Thinking about first term civil procedure cases? What about if I add lights, choreography, and one-liners? In a continuing tradition, the Harvard Law School Drama Society showcased its annual “Parody” last week, poking fun at life at Harvard Law through an elaborate musical. The 2010 theme, “Ocean’s Replevin,” revolved around a heist planned in response to a tightened school budget. More importantly, it incorporated jokes about particular professors’ coteries of female fans, caricatures of major student groups and, yes, a slew of references to civil procedure cases. And, oh, did we laugh.
As one of the biggest events on campus each year, half of the fun of Parody is seeing everyone in the audience and talking about it afterward. Almost all of my first-year section—a group of 80—bought tickets for the same night so we could crowd into one section of the audience and chant for one of our own who worked as a writer for the show this year. Sitting in the midst of your 1L classmates makes all the jokes about common experiences—did I mention the singing duel between Westlaw and Lexis Nexis representatives?—that much better.
The Parody is also a great time to poke fun at ourselves. Professors are often known to make cameos, even for jokes at their expense, and the songs revolve around the occasional absurdities of life at Harvard Law. When you find yourself humming along to a ditty about citing sources in legal journals, or chortling at pointed references to Supreme Court justices, you know you are officially a law student. And, laughing at things that are not generally funny, but definitely “law school” funny, you realize that you are a little absurd as well, to be so fully involved in this world. Watching the show together made those moments the best, as we ribbed and nudged each other at the lines which best skewered and captured our common experience.
– Allison
