Brotherhood of Funny Hats: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''You think they look funny, what with their silly hats and their little carts. If you knew what those hats actually stood for, you'd never laugh at anything, ever again...''|Flavor text for the "Fraternal Orders" card, from the [[Collectible Card Game]] ''Illuminati: New World Order''}}
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
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, embarassing, and/or painful hazing rituals. If they pull any strings, they do it for members of the brotherhood because hey, they're just those kinds of guys.
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** Interesting to note that Oliver Hardy was a Freemason in Real Life.
* The fraternal order to which Peggy Sue's grandfather belongs in ''Peggy Sue Got Married.'' "Girl's gone -- let's play cards!"
* In ''[[Bye Bye Birdie]]'', Rose bursts in on a meeting of Shriners after dumping Albert ''F.'' Peterson, and teases them
== [[Literature]] ==
* Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld/Going Postal|Going Postal]]'' features a sequence where the protagonist is initiated into the postmen's secret society, which involves an ominous-sounding and rather painful hazing ritual known as "The Postman's Walk". It's mentioned he's previously joined several Brotherhoods of Funny Hats with names like The Men of the Furrow, as a prelude to defrauding the other members.
** As mentioned in ''[[Discworld/Lords and Ladies|Lords and Ladies]]'', Lancre, centre of all rural folklore, has a
** And Ankh-Morpork, as shown in ''[[Discworld/Guards Guards|Guards! Guards!]]'', has many secret societies, most of whose members would ''like'' to be part of an [[Ancient Conspiracy]], but are really just in it for the mysterious robes. And in one case, in the society that ''is'' important to the plot {{spoiler|and winds up being incinerated by the dragon it summoned}}, to chant [[Malaproper|"mystic prunes"]].
** 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.
* In Teresa Edgerton's ''Goblin Moon'', the Glassblowers guild has an offshoot of scholars and wearers of goofy ceremonial robes, paralleling what the [[Real Life]] Freemasons are like.
* [[Sinclair Lewis]]' ''[[Babbitt]]'' explains in bitingly satirical terms the importance of the
* In ''Stark'', Ben Elton has a character attend a meeting of the Ancient Loyal and Stupid Order of Dingoes. Many of these are also members of the Chapel of the Charitable Chickens who sing ''The honourable Cluck Cluck Song'' every hour on the hour.
** The point is made that in small-town Australia there isn't much to do except belong to funny clubs.
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* 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 Family|Mamas Family]]'' featured Thelma infiltrating a snake-themed Brotherhood her son had joined, called "The Order of the Cobra".
* Also, a [[You Go, Girl!]] episode of ''[[Punky Brewster]]'' started with Henry coming back from his meeting of the
* ''[[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.
* ''[[Greek]]'' offers many Fraternities/Sororities of Funny Hats. You've got the Animal House frat, the Preppy frat, the Geek frat, the Jock frat, the Pretty Girl sorority, the Slutty sorority, etc.
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* [[Everybody Loves Raymond|Frank Barone]] belongs to one of these.
* ''[[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
* [[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.
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* Probably the most famous example is the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes from ''[[The Flintstones]]'', who either were inspired by or ripped off ''[[The Honeymooners]]'' (depending on who you ask).
** Johnny Bravo parodied this in an episode with the Brotherhood of the Gnu (pronounced "guh-noo" by its members).
* The Stonecutters from ''[[The Simpsons]]'' are half [[Ancient Conspiracy]], half
* On ''[[Camp Lazlo]]'', Scoutmaster Lumpus is a member of one of these, the Legume Council.
* On ''[[Kappa Mikey]]'', most of the cast of Lily Mu (other than Guano, he's too short) were members of the "Order of the Oni". They quit after the Order kicked Mikey out shortly after he joined.
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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 and Mandy]]'', some of Billy's nerdier acquaintances have a
== [[Real Life]] ==
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*** It's been pointed out that if Pulaski had had an Elks lodge, then the Klan might never have been born. Racism and violence would still probably have existed, however.
** 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
* [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
{{reflist}}
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