The Columbia University Marching Band (CUMB) is a group of latter-day Merry Pranksters, always up to hijinks, often with behavior so irritating to the University administration that the band isn’t allowed to perform at sports events. Read the sections on “Miscellaneous instruments” and “Controversies” on the Band’s Wikipedia page.  Here’s one:

• After being allowed to play at Fordham in 2012 following their ten-year ban, the band made posters referencing the death of Christians at the hands of lions in the Bible. For this they were banned again for an unspecified period of time.

Their latest controversy is cancelling themselves. In a Facebook announcement (below), they admitted to all kinds of misdeeds and then “unanimously and enthusiastically decided to dissolve”. Read and laugh. This is, as Brian Leiter believes (I’m with him) an act of trolling—a spoof of wokeness that is so accurate that it’s taken seriously. I may, of course, be wrong, but the language is way over the top:

But, as Brian notes, the New York Times (and the Columbia University Administration) bought it—hook, line, and sinker. Here’s the article:

An excerpt. The antagonistic relationship between the band and the university administration should have alerted the Times!

The behavior did not pertain to its ongoing lampooning of university policies and officials but more serious self-levied charges — posted in a statement on the band’s Facebook page — that the band had long been rife with “sexual misconduct, assault, theft, racism and injury to individuals and the Columbia community as a whole.”

The decision highlights the intense atmosphere on college campuses across the country as students scrutinize behavior and incidents that might have attracted less attention in the past. But it also touched off a backlash from alumni of the marching band, who disputed claims that it engaged in actions that were offensive to people of color or women.

In a statement, Columbia University officials said, “We respect efforts of the band’s student leadership to address in a serious manner recent reports of offensive and unacceptable conduct entirely at odds with the values of our university.”

The band’s statement did not provide any details of specific episodes. Instead, it described a virtual meeting held on Saturday among more than 20 band members “to discuss numerous anonymous postings and allegations of” misconduct.

After that discussion, the band decided “unanimously and enthusiastically” to dissolve itself, the statement said.

Now this “confession” and dissolving may be real. Or, it may be bogus and leave the NYT with egg on its face, in which case they’ll have to retract their article. I hope it’s the latter, as I want to see the paper admit they were taken in but not admit that they couldn’t discern possible satire. Stay tuned.

Here’s that ragtag band of misfits: Homecoming 2014:

h/t: Greg

Here’s a video sent by an anonymous reader. Yes, of course it’s a parody, but it has a sting in its tail.

The only comment I’d add is Faux-Attenborough’s wondering why a genderfluid lion would have an evolutionary advantage from mating with a hyena? Well, it wouldn’t of course, but lots of sexual behavior in our species has no evolutionary explanation, including homosexuality. Just because something doesn’t have an evolutionary advantage doesn’t mean it doesn’t occur, or that pointing it out is some kind of faux pas.

But what about the video’s claim that “there is no gender binary.” What about a strong bimodality with intermediates, which is what it seems like to me.

Do you think the video is in poor taste?