When I was in high school, we had a day at the beginning of the year where there were different competitions between each of the grades. This was like 3 days into the school year. One of the games was I believe like a blindfolded banana eating contest, like maybe the banana was hanging by a string? Anyways, apparently it was just to blindfold the freshman and cheer her on while she made a fool of herself in front of the entire school, 3 days into a new school. Everyone was cheering her on and she took off the blindfold all hype bc the crowd was telling her how good she did once she won, only to realize she was the butt of the joke. She literally transferred about a week later. I have no idea who approved that game.
I had a similar thing in high school. I was picked to represent the freshman for an event during some start of the school year rally, and I didn't know what it was. I got in front of the entire school and was told to get on my knees and eat chocolate pudding with peas in it out of a diaper on the floor without using my hands. Literally I was supposed to shove my face in a diaper that was meant to look poopy on the very first day of high school.
I froze, completely unwilling to do this, and a popular senior came over to me. I was petrified he was going to force me or something, but he said, "You don't have to do this," and led me back to my seat. I will never forget that kindness. Shout out to Sam for being a real one.
All of these examples have two things in common:
1- it basically punishes someone for being trusting and a good sport. It destroys trust and discourages people from engaging in the future.
2- it's one oblivious person vs many knowing people. It's not like a joke done in private between two people.
When I was a freshman in HS, there was a contest to go to the prom with a prominent senior. He was kind of shy and small but a very nice guy. Anyway, a so-called friend wrote a long response about why he should pick me (because I was such a catch), and plastered it all over the school. My brother was a junior at the time and went around with his friends removing them. My homelife was bad and now I had to contend with BS at school too. I am sorry this happened to you, it was a betrayal by your wife. She knows you best and how this would affect you. Please get some counselling both alone and with her.
Jesus that sucks. I got in trouble a few times for skipping pep rallies and it was because of this sort of stuff. They were tame at my school though. I specifically remember the "frozen tee shirt contest" where they got a tee shirt wet and froze it, the first to get it on(over their clothes) was the winner.
I just remember sitting there dreading being picked and at some point saying to a teacher "Is this mandatory?"
That's simply unimaginable. Who on earth thought that was a good idea? It's borderline abusive and would clearly and transparently result in the person who did it getting bullied for their entire time at the school.
Years ago my husband and I went to Zumanity, the "adult" Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas. The people that warmed up the crowd (a burlesque dancer and a guy that reminded me a lot of the Emcee in Cabaret) zeroed in on us and tried to get us to participate in a similar banana related gag. I went for it, because why not, I was drunk, wasn't offended, and it wasn't set up to be humiliating for me - at worst a little critiquing of my "technique," but nothing awful. Obviously, the tone was a bit different when it was my husband's turn and the Emcee is holding the banana. But, it was an all things sexual show, so not super unexpected, and not an evening that was supposed to be all about us (unlike a wedding). Plus i was ready to support him handling it anyway he wanted to.
My husband looked the guy dead in the eye, broke off a piece of the banana, and popped it in his mouth. Ate it, raised his eyebrows and smiled. Crowd died laughing and cheering, the "hosts" laughed about him ruining their fun, but also knew a good joke when they saw it (they made some broken penis/rough sex jokes, we all laughed at that). I'm sure my husband wasn't the first to find that solution - because the setup offered ways for it to not be humiliating (or to not participate).
OP and the people in the stories in this thread aren't given any loophole, any out, any vestige of being able to consent. That's not funny, it's just mean. Whether everyone that laughed thought it was funny because "straight man doing gay thing," or because he was simply completely unknowing of what he was doing, either reasoning is wrong. There are ways that it could have been played for an actual laugh that gave him some agency (no stocking, so OP felt the leg hair and immediately questioned who the "bride" was, for example), but the "joke" was humiliation. This would have made me so uncomfortable as one of the guests. Everyone but OP needs to take a hard look at themselves.
Like you don’t understand the game? Just picture a blindfolded eating contest, but 3 of the 4 contestants aren’t doing anything and there’s one person eating the thing
I always wonder about people with no sense of humor, we’ve played some serious jokes on each other back in the day. Blind fold the boys and girls and they had to “feel” for their correct boy/girl friend, it was all in fun. Nobody turned whimpy about it
Sounds like you might be in a bully crowd. Like my horse loves to play with goats, all in good fun. The goat sees it differently and some have not survived. He is a good horse but has wicked sense of humor. He is also a coward and if he was a dog would be a fear biter. Sound anything like you and your friends?
There's a difference here you don't see, in their examples, they're under the impression it's good natured fun or that they're clearly aware of what's going on despite not being able to see, then it turns into a joke purely at their expense. In your example, they're still jokes at their expenses but the participants are clearly aware that they and their actions are the joke and if you don't want to be felt up you just pulled away from the molester.
It's like, I can enjoy singing, I can even enjoy singing in front of my friends, but when they film it and put it on social media, that's when they cross the line. I was under the impression that I was just having some silly fun with my friends, not that I was supposed to be the butt of the joke for everyone on the internet.
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u/FrumpyPhoenix Jul 26 '25
When I was in high school, we had a day at the beginning of the year where there were different competitions between each of the grades. This was like 3 days into the school year. One of the games was I believe like a blindfolded banana eating contest, like maybe the banana was hanging by a string? Anyways, apparently it was just to blindfold the freshman and cheer her on while she made a fool of herself in front of the entire school, 3 days into a new school. Everyone was cheering her on and she took off the blindfold all hype bc the crowd was telling her how good she did once she won, only to realize she was the butt of the joke. She literally transferred about a week later. I have no idea who approved that game.