Brotherhood of Funny Hats: Difference between revisions
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In the media, fraternal orders and secret societies tend to go one of two ways: they're either a front for a sinister and fearful [[Ancient Conspiracy]], or they're... the '''Brotherhood of Funny Hats'''.
These guys are more interested in living it up and having some fun with "the guys" (in a [[Ho Yay|non-homoerotic way]], thank you very much!). They go to lodge meetings (wearing funny hats, of course), throw wild parties (which may or may not conflict with the schedules of the protagonists and necessitate a [[Two-Timer Date]], if they're members), memorize the new secret handshakes, and put new members through convoluted,
It's not all fun and games, though. Sometimes there's a fierce pecking order in place, with more ambitious (and less scrupulous) members trying to claw their way to the top. And on rare occasions, the image of drunken,
While this is by no means a [[Dead Horse Trope]] there is apparently something a little retro to it, and such societies seem to appear more frequently in works set in [[The Fifties]] (such as ''American Graffiti'' or ''Peggy Sue Got Married'') than in works set in set in the present.
See also [[Gang of Hats]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The Knights of the Golden Light in ''Strangehaven''
* Zigzagged with the Hellfire Club in Marvel Comics. To ''most'' of its members, it's simply an international social club for wealthy elites, much like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfire_Club the real clubs with that name] were. Only the Club's Inner Circle (who, in fairness, are recruited from rank-and-file members) are the ones plotting world domination and leading vast criminal organizations.
== [[Film]] ==
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== [[Literature]] ==
* Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld]]'':
*
** As mentioned in ''[[
** And Ankh-Morpork, as shown in ''[[
** And this pretty much describes how the Unseen Univserity was run before Archchancellor Ridicully came into the picture, a bunch of wizard who were only concerned with eating, sleeping, wearing the clothes that pointed out that they were wizards... Oh, and moving higher in the University by making an opening with the "removal" of senior wizards.
* Pierre Bezukhov joins the Freemasons in ''[[War and Peace]]'' at the insistence of one of his [[The Obi-Wan|Obi Wans]], to find some guys are [[Contemplate Our Navels|actually into it]] and other guys...not so much. He gets in a huff later when Boris joins the Freemasons purely to advance his social standing.
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** The point is made that in small-town Australia there isn't much to do except belong to funny clubs.
== [[Live
* ''[[The Honeymooners]]'' featured a fraternal order known as The Raccoon Lodge.
* Each episode of ''[[The Red Green Show]]'' ends with a meeting of the Possum Lodge, whose motto is "Quando omni flunkus, moritati" ([[Canis Latinicus|pseudo-Latin]] for "When all else fails, play dead").
* One episode of ''[[Mama's
* Also, a [[You Go, Girl!]] episode of ''[[Punky Brewster]]'' started with Henry coming back from his meeting of the Brotherhood of Funny Hats, complete with ridiculous bison-headdress.
* ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'' had an episode where Howard Sprague joins an order of which Andy and Goober are members. They only seem to wear the silly robes when they're deciding whether to accept a new member.
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* Howard Cunningham on ''[[Happy Days]]'' was a Grand Poobah of Leopard Lodge No. 462. More than one episode revolved around the lodge's annual Poobah Doo Dah.
* Parodied in ''[[The Thin Blue Line]]'' with "The Todgers", an exaggerated expy of the Masons whose rituals involve wearing a dress and kissing a frozen turkey's bottom.
* ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond
* ''[[Married... with Children]]'s'' National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood, or [[Fun with Acronyms|NO MA'AM]] for short is supposed to fight the increasing power of women all over society. But when it comes down to it, they are just there for drinking beer.
* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' has The Badger Convention, a Brotherhood of Funny Hats that goes around annoying people with childish pranks [https://web.archive.org/web/20130923190404/http://snltranscripts.jt.org/80/80dbadger.phtml]
* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' includes the famous Ministry of Silly Walks. Lampshaded in "Live from the Grill-O-Mat" with the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things]], when John Cleese is questioned why his Staffordshire branch has not done anything.
{{quote|'''John Cleese:''' Well, Mr. Chairman; it's just that most of the members in Staffordshire feel...the whole thing's a bit silly.
'''All:''' ''[Offended]'' Silly?!
'''Graham Chapman:''' I suppose it is a bit. What have we been doing wasting our lives with all this nonsense? Right; OK, meeting adjourned forever! }}
** The Masons also appear in the ''Architect's Sketch'', including weird handshakes.. and de-programming masons (animated).
* Hayden's boss in ''[[Coach]]'' was a member of one of these. Hayden was invited to one meeting to make a speech in favor of his boss becoming the new head of the order, and ended up getting appointed leader for life because their goose mascot honked during his speech.
* The 'Keepers of the Kingdom' fill this particular role in ''[[Kingdom Hospital]]'': a secret order of people dedicated to keeping the hospital running well, at all costs. [[Jerkass|Stegman]] is eventually invited into the group; it [[Laser-Guided Karma|doesn't end well for him.]]
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== [[Web Animation]] ==
* The ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' short [https://web.archive.org/web/20131027153437/http://www.homestarrunner.com/helmets.html Ever and More!] revolves around a meeting of "The Broternal Order of Different Helmets".
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* On ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]'', Stimpy and Ren's cousin Sven belong to the Royal Order of Stupids.
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' has "The Cephalopod Lodge", which Squidward was a member of until being kicked out due to Spongebob and Patrick's fault.
* In ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
* ''[[Gravity Falls]]''; the fez that Grunkle Stan always wears indicates his membership in the Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel, which is ''probably'' this type of club; {{spoiler|if anything, it's likely a nicer group than the Society of the Blind Eye.}}
* The Big Hat Biddies in ''[[Chowder]]'', a ladies' club where having a funny hat (the funnier the better) is required for membership. Mung Daal claims the most frequent activity among members is complaining about their husbands.
* In ''[[Harley Quinn (TV series)|Harley Quinn]]'', the Court of Owls (which is is [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]] in mainstream DC) has degenerated into this; the Joker was once a member, and complains that they "Used to be the city's most exclusive secret society, had the most intensely evil schemes! Now it's just a bunch of old straight white guys jerking each other off." While he's not entirely right (women are allowed in, including Catwoman, who is Latino) it is indeed a fetish club where the weekly meeting is [[A Party - Also Known as an Orgy]]. They've even stopped using real animals for their blood sacrifices due to complaints by younger members, now using stuffed toys.
== [[Real Life]] ==
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** Interestingly enough, this trope became their downfall: in the 1940s, when the Klan was on the verge of a major comeback, a turncoat leaked details of all their secret rituals to the ''[[Superman]]'' radio show. Once everyone knew that these guys gave themselves titles like "Great Titan" and "Imperial Wizard", held "Klovocations" and read from the "Kloran", people started taking them much less seriously and their popularity plummeted.
* Belive it or not, the Illuminati were basically what happened when a number of eccentric scholars and philosophers (read: 18th-century nerds) decided to form one of these. They ''tried'' to become an [[Ancient Conspiracy]], but how well they succeeded depends on which [[Conspiracy Theorist]]s you listen to.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100428081834/http://www.redhatsociety.com/ The Red Hat Society]
* The Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffalo. Whether they predate the Flintstones example, I couldn't say.
* The Odd Fellows—a fraternal organization of men who ''didn't belong to any fraternal organization.''
* The [[Society for Creative Anachronism]] would certainly count as this.
* Traditionally every [[Local Hangout]] in London was this for somebody, often someone pretty important. A spy could probably measure the political activity of Britain by calculating the consumption of port.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Stock Characters]]▼
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
▲[[Category:Stock Characters]]
[[Category:Tropes of Hats]]
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