During Frosh week, I was walking down the tunnels and I heard a chant fill the air. A group of students walking down the tunnel around me were echoing the words “Fuck you Ottawa U!” repeatedly.
Turns out the song, which is heard so often around campus, is a longstanding tradition at Carleton and has been around for as long as anyone can remember.
The chant goes like this:
“There’s a hole in the city, and its name is Ottawa U / And if you’re dull and boring, then it’s the place for you / And if you’re into concrete, and ugly buildings too / Then welcome to Ottawa U/ Two, three, four / Fuck you, Ottawa U! / Fuck you, Ottawa U! / En francais, c’est fuckez vous, Ottawa U / So fuck you, Ottawa U!”
James Witherspoon, the manager of Abstentions, reckons the song is more than 30 years old. Despite this long-standing tradition, there are still individuals who regard it to be overly vulgar.
The controversy surrounding the song poses an interesting question: are students taking the song too seriously?
The song establishes a healthy rivalry between the two universities. It entices students from the very first day they arrive at Carleton to be proud Ravens.
The song creates a competitive spirit, and this ensures Carleton students are always striving to be the best. This is especially true when it comes to sports competitions.
We have a long but healthy history of competition with the University of Ottawa. As you can tell from attending basketball games, Carleton students have spirit they’re not shy to show.
More so, the song is appropriately funny because it goes along with one of the most popular questions about U of O’s mascot, the Gee-gee. Carleton students are often heard asking, “What the fuck is a Gee-gee?”
However, the manner in the way the song’s lyrics can be interpreted could be seen as problematic. The cheer creates pride within students not through positive means, but through a profane and indoctrinating chant.
This is why we can’t take the song too seriously. It is not right to indoctrinate new students. If new students want to have school spirit, then they should build it on their own.
We have to see the cheer as a joke to prevent this problem. We have to look at the song as a farce of itself.
When we do that, the harshness and profanity become ironic. The song no longer becomes indoctrinating, but fun and hilarious. It is a song meant to create school spirit.
In fact, the lyrics in “Fuck You, Ottawa U” are so general and vague, it could even be applied to Carleton.
For example, read the line, “And if you’re dull and boring, then it’s the place for you.” You can’t expect everyone from Carleton to be fun and exciting.
Also, the following line reads, “if you’re in to concrete and ugly buildings too…” That’s a little hypocritical don’t you think? What are our buildings made of, marble?
So we have to either take the song jokingly or be hypocrites. We can’t misinterpret the irony. The tone of the song is so ironic, and if you take the song too seriously, it will only cause misunderstanding.
Overall, the song is just meant to be fun and silly. Students shouldn’t get so offended easily because a song like this is meant to be taken lightly. It is meant to be an ironic, and comical song.
After all, if we do take it too seriously, we lose the positive school spirit and the fun of it all.