Old School COUp Jokes
[2018 NOTE: This list appears to have been written in the late 90s, so many companies or businesses mentioned (such as ADV) may not exist anymore.]
The Old-Skool COUP In-Jokes Archive mostly by David Smith and Phil Lee also Robin Whitley and Paul Thompson edited by Ben Elgin
“Allegiance or death, Big Fire!” – Officialy battle cry of the club, routinely shouted when more than three of us are standing around at any given time. Yelled repeatedly by the faceless minions that attack our heroes in the OVA series Giant Robo. The leaders of Big Fire are the Big Nine, which is also the name of the loose governing body that sorta runs COUP.
Bad American Dubbing: A series of three compilations of badly-dubbed Japanese animation and other film created by Corn Pone Flicks, required COUP viewing. (Comment from Current Co-Preseident: English Dubs have gotten better as of 2018)
Blazing Transfer Student: A wack-ass parody of shonen fighting manga and anime. “Blazing Transfer Student” also refers to former president Scott Dillin, who happened to be a transfer student at the time we watched this.
Blood of Dawn: Club round-robin fan-fiction project, circa 1999, merging Giant Robo, Rurouni Kenshin, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Darth Maul. Extremely bad, but the bits in the middle with Ed and Saito are very funny. Petered out of its own accord after 11 installments. Part 12 gave the corpse a good kicking.
Bokken: A wooden practice sword used in the Japanese sport of kendo. The favored weapon of the UNC Kendo Club. See: Kendo Club.
Cock Robin Dance, The: Patarillo, hero (of sorts) of an early 80s shonen ai comedy series of the same name, tends to spontaneously break into singing and dancing several times an episode. I don’t think anyone in the club could actually rattle off the lyrics to the song, but we’re happy to hum along with it while performing the dance, which consists of clapping your hands together twice, then standing on one foot while diving forward with both arms extended and the other leg used for balance.
Corn Pone Flicks: An Atlanta-based amateur film and parody production group. Very talented and very funny, active in various fandom functions, especially the Anime Weekend Atlanta convention. See: Bad American Dubbing, Subversion Slingshot.
Crusher Ed: Edward Caldwell of Durham, NC, a permanent fixture at COUP functions. He was named Crusher Ed by David Smith, after seeing way too fucking much of Crusher Joe at Animazement 1998 and connecting the concept of crushing with Ed’s large size and menacing appearance.
Faceless Minions: Those members of the club who are still mired in geekish shyness, and waiting to complete the transition to gibbering fannish insan- ity. Inspired by the Faceless Minions from Prefectural Earth Defense Force.
Fuck The ADV: An exclamation, rather than a suggested literal course of action. Inspired by Dean Rasmussen’s “Fuck the WCW.”
Grease Dumpster: A dumpster full of grease. The Grease Dumpster (proper noun, as opposed to any old grease dumpster) is in Amber Alley off Franklin Street behind the Rat and Bandido’s Mexican Cafe. The mythology of the Grease Dumpster arose in the fall of 1998 when Phil kept forgetting to bring the Nadesico tapes. Eventually, one week, David Smith told Phil that if he failed to deliver Nadesico the following week, David and others would stuff him in the Grease Dumpster. The Grease Dumpster has since been in- vested with religious significance, and sacrifices to its power are a regular club tradition. See also: Rat.
Great Tyrant, The: Nickname of Jennifer Thomas, founder of GLOCK, classics student extraordinaire and all-around Uber Fangirl. Currently in the process of burning and looting Brown University.
“Haxamaphobia”: fear of trucks. See “Truck! Truck! Truck!…”
Hidaka Noriko: Well-known voice actress. If it were Hidaka Noriko, Taki- zawa Noboru would marry her. See: Blazing Transfer Student.
Hokkaido cows: They give the best milk — it’s so tasty and fresh! See also: Prefectural Earth Defense Force.
Jacket-san: David Smith’s leather jacket. It always gets its own seat.
Ka-chink, Ka-chink – A reference to the sounds made by pet bishounen in chains while blonde men are having sex with them, as seen in Ai no Kusabi. In particular, this sound haunts former COUP co-president Richard Hill.
Kendo Club: The UNC Kendo Club was originally founded by Phil Lee and Tamar Pandi in the mid-1990s. In 1998, David Smith joined, at which point it began its evolution into the club’s paramilitary wing. Its symbol is the redneck katana. Dr. Smith remains its spiritual leader in perpetuity. Membership is open to anyone with a bokken. The club motto, coined by Phil Lee, is “Swift bokken justice.” If you’re like Glenn and don’t have the balls to watch Ai no Kusabi, fuck all y’all. See: bokken, redneck katana.
Lasagna: The most popular entree at the Rat, consisting of a bowl of melted cheese.
“Let’s kick it!” – A general rallying cry for the club, popularized by Devil Doll in the Radiskull flash animations. Watch the first and third segments, then ignore the rest of Radiskull entirely.
“Love Or Sex?”: The eternal question. Tattooed on the solar plexus of Gensomaden Saiyuki hero Sha Gojyo in a poster produced by character- goods chain Animate.
Monkeys: A proper discussion of monkeydom would take too long. In short, the Monkeys are Phil Lee’s out-of-town associates David Smith, Tim Ruggieri, Greg Spahr, and Jeff Katin. They show up for conventions and the like at times, usually for no other reason than to curse and scowl at people. See: Robots.
“Monkey! Robot! Monkey! Robot!”: From a song and amateur video by media superstar James Kochalka, entitled “Monkey Vs. Robot.” The battle between the monkey and the robot symbolizes the eternal struggle between nature and technology, or some shit like that. In practice, it’s just something handy to chant at club functions. See: Monkeys, Robots.
Otaku no Bowling – Occasionally the battle cry will go forth at the end of a meeting: “Fuck it! Let’s go bowling!” Now, when a bunch of geeks descend on a bowling alley, it’s no longer merely bowling – it’s Otaku no Bowling, which involves hollaring giant robot battle cries and feigning seppuku when you roll the inevitable gutter ball. Alas, with the bowling alley in the Underground closed due to Student Union renovations, a trip to the bowling alley will be more complicated than usual. This is also the reason why a lot of club members own COUP bowling shirts.
“Party! Join us!” – Another COUP ralying cry, taken from one of the later Crayon Shin-chan ending themes. “Party! Join Us!” is also the official anthem of COUP, used for getting down at meetings, dances, and weddings. There is an actual dance that goes along with this, but frantically boogying is perfectly acceptable.
Prefectural Earth Defense Force: A series of parody OVAs in the tradi- tion of Project A-Ko, featuring the eponymous heroes versus the evil minions of the Phone Pole Team. Riotously funny. Features the musi- cal stylings of Johnny, Louis, and Char. See: Hokkaido cows, Faceless Minions.
Rat: Short for Ramshead Rathskellar, a restaurant in Amber Alley off Franklin Street and popular local hangout. See also: Lasagna, Grease Dumpster.
Redneck Katana: In Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash, hero and protagonist Hiro Protagonist practices kendo using a length of re-bar, referred to as a redneck katana. In COUP tradition, redneck katana refers to a length of galvanized steel pipe, retrieved from a crawlspace in the basement of Manning Hall by David Smith during a COUP flyering outing and made into a symbol of power. The redneck katana is presently in the temporary keeping of Phil Lee. See: Kendo Club.
Reverend Smith: Short for Reverend Doktor David Francis Smith, former club webmaster and chaplain-for-life of the UNC Kendo Club. One of those people who just can’t let his childhood go, he still sticks his nose in club business on a regular basis, never mind that he moved from Chapel Hill to California more than three years ago. Famous for his red pajamas and uncontrollable use of profane language. See: Redneck katana, Monkeys.
Robots: All who are not Monkeys.
Subversion Slingshot: It cannot be shipped to Malta. See: Corn Pone Flicks.
“Tell him I fuck his pervert bitch.” – The greatest single line to ever appear in fanfiction. I forget the details, except that this line was used in a particularly bad Ruroni Kenshin story several years ago and is occasionally hollered to this day.
“Truck! Truck! Truck! Truck!”: The source is the popular adorable pink-haired little magical girl named Minky Momo, worshipped by her fans, who is abruptly run over and killed by a passing truck in one of the last episodes. It’s a classic scene.
Ultra Relax – Yet another COUP song and dance number, taken from the second opening to Kodocha (Child’s Toy). The dance in question is entirely too elaborate to describe, and the only person in the club who probably remembers the entire thing, The Great Tyrant, is in Rhode Island. Still, mentioned for historical accuracy.