of course not, this was a fraternity, not some kind of secret underground kung fu operation.

What the plebes did not know is that while they were upstairs, we swept all the glass up (we even bought one of those really coarse push brooms to make sure we got all the pieces) and replaced it with cornflakes and water. We moved them initially to the second floor for this reason, so they would not hear the clean-up. We also made sure to take the people who went through it to the first floor, away from the ones who hadn’t yet experienced the ritual.

Of course, once they jumped, they realized it wasn’t really broken glass and that they fell for a really obvious trick. I am sure some faked it, and others really believed it. But every time there was at least one person that bought into it hook line and sinker.

That guy always ended up being the one most eager to do the trick to the next pledge class. I think we were less a fraternity and more a reality show on messing with people in a harmless way.

Good times, good times.

(Reprinted from former blog)