Bromania. Brotastic. Brononymous.
Hey bro, it's getting old, and now, just plain disgusting.
Since the unfortunate start of Jersey Shore, the classiest show to ever grace our televisions, it seems that everything is becoming "bro-ified," and we aren't exactly sure how we feel about that.
The bro phenomenon — a bronomenon, if you will — has even been escalated into a popular college drinking game called Bros Icing Bros. We're sure you've heard about it, but let us enlighten those who tend not to associate with bros or go to frat parties.
The game is simple but could involve a slight amount of cunning and trickery.
Here is how one would go about icing a bro, according to brosicingbros.com (yes, there's a website): Buy Smirnoff Ice and present it to one of your bros in any manner.
Your bro must instantly get on one knee and chug the Smirnoff Ice on the spot regardless of setting.
However, a bro can "ice block." If a bro is presented with a Smirnoff Ice but came "packin' with his own ice," then the initial bro must drink both Smirnoff Ices.
Yup, that's the gist of it.
The fun part is supposed to be about finding interesting ways to present the wretched drink to a fellow bro.
The website has plenty of ideas, examples and incriminating photos. We personally enjoyed the one where the Smirnoff was hidden inside a bro's protein shake powder.
Good job, bro.
Now, be forewarned, there are serious consequences should a bro refuse to be "iced."
That bro will be "excommunicated" or "shunned" and can never again ice or be iced.
Quite frankly, we're surprised the community — excuse us, the brommunity — knew what the words "excommunicated" and "shunned" meant.
This bronomenon has gained a lot of attention outside the college sphere. The New York Times wrote an article about it, and entertainers have been in on the game also.
The game has also been an Internet sensation, with blogs, pictures and groups about bros getting iced popping up everywhere.
We would venture to say that had it not been for the Internet, the game would have either not have gotten such attention or the epidemic would not have spread at all.
Yes, we see the hilarity of it all, but at the same time this just gives another excuse for college kids to drink themselves into oblivion.
It would be a little less worrisome if we saw some opposition toward this hazard.
Nothing good can come out of an abundance of college students drinking an entire bottle of Smirnoff Ice as fast as possible.
Rest assured, though, we know that eventually reports will surface of some bro getting seriously injured in a fight with another bro who refused to get iced.
We can see the headline now: "Breaking news: Bro-on-bro crime increases due to popular drinking game."
We don't mean to mimic the worn out expression "it's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt," but we can't help but feel that this is just a little bit absurd.
If anything, it's upsetting that Smirnoff Ice, an intolerable-tasting drink, is getting a lot of money off this game.
So, to all the bros out there: Enough with the icing.
Not suggesting that getting rid of the BOG gets rid of the tuition hiking problem completely (as I mentioned before, when the power goes back to the state legislature, they were still planning on implementing the same rate of raise), but it does at least put that power back into the hands of people who are legitimately responsible to us as constituents (they are elected officials), and who have a more holistic understanding of the role education plays in the Florida economy and society.Unlike the state legislature the BOG is: not elected, does not have to listen to us, is not responsible to a community of constituents, is appointed by the governor at the time, and holds 8 year terms (longer than state legislators).Unfortunately, running a constitutional amendment campaign across the entire state of Florida takes a lot of effort and a lot of networking with people at other schools, and is also going to be very monotonous and tedious, and probably take the entire course of student's college careers (4 years approx., as I mentioned earlier), and over all isn't a very "sexy" campaign for college students to work on. And, the only statewide progressive student network that does exist is the FL YES Coalition (which was directly affected by the BOG lawsuit over the Student Green Energy Fund), is kind of busy addressing the oil spill (as their prime initiative is as an environmental organization).Oops, sorry, am I spewing useless crap that apparently belongs to someone who has been at UCF too long (I didn't know 3 years was too long to be at a university)? Fine fine, I'll let everyone figure out the rest for themselves (hint: google "Florida Board of Governors lawsuit" "Bill McCollum")
But, for this reason:
Only one is a school newspaper, and has journalistic integrity.
One is a blog that is used for "scandalmongering" and promoting a specific SGA political and business agenda.
Talk about bitterness, sheesh!
Don't let it happen to you!