Line #25 Main/AlmaMaterSong


1	->''Thank you, for my first encore I'd like to turn to a type of song that people like myself find ourselves subjected to with increasing frequency as time goes on, and that is the college alma mater. You'll find yourself at a reunion of old grads, and old undergrads, and eh... somebody will start croaking out one of these things and everyone will gradually join in -- each in his own key, of course -- until the place is just soggy with nostalgia.''
2	-->-- '''Music/TomLehrer''', ''Music/AnEveningWastedWithTomLehrer''
3
4	An anthem sung in praise of a college, high school, or other scholastic institution. Often sung at {{Class Reunion}}s. May be used to begin a {{Flashback}} to school days.
5
6	The most traditional examples are based on old folk tunes. A common habit of students is making up parody, {{Filk}}-style versions of their Alma Mater Song, with the same tune and rhyme scheme but offbeat lyrics.
7
8	Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible, so such anthems can and often do contain ribs at the nature of the institutions they are about; either because a character is resentful of the place or because the authorities are just that shameless.
9
10	Compare FootballFightSong.
11	----
12	!!Examples:
13	[[foldercontrol]]
14
15	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
16	* ''Anime/AngelBeats'': During the graduation scene, Kanade writes one that makes reference to the fact all the characters have ended up in a high school in the afterlife after tragic deaths. She, however, {{parodie\|dTrope}}s such songs because her lyrics stress the importance of eating mapo tofu according to the number you've received in death.
17	* ''Manga/FoodWars'': The Autumn Festival opens with the Totsuki Culinary Academy anthem (Episode [[Recap/FoodWarsS3E02MaAndLa s3e02]] in the anime). All the students join together in singing it ... except Soma Yukihira, who after six months' attendance doesn't even know the school had a song, much less [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UckJfgSDZPg what it is.]]
18	* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'': The student body of Shuchi'in Academy sings the school anthem at the beginning of every week during the school assembly. One of the many "Fujiwara tutors Shirogane to not suck at stuff" chapters revolves around her teaching him to sing properly so he'll stop lip-syncing.
19	%%* ''Manga/SeitokaiYakuindomo'': The first OP is this, which is weird considering the incredibly perverted nature of the show.
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22	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
23	* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'': The anthem for the titular school is sung by the student body before the final event of the Scare Games. Unsurprisingly, it's about stilling fear into the hearts of (human) children for the good of monster society.
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26	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
27	%%* ''Film/The5000FingersOfDrT'' has one for the Terwilliker Institute.
28	* ''Film/HarryPotter'':
29	** ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7YLpHFFW64 "Double Trouble"]], composed by John Williams to serve as Hogwarts alma mater song, is performed by the school's frog choir (conducted by Professor Flitwick) during the Welcoming Feast.
30	** ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'': Unlike the books, the Hogwarts anthem receives a set melody that is only ever featured in one deleted scene. After the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang delegations make their glorious entrances, Dumbledore requests all students to sing the school's hymn. It's certainly discoordinated and some students look like they rather die.
31	* ''Film/LeanOnMe'': Joe Clark requires every student to know the school song and sing it on demand. He also requires no one to move during a public singing of it, which provokes a memorable scene where he chews out and then suspends a teacher for doing so.
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34	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
35	* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'': gives us a nice 'anthem' by General Melchett and Lt. George, two posh [[UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}} Cambridge]] grads. The lyrics {{sarcas\|mMode}}tically state nothing beats tertiary education while also mocking its cutthroat environment.
36	* ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'': X the Owl occasionally sings the Owl Correspondence School song, which is about loving the school and trying their best when learning their lessons.
37	* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': Harold (who attended MIT under one of his ridiculously numerous aliases) sings the school song with a former classmate. Shaw immediately snarks that Reese will be sorry that he missed that.
38	* ''Series/{{Suits}}'': Mike nearly exposes his fraud when he's unable to recall the Harvard school song, having not studied it in advance. Harvey saves him by claiming most people forget it, then privately tells Mike to learn it.
39	* ''Series/ThatllTeachEm'': Charles Darwin Grammar School, the fictional school in Series 3 has one. As the name of the school suggests, the song emphasizes competition in which only the best students survive. One night, the boys decide to sing a parody of it, when they were supposed to be sleeping. Naturally, this gets them into trouble with the housemaster.
40	* ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter'': One episode revolves around the school anthem ("Oh Buchanan My Buchanan Fair Buchanan, Oh Buchanan My Fair"), written by Mr. Woodman many years previously and updated by the Sweathogs. The characters then discover it to be plagiarized.
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43	[[folder:Literature]]
44	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Although the lyrics have never been revealed InUniverse, Unseen University apparently has an official anthem, traditionally sung from the top of the Tower of Art by the UU choir at dawn on May Day. Since the tower is 800 feet tall, no one can hear them, but the faculty and students gather beneath the tower, count off the five minutes it takes to sing the song, and then applaud.
45	* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'': Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has its own [[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Hogwarts_school_song hymn]]. Interestingly, it has no (known) set melody, as Headmaster Dumbledore tells the students to pick their own tune when singing it. Naturally, it devolves into a cacophony with no rhythm.
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48	[[folder:Music]]
49	* Canadian comedy legends Creator/BowserAndBlue parody this in "Life Will Be Great When We're Dead", about a suicide bomber training school in Pakistan.
50	-->"Oh, our Alma-Martyr!\
51	Will you hear our call?\
52	As our heads fly through the air, like a big football!"
53	* Music/ChuckBerry: Before singing 'My Ding-a-Ling', he states, "We must do our alma mater, we must do our alma mater!" Yet, the song is not an example of the trope.
54	%%* Creator/AliceCooper: Her [[http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/a/alice_cooper/alma_mater.html "Alma Mater"]] song.
55	* Music/SteelyDan: "My Old School" is about a grudge Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have against their alma mater, Bard College, for its complicity in the wrongful arrest of 50 students--including them--in [[TheSixties 1969]].
56	* Music/TomLehrer: He parodies the genre with "Bright College Days", on the album ''Music/AnEveningWastedWithTomLehrer''. Actually, it's less a parody of this than of "The Whiffenpoof Song" and other college drinking songs.
57	* Creator/MontyPython: The never-officially-released "School Song" (available on the "Hastily Cobbled Together for a Fast Buck" bootleg album), features a high-pitched schoolboy singing one of these in an assembly, whilst Michael Palin's headmaster loudly berates other misbehaving pupils:
58	-->"Will the boy, on top of the other boy, on top of the three boys, on top of the matron, kindly desist!"\
59	"Hamwell, Spotter, Cornflake, Swivel, Burter, Oddballs, and anyone else with a silly name, come and see me afterward."\
60	"I don't care what it ''is'', Darcy, TAKE IT OUT OF DANKWORTH'S TROUSERS!"
61	[[/folder]]
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63	[[folder:Radio]]
64	* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': The radio episodes "Clay City English Teacher" and "Mr. Laythrop Returns to School" feature the Madison anthem, "O Madison". Miss Brooks adds her own lyrics in {{parody}}.
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67	[[folder:Theatre]]
68	%%* ''Theatre/GoodNews'': "Students Are We Of Dear Old Tait College".
69	* ''Theatre/{{Grease}}'': The Rydell Alma Mater is followed by an unaffectionate parody.
70	* ''Theatre/LadyInTheDark'':
71	** During the ClassReunion that opens the second DreamSequence, the alumni sing the Mapleton High Chorale.
72	** In "The American Way", the elementary school children of the same town sang "Mapleton, the Gem of Ohio."
73	%%* ''Theatre/StreetScene'': The opera uses the RealLife anthem of Julia Richman High School, New York (by Eva L. Bennett, not Kurt Weill).
74	%%* ''Film/SchoolOfRock'': In the musical of the same name based, "Horace Green Alma Mater" is this.
75	%%* ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'': "Dear Old Shiz".
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78	[[folder:Western Animation]]
79	* ''WesternAnimation/TheDoverBoys'': Pimento U has an Alma Mater song that includes some FunWithAcronyms.
80	* ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'': Super Chicken sings with a fellow alumnus of the Harvard School of Watch Repair, also known as Tick Tock Tech.
81	* ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': There are two memorable school songs, representing Bullwinkle's and Capt. Peter "Wrong Way" Peachfuzz's respective schools. Bullwinkle attended Wossamatta U, while Capt. Peachfuzz is a graduate of Waxahatchie Normal--leading to a lame pun where a school reunion is described as "going back to Normal."
82	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E1KampKrusty "Kamp Krusty"]], the Simpson siblings are enrolled in the titular Kamp Krusty, drawn by misguided advertisement. Predictably, the summer camp's activities are far from fun. In one scene, the kids are forced to sing the hymn, capitalist rib included.
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85	[[folder:Real Life]]
86	* Frequently set to the tune of an old song called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Lisle "Annie Lisle"]] (no, really, see that Wikipedia entry for a listing of the schools that use it, and it's not even a complete one).
87	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudeamus_Igitur "Gaudeamus Igitur"]] is an old college-y song with BilingualBonus for those who can translate the ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliard raunchy,]] for medieval standards) Latin lyrics.
88	** Frequently performed as a borderline dirge by those who can't understand the lyrics, have never heard it performed properly and don't realize that it's supposed to be a cheerful drinking song.
89	** Smith College students stop on the last verse, maybe that's why.
90	* Mount Holyoke's official song starts out, "Mount Holyoke, we pay thee devotion..." Quite naturally, the parody starts out, "Mount Holyoke, we pay thee tuition..." and eventually ends up describing pulling an all-nighter and running swearing across campus to hand your still-unfinished essay in on time. Spot on.
91	* There's also "Wildcat Victory," the fight song and Alma Mater Song of Kansas State University.
92	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AlmaMaterSong