The Pudding

Hasty Pudding: a mixture of corn meal mush, spiced with salt, and served steaming with milk and molasses. --Theodore Chase in the Harvard Advocate, 1933

Bring on the pot of steaming mush,

The treacle and the can,

And treat me as they ought to treat

A Hasty Pudding Man!   --anonymous schoolmaster lamenting his absence from a Hasty Pudding show, circa 1900

The History

The Hasty Pudding Club was founded "to cultivate the social affections and cherish the feelings of friendship and patriotism, being the first of duties and sublimest of enjoyments." The club began holding mock trials of its members in the early 19th century, and switched over to burlesque when advocacy got boring. The first show, Bombastes Furioso, opened in 1844.

In its long and honorable existence there never has been imputed to this Club any charge of disorder. The fun is wholesome, the living is plain and the thinking as high as can reasonably be expected.   --J.T. Wheelwright, Class of 1876

...A curtain rises upon the sempiternal comedy of youth, written with never-flagging genius, played with never-failing charm. God bless the old Club and the old days--they were so full of wholesome pleasures.'"   --Lloyd M. Garrison, Class of 1888

The Show

T.V. cameramen swarm through the upper story of the Hasty Pudding's senescent building as the place fills with a formal-wear crowd--so many penguins waiting on John Travolta's arrival. Travolta is about to give a press conference, and his fans gather below on Holyoke St. Lights flash on, cameras start to roll, but before Travolta can be introduced, the chant floats in from outside: "We want John! We want John!" It doesn't even rhyme.

"How do you feel about being given the Hasty Pudding's Man of the Year award?"

"It's an illustrious school, a very..." The fans drown Travolta out.

"What will you be doing in 20 years?"