From 1976 to now, the Revue has been a staple of the Notre Dame year in events. The high point of the dreary month of February is good enough that we all hike to the stupid Stepan Center halfway across the world from my hall. As the look on any first viewer’s face will ask, how is this a Notre Dame event? The swearing, bodily humor, and stripping involved seems like it would be better relegated to an off-campus house. But somehow, we have an official Notre Dame event that swears and references sex. It is, frankly, mystifying.
The Revue only exists because it has already existed. Tradition can keep an event going and going even through three different Notre Dame presidents, who are impersonated and spoofed in multiple skits. Tradition allows the Revue to be the event it is, as the funding for it does not all come from the University. Keenan Alumni bankroll the event, so, for all intents and purposes, the Revue would not exist. The Revue would not be the size, scale, or quality it is without the seemingly infinite funding provided from the years of accumulated alumni who participated when they went here. Due to this necessity, newer dorms would not have the same base of funding, as they do not have many years of alumni, and any event would take maybe 10 years or so to have wealthy alumni who participated in it donate back. It must already exist to continue.
Related, the Revue is reliant on the unique sense of fraternity created in men’s halls. While this is a ridiculous oversimplification, men’s halls tend to have a better sense of overall fraternity as seen through crazy events and traditions. They have Revues, High Rises, and Regattas, while women’s halls do not have events that can quite compare to those large scale events. From an outside perspective, men’s halls foster a more homogenous hall culture deeply connected to the sense of tradition. In the vein of the Revue, upperclassmen attitudes in and about the hall have a real impact on freshmen’s actions, allowing the peculiarities (that veer into generalizations and stereotypes) to continue.
Now, this might just be my seventeen years of Catholic school education talking, but the, um, colorful language in the Revue is astonishing. What other ND event can get away with such obvious innuendos printed directly in their programs? While the language of the Revue is reflective of actual conversations, the Keenan Revue is an official event. The overt conversations of sex, something that is technically forbidden under du Lac, as well as the strong implications of underage drinking, are unimaginable at any other event.
No matter the impossibility of its existence, the Keenan Revue is a uniting force in the dreary South Bend winter. It brings us together to exaggerate the flaws of our university, make some political comedy, and the exceptional nature of the event makes us a bit more like a typical university, at least for one weekend.
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