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Subject:  Re: [long] Spud - highly recommended. Other hazing and pranks. 5 pics |
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Author:  Lucas |
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Date Posted: 18:49:05 03/22/26 Sun In reply to: Graeme to Justin 's message, "Re: Holi fun" on 10:09:55 03/20/26 Fri > I am currently reading a book Spud, set in a South > African boarding school in the early 1990s. On a boy's > birthday there would be a prank - often quite mean > spirited. The Spud book series and movie series are highly recommended. The amount of bullying (by older boys of younger boys *and* of younger boys by each other), hazing, pranking, kid misbehaviour and other questionable things is absolutely out of this world. Plus a few spanking scenes or references to threats of spanking. I think that's partly because of the need to make the books (and movies) as chaotic as possible to keep the reader's interest. Similar to how some USA book series and movie series constantly have kids getting wedgies and swirlies and being stuffed in lockers even tho apparently in real USA schools things like that barely happen these days. But also I think it's a reflection of just how crazy a lot of elite British and Commonwealth boarding schools really are (or were). After all it's entirely based on the author's own real experiences at one of these schools in the 1990s. Some of these types of schools are the ones that carefully noted the government's legislation making it completely illegal to cane or spank students - and then just carried on doing it anyway! (and apparently still do) I watched a "making of" feature about the original Spud movie and it was super interesting. The book series makes no secret that it's based on the author's own experiences at Michaelhouse school in South Africa. When they decided to make it into a film, the movie producers approached the school and asked if they could film it on location at the school itself. Which was kind of controversial because, as mentioned, the plot contains huge amounts of quite vicious bullying and hazing, plus corporal punishment, plus some teachers that are ridiculously aggressive and sadistic, a teacher in a lead role that's an alcoholic, issues of class divides and all sorts of other things. Regardless of all this, the school governors agreed for the movie to be shot at the school, with one condition - that the boys filmed in the movie couldn't wear the actual Michaelhouse school uniform, but had to wear a "fake" one instead with a different coloured tie and different crest on the school blazer. Which was pointless because everyone knew the school was Michaelhouse and the events were based on the author's experience at Michaelhouse. Plus the buildings are instantly recognisable anyway. (The movie producers took full advantage of the impressive appearance of the school buildings and school grounds.)  According to one of the movie producers in the "making of" documentary. The school governors were very concerned about what was going to be in the movie, and whether it would end up portraying the school in a bad light. So they wrote to the director requesting details of the script and how he planned to film it. The director was worried that the school might withdraw their permission to film, but he wrote back with the details they asked for. The school governors got more and more specific with their requests for information on the script, especially about the bullying scenes. Until eventually they had the full details that there were going to be lots of bullying scenes, involving violence and nudity etc etc. And the director became more and more worried that the school governors would demand changes to the script to remove some of this. He said that he was amazed that they never did demand changes, they just thanked him for giving them all the information, and wished him success with the movie. This is an interesting comparison with if.... (rated 18 by the British Board of Film Classification for violence, nudity and other things, and very nearly banned altogether). This was originally going to be filmed at the famous Charterhouse school, and later Cranleigh school, but when the schools found out the content of the script, they were outraged and withdrew the permission to film there. The BBFC rates Spud 15 for "frequent moderate sex references". I think it should be rated 12... maybe I missed some of the references? I think one or more of the Spud movies can still be watched for free on YouTube, but I recommend getting access to a proper version because the sound isn't great on one of the YouTube versions. I think it's probably on plenty of streaming services. I also recommend reading the books, which are truly unique and bizarre and very entertaining. Interesting that the Michaelhouse school website shows off how "open plan" their dormitories still are:  I think this is lead actor Troye Sivan getting a break from his character being the target of the bullying, to watch someone else get bullied in the school toilets or showers:  Caning scene from the first Spud movie - lead character is 14 years old. Despite being a low point for the character, the scene is shot in a way to bring out comedic effect alongside the obvious impact:  Near the start of the second Spud movie, the crazy sadistic housemaster welcomes Spud and his friends back for their second year at the school by threatening them with the cane and talking about how he's been practicing his swing and is looking forward to blistering their behinds. This actor based his terrifying performance on a real life vice principal that he had when he was at school himself:  It seems that in one of the movies Spud gets made to wear women's clothing (a rather insubstantial dress) but I don't think I've seen that one. One of the movie producers defended the first Spud movie against accusations of being homophobic: "In the five years since Spud was published, and with millions of people having read the book and seen the movie, Justice Cameron is the first person to ever publicly take the view that the film is homophobic [...] With readers and audiences across the country being moved by the story of a vulnerable boy who learns to find his own voice and thereby overcome the bullying and bigotry at his school in 1990, it is hard to fathom how Justice Cameron arrived at his opinion." > bent over while teammates kick soccer ball at his butt. This seems to be extremely popular just about everywhere that soccer is played as a universal sport. Either as a forfeit as part of a game, or just for the sake of it. Some kids aged 5 or 6 seem to come up with this idea spontaneously. I've also seen YouTube videos of older kids (aged 12 to 14) taking turns at it as "red a*se" or other similar names. The thing of kids being hung or stuck on goalposts or other things as a sort of hazing or bullying, seems to happen in different places too. Including hung from goalposts and then their shorts and underwear pulled down and them left there! [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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