by Daniel Strumpf
The Penn Stater, March/April 2003

Whether they’re upsetting student government elections or tying to neuter the Nittany Lion, members of the Monty Python Society do everything they can to keep the rest of the student body scratching their heads. In honor of the club’s 25th anniversary at Penn State, we’ve caught up with Rebecca Frier, an aerospace engineering major and club president.

So you’re the new president of the Monty Python Society.
We use food items to overthrow the current president. So I threw marshmallows at then-president Matt Rudy and stabbed him with a plastic fork. He dressed up like a pirate and tried to retaliate, and then members took a vote, since we’re a little democratic. That’s pretty much how the coup went.

What’s a typical meeting like?
Usually we perform some original sketches. Sometimes we watch Monty Python or other comedies. Sometimes we perform some actual Monty Python sketches, and finally we do the primal scream.

The primal scream?
We choose a phrase that sums up the meeting and then we go outside and scream it as loud as we can.

Your group is known for stunts around campus. What are the craziest stunts you’ve pulled?

We tried to have the Nittany Lion neutered. There were a lot of little Nittany Lion statues out there, and we decided that it should be kept from proliferating. We went to the Nittany Lion Shrine and protested that it should be neutered. And every spring we do a Mall Climb in front of Pattee Library. We tilt gravity 90 degrees and climb up Mount Pattee, as it’s called. We use cans of Spam and dental floss to pull ourselves up. And, way back when, we got Wimpy the Gerbil pseudo-elected as president of the Undergraduate Student Government. What’s the deal with Spam? It’s a good nutritious food, and it can be used for everything, like unclogging plumbing or caulking floors. Will the USG be hearing from the Monty Python Society again this year? Yes, we plan on backing the Swedish Chef. He has some great platform ideas, like moving East Halls to a more convenient location and replacing the Loop with a tiny train. Do you have a budget? No. We just steal everything. Actually the university owes us $50 for a performance we did last year. They still haven’t paid us.