History Main / SchoolClubsAreSeriousBusiness

* This trope could be an alternate title for ''Literature/NinthHouse''

* Math clubs, [[SmartPeoplePlayChess chess clubs]], or science clubs (whether general or for a specific branch, e.g. computers) are the "brain bank".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' had an episode where Billy, Mandy and Irwin joined some clubs during their school's "School Club Recruitment Day"--Irwin joined the macramé club, Billy joined the Junior CIA Club and Mandy joined the Secret Snake Club. The members of Mandy's club believed in a snake-god that they thought would eat all the "cool kids" at their school while Billy, who quickly became a top agent for the CIA, discover that Irwin's macramé club was being used as a criminal front.
** A FunnyBackgroundEvent that happened when Mandy by talking to the members of Secret Snake Club was the student at the table for the school's glee club was crying. Think about that about for a little bit...

** Haruhi was just another high school girl who created her own club to find aliens, time travelers, sliders and espers... AND ACTUALLY MEETS THEM! ([[LockedOutOfTheLoop not that she knows]].

** Haruhi was just another high school girl who wanted to meet aliens, time travelers, sliders and espers... AND ACTUALLY MEETS THEM.

* School clubs are an extremely important part of the ''TokimekiMemorial'' series. Most of the winnable girls being members of specific clubs, joining their respective clubs is the only way to get some of their special Events and [=CGs=]. Also, School clubs give you [[LimitBreak powerful special attacks]] for battles; perfoming well in the club during the SchoolFestival and, in the case of sports clubs, winning matches and Inter-High tournaments net you big RelationshipValues towards the girls; and becoming the Club Master of the Science Club allows you to unlock the Shooters mini-games.

* ''{{Fillmore}}'' runs on this trope, along with AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil. The Safety Patrol has the power to arrest and punish students on their own, what else needs to be said?

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

* Parodied in ''Manga/SgtFrog''. Fuyuki starts the paranormal club, but only has one other member in it (and she only joined because she had a crush on Fuyuki). The school newspaper also discovers the aliens' existence, but nobody believes them because they're a school newspaper (and because Fuyuki managed to confiscate their evidence).
* In ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'', the protagonists are all members of the newspaper club (Tsukune originally decided on joining the swim team instead, but that left Outer Moka heartbroken because, well, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires and water...)]], which spends much of its time investigating other clubs. The newspaper club has a rivalry with the Public Safety Commission (another club), with effective control of the school at stake. There's another club in the anime that consists of three lovesick losers who engage in such activities as creating a harmless StalkerShrine.
* ''Manga/{{Genshiken}}'': The people who decide which clubs are official are cracking down on those that don't do anything, because there are so many clubs that even the Genshiken's remote space is coveted.
* ''Anime/MagicUsersClub'': Even though they actually are quite active, the magic users have to share meeting space with a different club, which causes some conflict.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', {{Absurdly Powerful|StudentCouncil}} StudentCouncilPresident Milly is able to get every club on campus looking for Arthur by promising them increased funding, in addition to the kiss with a council member. At the end of the episode, Lelouch asks Milly to let the Japanese Suzaku join the student council by mentioning that students must be part of a club.
* {{Invoked}} and {{lampshaded}} in ''Manga/TwinkleSaberNova'', where students can get away with literally anything (like trying to take over the school, or demolishing half of it in battles involving PoweredArmor), as long as it's a club activity. And to ''make'' it a club activity, they only need three members to register their "club".
* The ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' consists of some of the richest and most popular boys in the school, and they have the headmaster's ear and influence over seemingly every facet of school life. Fortunately they use this power almost exclusively to stroke their own egos.
* ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'': Tankery --''[[MyLittlePanzer tank battles]]''-- is a real club, and there is even a national as well as international league for it! [[spoiler:It's also serious in the more mundane sense: [[SavingTheOrphanage win the tournament to prevent the school from being closed down]].]] Other clubs include ''ninjutsu'' and magic.

* ''LightNovel/BodaciousSpacePirates'': The Yacht club contains an inexplicably high number of exceptional people, as well as being a club which flies spaceships. On different club trips, they have operated two of the Original Seven pirate ships in battle. Their members have included the heiress to the most powerful corporation in existence, an expert cracker, a pirate captain, and two princesses, and the club possesses both a disarmed warship and a latest-generation stealth shuttle.

* In the Young Adult novel 'The Lottery', by Beth Goobie, a [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil High-School club]] known to the staff as 'The Celts' but to the student body as 'Shadow' [[LotteryOfDoom arrange a lottery]] to select a 'victim' for each year, who is ostracised by the entire school body for the rest of the year, and who has to do the 'Shadows'' bidding. They manage to prevent the students protesting by a mixture of offered prestige in joining shadow, and the threat of becoming the next victim or being humiliated if they speak out.

* The glee club in ''Series/{{Glee}}'' is VERY unpopular, and anybody in it are social outcasts, a plot point in the series. They also occasionally start spontaneously singing in hallways, drawing the school's attention. By contrast, the glee club at the boys' school Kurt transfers to are revered celebrities.
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Buffy tries and fails to join the cheerleaders. Someone else is so intent on joining the team that she's trying to kill people to get on, and so does Dawn, though there was a different spell in there.

* ''{{Fillmore}}'' runs on this trope, along with AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil. The Safety Patrol has the power to arrest and punish students on their own, what else needs to be said?

* A few episodes of ''VisualNovel/KamigamiNoAsobi'' revolve around getting the gods to join clubs. [[NorseMythology Loki and Thor]] pick the Going Home club, and apparently that's good enough.

* Parodied in ''Manga/KeroroGunsou''. Fuyuki starts the paranormal club, but only has one other member in it (and she only joined because she had a crush on Fuyuki). The school newspaper also discovers the aliens' existence, but nobody believes them because they're a school newspaper (and because Fuyuki managed to confiscate their evidence).

[[folder:Real Life]]
* When it comes to the "god" thing, clubs can get political.
** Back in the sixties, the secular movement was warming up, so religious groups got in on the ground floor and started religious school clubs. The courts were iffy, but ultimately decided that the first amendment meant that the groups, student formed and led, had to be allowed.
** Fast forward 45 years and the atheist/secular movement is taking advantage and forming secular/atheist student groups. Thanks to the Supreme Court's earlier ruling, they can't be opposed. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard By the petard are you hoist.]] The drama is still... intense. Death threats are the norm.
* This is TruthInTelevision in Japan, since it can be a key factor during secondary education.
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Students get involved with extracurricular activities for all sorts of reasons. They let you network with other people who share your hobbies, they let you use school resources for fun, and they look great on a college transcript. While there are some exceptions, like performance clubs with recitals and organized sports, most clubs are just afterschool activities pursued casually by their members.

That's not the case with these clubs, though. In the more benevolent cases the club is simply treated as a full-fledged social institution, with stereotypes about its members and strict rules about its conduct. A powerful enough club is a political force in the school, potentially wielding power on par with the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil. In the worst cases the club may actually be a cult engaged in nefarious deeds, and those who quit may have to be ... silenced.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' had an episode where the students joined school clubs. Mandy joined the Secret Snake Club, who believes in a snake-god that will eat all of the cool kids. Billy joined the Secret Service club, and discovers the knitting club is being used as a criminal front.

** In another, Cartman hijacks his morning announcements slot to run a smear campaign against school council chairman Wendy and get himself elected in her place, [[spoiler:only to find out it isn't anything like the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil he thought it was.]]

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[[folder: Literature]]
* In the teen novel ''TheVClub'', a wealthy woman leaves money that would provide a full scholarship to one lucky high school student, [[OnOneCondition on the condition]] that this student be "pure," which everyone interprets as [[NatureAdoresAVirgin "must be a virgin."]] (It should be noted that neither the deceased woman herself nor her attorney specified exactly ''what'' she meant by [[YouKeepUsingThatWord "pure;"]] everyone just ''assumed'' she meant virginal.) The students who are vying for the scholarship join a club (and losing one's virginity means being kicked out), and take a pledge to abstain from sex. [[spoiler: Not everyone competing for the scholarship actually ''is'' a virgin, however.]]

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[[folder: Western Animation]]

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Note that these tropes can be different types of "serious business". It can be very exaggerated, like clubs determining all of your relationships in high school, or completely bogus, like harboring a plan to stop an apocalyptic prophecy.

* In the Young Adult novel 'The Lottery', by Beth Goobie, a High-School club known to the staff as 'The Celts' but to the student body as 'Shadow' arrange a lottery to select a 'victim' for each year, who is dead to the entire school body for the school year, and who has to do the 'Shadows'' bidding. They manage to prevent the students protesting by a mixture of offered prestige in joining shadow, and the threat of becoming the next victim or being humiliated if they speak out.

* ''MagicUsersClub'': Even though they actually are quite active, the magic users have to share meeting space with a different club, which causes some conflict.

* In ''CodeGeass'', {{Absurdly Powerful|StudentCouncil}} StudentCouncilPresident Milly is able to get every club on campus looking for Arthur by promising them increased funding, in addition to the kiss with a council member. At the end of the episode, Lelouch asks Milly to let the Japanese Suzaku join the student council by mentioning that students must be part of a club.

* ''{{K-ON}}'': Invoked in the manga, when Nodoka discovers Yui isn't in a club so late in the semester. Nodoka ponders, "So this is how a NEET begins", causing Yui to freak out.

** Fast forward 45 years and the atheist/secular movement is taking advantage and forming secular/atheist student groups. Thanks to the Supreme Court's earlier ruling, they can't be opposed.[[HoistByHisOwnPetard By the petard are you hoist.]] The drama is still... intense. Death threats are the norm.

* In ''{{Persona 3}}'' and ''{{Persona 4}}'', joining clubs can start several social links, and the characters involved in the Social Links can be altered depending on which club you join.

* In ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'', the protagonists are all members of the newspaper club (Tsukune origionally decided on joining the swim team instead, but that left Outer Moka heartbroken because, well, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires and water...)]], which spends much of its time investigating other clubs. The newspaper club has a rivalry with the Public Safety Commission (another club), with effective control of the school at stake. There's another club in the anime that consists of three lovesick losers who engage in such activities as creating a harmless StalkerShrine.

[[folder: Literature]]
* In the teen novel ''TheVClub'', a wealthy woman leaves money that would provide a full scholarship to one lucky high school student, [[OnOneCondition on the condition]] that this student be "pure," which everyone interprets as [[NatureAdoresAVirgin "must be a virgin."]] (It should be noted that neither the deceased woman herself nor her attorney specified exactly ''what'' she meant by [[YouKeepUsingThatWord "pure;"]] everyone just ''assumed'' she meant virginal.) The students who are vying for the scholarship join a club (and losing one's virginity means being kicked out), and take a pledge to abstain from sex. [[spoiler: Not everyone competing for the scholarship actually ''is'' a virgin, however.]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/FiveWeapons'', since the weapons clubs are pretty much the classes in the School of Five Weapons. However, they are clubs in the sense that even though most students pick one club and stick to it, students are free to join multiple clubs to decide which one they like best.

[[folder: Anime And Manga ]]

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]