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MIT student blogger Snively '11

MIT is “Hacked” by Snively '11

Ultimatum

That school up the river, you know, the one with the brick buildings, big yard, and law students? The one whose t-shirts hog all the space on the souvenir racks, leaving room for one MIT shirt? That school who thinks they . . . anyway, we’re talking about Harvard here.

There’s a slight rivalry between Harvard and MIT. Whenever I’m talking to prospectives or tourists, I explain that the rivalry is kind of a one way rivalry. MIT loves to trash Harvard, tell all sorts of stories about how Harvard is inferior, that while on the outside they seem nice and p(r)eppy, but deep down they really just want to study alone in their rooms and go on to be traders on Wall Street. I think the class of 2012 t-shirts say it best:

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

If I went to Harvard, I’d hate myself too

I’ve got wonderful stories about Harvard that I’ll be more than happy to tell you if you come to CPW, but our first story about Harvard is brought to you by, well, Harvard.

Two days ago I was chatting on the phone with my dad. I was crossing Mass Ave so as to get to Building 7, MIT’s main entrance. As I walked up the steps I noticed a white sign tied up above the doors that said

“INSTITVTE OF NOWLEDGE”

I related this odd sight to my father on the other end of the phone:

“Wait, there’s something hung up over the doors. It’s a sign, it looks like it says ‘Institvte of Nowlege.’ Maybe it’s a hack? Obviously it wouldn’t be the only part of the hack, there’s gotta be something else inside. Wait, no, there’s nothing inside, maybe that was it? It couldn’t be a hack, it was probably just an advertisement for some event going on today or something. It seemed legit, it was a printed sign and had grommets, something you never see in an MIT hack. Weird, whatever, not worth my time.”

Somebody, somewhere, was wetting their pants with excitement over this sign. Turns out, this sign was an “experimental prank” designed to test which school, Harvard or MIT, has a better sense of humor. Just hang the sign up and see how people react.

Apparently, according to their website, MIT students have a much better sense of humor than Harvard students. While this is no doubt true, I question the scientific rigor of their experiment. Perhaps it would have been more effective if it had been, I don’t know, funny? Or even a prank?

Let’s put it this way.


Dear Zug,

You attempted to determine whether Harvard or MIT students had the better sense of humor. What you discovered, albeit through a flawed experiment, is what everybody already knew, MIT is of course better than Harvard. I must inform you, however, that your prank was deemed “lame sauce” by the majority of people who saw it and that we expected better from a website who claims to be “the world’s funniest comedy community.” As such, if within 6 months time you have not improved upon your “prank” with something much more spectacular and actually blogworthy, we will be forced to show you what a real hack is.

Yours Truly, MIT


25 responses to “MIT is “Hacked””

  1. Vytautas says:

    Vilnius University also hacked.
    http://www.fidi.lt/blogas/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/img_1586-420×280.jpg

    It’s an invitation to come to Physicit’s day(upcomming Saturday) events by bike.

  2. '14 hopeful says:

    That was a really lame hack. Maybe Snively could use some of his electroplushies to hack Zug and retaliate to show them what hacking means.

    Man I sound wierd in this post

  3. Anonymous says:

    I saw that but I still don’t understand what the point is?….

    So lost…haha.

  4. LOL says:

    Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

    Harvard=Talent
    MIT=Genius

  5. KayCee says:

    It is funny. Get it, its an institute of knowledge, but they can’t spell the phrasre right. So its a oxymorone type of haha. Oh, happy april fools day!

  6. Anonymous says:

    Hi Snively
    Did you get my email about my story?

  7. “It is funny. Get it, its an institute of knowledge, but they can’t spell the phrasre right. So its a oxymorone type of haha. “

    That’s not funny at all.

  8. Narce says:

    What’s funny, KayCee, is that you can’t use the correct article before a vowel sound when trying to explain a joke based around one’s knowledge.

    Oh, wait, that’s not funny either!

    All they REALLY proved is that MIT students are less uptight than Harvard students, seeing as the Harvard students promptly destroyed the sign on their campus.

  9. Narce says:

    After reading both pages, the one good part of their joke was leaving behind instructions on how to remove the sign. At least they’re familiar with past MIT hacks.

  10. Laura says:

    Oh, get over yourself. I thought it was amusing. No, not hilarious, but it got a chuckle out of me. Typically, hacks aren’t even actually funny. They might be cool, or interesting, or technically impressive, but they’re not FUNNY.

    I don’t see the need to go around trashing everyone for this. So it wasn’t an MIT-style hack. So what?

  11. Anonymous says:

    …someone needs a nap…

  12. JonTec '13 says:

    Narce (1/2). Not classy. The End.

    I would have liked to see a picture of the sign. THAT would be funny.

  13. Anonymous says:

    When I saw it I thought it was meant to be a kinda serious thing pointing out what we do is important today: NOWledge

  14. Anonymous says:

    Hi again Snively
    If you did not get my email, it is about this story:
    http://www.thenerds.net/gadget/vote.php?storyid=133

  15. '12 says:

    Huh, I like Harvard.

  16. Kim '86 says:

    I agree with Anonymous above but like Snively kept looking around for the “rest of the hack.”

  17. Ngozi '13 says:

    That prank was major lame sauce.

  18. Narce says:

    I was having a bad day yesterday, but I stand by the fact that the obvious joke of a sign that KayCee felt the need to point out was not funny. Maybe it’s because I’ve heard (read) that joke before, just not in sign form?

    The instructions made the joke at least somewhat amusing.

  19. Rediet '13 says:

    Hey Snively,

    I’m trying to pick between MIT and Harvard. These stories are helping more than you think.

  20. Anonymous says:

    Harvard is awesome. But I just wish some of them would laugh at lame hacks. I bet the Harvard guys are laughing at the guys who hacked it raspberry

  21. Fausto '12 says:

    I’m not sure it’s useful to be spending time being critical of people who are just having a good time in a way that brings no harm to anyone. As you can tell from their photographic evidence, the sign made some people’s day a little a brighter. I see that as a net positive for the world as well as our little ‘institvte of nowlege.’

    In any case, I also thought it was an advertisement for some event until I saw the paper with removal instructions on it.

  22. Anonymous says:

    muahahaha… that was awesome.

    MIT is deff better than harvard.

  23. Yoshio says:

    Hey Snively, I am sitting next to you in 2.004 LOL

    I just thought I say high since you seemed to be busy “working” LOL I would take a picture but I cant.

    All right Ill see you later

    PS: Tim says hi

  24. Anonymous says:

    Hi once again Snively
    You can delete my above two comments about the story (and this one), because that is over now, and I do not need to get in touch with you anymore.