It’s football season again, and for me, that means coming back to one golden tradition: watching Blue Mountain State. This was a show that used to air on Spike, and it’s inadvertently very red pill. It follows a college football team, but the show is more about the team than about actual football. The college and lifestyle are very exaggerated and hedonistic, but there’s a fundamental philosophy lying underneath. Despite its relative obscurity, it’s become something of a cult classic. The first two or three episodes are a little rough, but after that the show settles into its identity.
Spoiler alert: spoilers below
Note: I only have seasons one and two on DVD, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen season three on Netflix. So for this article, I will only be discussing the first two seasons (which were better anyway).
Character Traits
The main character is the second-string freshman quarterback Alex Moran. He comes to college with his best friend Sammy Cacciatore, who becomes the mascot. The other two most constant characters are team captain Thad Castle and coach Marty Daniels.
Thad is your stereotypical dumb jock. He’s unstoppable on the field, he gets all the pussy and drugs he can find, and he’s functionally illiterate. However, unlike most of our culture’s depictions of jocks, he’s has a strong sense of virtue (“virtue” is from the Latin for “man” and is related to our word “virility”). He’s loyal to the team and is willing to sacrifice his personal safety either to build morale or to help a fellow teammate, even if he doesn’t like that teammate. But neither is he completely selfless. Thad still wants what’s best for him, but he realizes that often involves making others’ bests happen. This is best shown in the episode “Ransom.”
Patriarchy
The team is very hierarchical. Most of the players know their place in the team, and they are okay with that because they realize respect is given in measures as to how it’s earned. Players who deviate from the hierarchy are ostracized, but most of them eventually learn to abide by the rules. Once they find their place in the pyramid, they realize it’s anything but oppressive and so find comfort in it, or at least they understand the importance and rationale. If a player remains self-seeking, it causes harm to both him and the entire team. The patriarchy in the show is self-sustaining. Again, watch “Ransom” for the perfect example of patriarchy gone right.
Indeed, the nerds in the show are on the lowest ring of society, and although the team is generally nice to them, they are still considered not quite male. The nerds, for their part, are extremely submissive and egalitarian, just like women. Although I was more of the nerd and certainly not the jock in high school, I find it extremely refreshing to find someone in society finally shaming grown men who play dress-up and watch children’s movies.
But one is not given a large amount of respect merely for being a man. Sammy is friends with the players and vaguely connected to the team through being the mascot, so they allow him to attend their parties. However, in no way is a male cheerleader given the same honor as the boys duking it out on the field of war. His lack of respect is usually manifested in everyone forgetting his name and just calling him “Mascot.” In fact, Sammy is so low in society that he gets laid most when he’s wearing the mascot costume (see episode “Piss Test”). But again, Sammy usually doesn’t mind because he realizes that he is there as a guest. He finds his way to weasel around and get what he wants despite his low position, while still showing proper respect.
Love and War
The games really are seen as war. George Orwell said, “Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.” This is definitely manifest in the show. Several episodes revolve around teams trying to sabotage or demoralize each other before the game even starts. This wouldn’t make any sense by the adage, “It’s just a game!”, but in Blue Mountain State, sports are about pride and dominance. The players go to war for much the same reasons as people always have. And if they win the game, there is a bounty of women to be had.
The women in the show are shown in a variety of archetypes. Strong and independent women are always scheming and selfish. They rarely change their ways, and their actions cause massive destruction either to themselves or to those they care about. One episode, “LAX,” has a woman teaching a group of aristocrats the red pill for women truth about how a man will be less accommodating once a woman gives him sex.
Previously the women would give sex to their lacrosse boyfriends to get what they wanted, but the players would cheat on them anyway. But as soon as they cut off the pussy faucet, the men imploded. Then the prisoner’s dilemma is manifest when a single third-party woman decides to sleep with the whole lacrosse team, completely undercutting the women’s strategy. You see them all giving the middle finger together.
One character, Craig Shilo, is an all-star freshman running back. He could easily get any girl he wants, but he’s so blindly infatuated with his manipulative girlfriend that he’s constantly worried and stressed. One time, after being assaulted by the lacrosse team, he tells her in front of the whole team, “I’m so glad I have you looking out for me.” Immediately the team captain starts shaming him, as is proper. As you have already guessed, Craig later finds out that his virgin girlfriend has been having sex with several people in socially deviant ways.
What about love? Is it all a choice between cheap sex and ball-cutting girlfriends? No, there is a beautiful love story in season two. Sammy’s younger sister Mary Jo comes to college to be a cheerleader. She’s in love with Alex, and he in some part is in love with her, yet he’s always been a coward. Not only does he choke on the field, but he can’t even bring himself to admit he wants to be with her. Eventually he does admit this to himself, but even then he doesn’t want to pursue her, making all sorts of weak excuses. Gradually he works up the nerve, and at the end of the season, he publicly rejects a threesome with the other cheerleaders to make love with his childhood friend.
Sundry Points
In the first episode, Coach Marty Daniels asks the team, “Where do we come from?” “From our father’s balls!” He then explains that we didn’t just dropped out of the womb like a jellyfish. I’m not sure if that’s a red pill issue, but I found it anti-feminist and absolutely hilarious.
One character spends an episode screwing up on the field because he doesn’t feel loved enough. The coach and his therapist finally call him a pussy, which gives him enough anger to overcome his psychosomatically-injured arm.
Only a virgin is able to end a war on campus because of her high sexual value. Slutty girls, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen. They are interchangeable and generally unintelligent. The term “attention whore” is quite literal in this show. A player makes a remark that most girls are like Yoko, but the truly dangerous girl is the rare Linda. She’ll make you so happy that you’ll lose all your edge and become weak.
Conclusion
As I alluded to above, some of the morals in this show are a bit suspect. However, that’s part of the charm, and it’s so exaggerated that I doubt the writers were endorsing all of them. Get a group of your red pill buddies together and give this show a chance. My favorite episodes are “LAX,” “Debra,” “There’s Only One Second Best,” and “Ransom,” but it’s best to watch them in order.
Read More: How A Sitcom Shoved The Blue Pill Down Our Throat
This is a trashy but entertaining show and nothing more
Will give it a watch. This sounds like the same era of MASH. Not sure why but that era of tv never really appealed to me. I’ll give this show a shot. Sounds like a good watch. A show with the football them, The Game, has been fairly popular as well. I haven’t seen all the seasons but it sounds very similar. Except with more women in the immediate cast.
I think I watched the first episode or 2, then went to pee and saw in the mirror the reflection of someone who had just spent the last hour watching something stupid, trashy, and not funny in the least. The characters were as over-the-top as they were unoriginal.
an ROK article illustrating the masculinity of a TV show?
and an entire section of ROK dedicated to sports?
this fucking site is becoming a big blue pill bitchfest
I have good news — now you don’t have to worry about spending your uber red pill alpha elite time posting here anymore.
Zing.
“I find it extremely refreshing to find someone in society finally shaming grown men who play dress-up and watch children’s movies.”
Because dressing up in a football jersey and watching roided out dudes smash into each other is better? Can we Red Pillers try to be a little more nuanced? I get that nerd culture has its downsides, but I’m tiring of all the wholesale hate leveled on it. I have no problem getting women, have a successful career, have studied MMA and can probably out-shoot 99% of the people who read this site. I just prefer to read a Batman omnibus at hunting camp. Comics are an amazingly creative medium and I would posit much better for society than our sports obsession. Rant over.
Sports culture is a male disaster.
Sports culture is an intrinsic part of being a male, having existed in virtually every culture and society since the dawn of civilization. Stop complaining about being human.
He really needs to elaborate more on what he means but in my opinion having some form of sports culture is healthy and good. What’s not good for men is sports obsession. I see little difference between fantasy football obsessed, couch potato fans and obsessive nerds debating character stats.
You understand balance and moderation. Sadly, a lot of people lack self-control and moderation so you get extreme obsession of sports, comics, etc.
The most harmful thing to the USA is the focus on sports in schools. No other country in the world has sports in schools they way we do and they are killing our kids in education. Schools are for education, not honing your slider.
I agree. In fact obsession itself is universally bad, regardless of the object of obsession.
These movies lately using football like its D-Day in its manliness and theories are just hilarious. Rock apes getting paid millions for their little game that means nothing, and losers following it. Watching porn would be more productive for your game than being a sports fan. Waste of time. Instead of watching that bullshit, pick up a tool in your garage or organize/clean your dojo.
There are things to be learned by watching sports if you pay attention. I was not referring to movies and I would not be so narrow minded to dismiss the value of regularly following a sport that you enjoy. Leadership, Man Management, Finance and Budgetting, Personal Discipline, Hard Training, Strength, Speed, Fitness, Dedication, Skill, etc. I see these concepts applied continuously in sport as well as the consequences of not applying them. You will be a poorer man for ignoring these aspects.
Oh yeah, I pick up tools and clean my dojo as well.
Schools are for indoctrination and state worship. In other words, turning you into a compliant citizen. America’s national sports are an important part of this process.
Yes and no. In a way it’s in our genes. Sport is actually tribalism, symbolic war, and symbolic hunting – traits which men have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. One team against another is a surrogate for tribal warfare. A feeling of belonging to a tribe is still a big instinct in humans. That’s why team sports have such a strong, even fanatical following. Sporting activities are also surrogates of combat and hunting. There’s always the element of running, chasing, taking aim, throwing / shooting, and so on. All activities which for thousands of years were the basis of our survival.
Now I will agree that people whose only outlet in life seems to be following pro sports, should probably try to expand their horizons a bit and develop more of themselves, rather than live vicariously through the achievements of their sporting ‘tribe’ 🙂
The problem is, the refinement of the market (sports) permitted by American capitalism, has caused an increased focus on men watching NFL on Sundays, the top 0.25 percent of athletes in the US, instead of getting out and playing themselves. Not that NO American do this (I played Rugby and Aussie Rules for example), but many, particularly white men, will drool for hours watching some black dudes play football, then get into the gym and powerlift (a sport owned by whites). Similarly, many black men idolize this same NBA/NFL types, instead of MGTOW and studying and improving themselves.
Brag much?
Yes. And I was using the completely valid technique of using anecdotal evidence to confirm my position…
If you rally have done the things you claim, then you have every right to brag about them. Success is nothing to be ashamed of. Congratulations on your success, Sir.
I appreciate your inclusion of shooting in the list of things you ” brag ” about, I enjoy going to the range myself, and usually by myself.
There’s almost no football in blue Mountain state. It has more in common with frat house comedies like ‘Neighbors.’ that football.
It’s a fun watch. If you have Netflix, you will want to check it out.
“The team is very hierarchical.”
Please forgive me for this, but: “Well duh!”
A college football team is about as perfect an example of a socialist oligarchy as you can find.
That’s what always kept me away from them.
Of course you might be able to move on from there to pro football: A fascist oligarchy.
why is the term “socialist” so widely misused these days?
socialism = egalitarianism AKA equal distribution of wealth, influence, voice, etc.
oligarchy = small group of people controlling many
this “socialist oligarchy” you describe is an oxymoron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
Edit the article to make it correct.
In that case, you both have work to do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy
I think in sporys whete you take credit for someone’s else’s effort. Team sports it’s quite socialist. Individual sports are far more fufilling
The episode where an anonymous woman leaves a message saying she’s pregnant and they go around campus trying to figure out which girl got knocked up was fucking hilarious.
The mascot, Sammy, is actually the creator of the show. Many episodes he lets girls beat him up its fucking stupid.
But seriously, Frankie Shaw (Mary Jo) is sexy as fuck in this.
I thought the Linda part was hilarious. “You’ll end up in Wings!”
I love this show!!! Funny as hell. Not a single girl in that show is below an 8. Here is my favorite clip that shows how you shouldn’t trust any girl.
That was the second scene I remembered from this show.
The first was using rabies as a steroid substitute.
Ha ha! That was actually pretty funny!
I only have one thing to say – “GET THIS MAN A JOCKSTRAP AND A COOKIE!!!!!!!!!”
Friday Night Lights > Blue Mountain State
I watched that show in highschool and again in university. It never got old!
I think it’s healthy for boys to play sports and enjoy sports culture, not grown men. I cringe seeing grown men wearing Tom Brady jerseys.
This all has an emasculated effect because men who aren’t serious can’t be a threat.
Good points. Grown men ought not be worshipping sports figures. Or any worldly things for that matter, including females.
Boys emulating athletes is usually healthy. Lots of us guys did as kids.
Especially for a non-athlete in school, the author did well pointing out the masculine characteristics of the show. I especially liked the section on patriarchy.
Anything on t.v. is dangerous tho because so many anti-masculine messages are squeezed between the lines. Assumed values etc. TV properly is called ‘programming’. Likewise I don’t like celebration or validation of the boyfriend and girlfriend, or hookup, culture in schools. Promiscuity corrupts civilizations, which are constructed of masculine effort and values.
Cheers.
thank you. I have a cousin, who is 40, who acts 25, from a big “Football State”, who watches and keeps up with EVERY SINGLE THING in college ball (and NFL to a less extent), like women keep up with the Kardashians and all that. He’s a “never was” type of guy that brags about a most likely non-existent HS career as a 4th stringer, and he’s never let it go. He wears all the jerseys and knows the life story of every brother that’s come out of whatever HS shithole, and how their recruiting efforts going, what their mom thinks about which college they choose, all that. If I hit him in the face, he’d shrink in terror, because his entire life is watching OTHER Men do “macho” things, instead of living his own life. Sad
Television’s a mind killer.
Organized sports are as a big a problem as feminism. Just an opiate of the masses to keep men placated and oblivious to the real problems they face and the decaying society in which is going up in flames around us.
The thing is, organized sports benefit us. It brings us together as teammates in high school, gets us scholarships to college, gets us laid, and makes a small few of us money. Eliminating organized sports would fuck men over.
The problem is not organized sports, it’s grown men wearing jerseys of overpaid strangers half their age, drunkenly fighting in parking lots over whose made-up team is better. Actually giving a fuck about professional sports is ridiculous.
When the cons greatly outweigh the pros, it’s time to ditch a concept. Sports brings together a few douchebags on teams that use their Omega male mentality to feed the current culture that decays society. If the best you have to offer to get into college is running a ball, then you need to invest in trade school. If the only thing you have to offer to get laid is running a ball, you need to invest in yourself and actual achievements. Considering the sheer amount of professional sports players that go broke when their careers end, it’s obvious they weren’t smart enough to be entrusted with money anyway. Want teamwork, camaraderie, women to drop their panties at the sight of you, a sense of real accomplishment? Join the Marine Corps. I turned down a full ride scholarship to join the Corps way back when, and it’s all been rising to the top from there. My buddies who went on to take college athletic scholarships? Losers. They spent their time in college partying, playing ball, and expecting their few minutes of manufactured fame running up and down a field would last them forever. Now? Most work dead end jobs reminiscing about their glory days and they haven’t even reached 40. The others, prison or suicide. So I stand by my original statement.
I lived in the dorms with the d-1 fb players at my school. They were cool and I partied with them alot, but their hyper confidence and identitfy was entirely built around the college environment.
Once college ended, their lives basically fall apart. Their identity is gone. Girls no longer give a shit since they aren’t wearing the jersey anymore, and they dont understand why they no longer receive affirmation from others.
Youre right athletic accomplishment is a very temporary state.
Plus theyre all overweight.
Pretty much.
Participating in organized sports is good.
Sports as just another branded consumer product is the problem.
Precisely
I give a fuck.
I love professional sports.
What I don’t give much of a fuck about is puritans who waste their time worrying about other people enjoying themselves.
The day the NCAA wears pink in support of a woman’s disease is the day I quit watching football. I could not give a rat’s ass about the NFL.
Tell me about it, I’m a soccer fan. Seeing the Red Devils (Man Utd) wear pink made my heart bleed.
They really don’t benefit us. College really shouldn’t be about sports, at all. Think of how badass men would be if they dedicated time spent watching sports to a craft/hobby or trade. Sports only benefit the athletes doing it.
Right, it benefits the athletes doing it. How many millions of college male athletes have been picked up out of poverty or otherwise dead-end situations and given a quality education that they would never have had access to?
Good point, Sir. However, these people could have devoted the energy they put into playing a game into getting an education, or learning a trade, thus benefiting themselves and society for the long term.
Perhaps, but it still serves our innate need for conflict. Clearly it has gone too far as a form of entertainment, though. But that could really be said of many things.
Yeah but that’s the point. Chanelling your need for heroism, that way you don’t expect heroism from yourself, and especially not from your leaders.
I knew I was red pill MGTOW before I even heard of it, 25 years ago when I liked HS wrestling and boxing more than team sports. if more men focused on individual combat and improving themselves (lifting) they’d be better off.
troof. individual sports rock. Surfing, racing, combat
I miss BMS, Ill never forget the classic line by the coach “Where do we come from?” “From our father’s balls!” its so true and red pill to the core
The best part about BMS is that they don’t wear pink in October.
Did not bother to read article- football and its fan base is for pure jerk offs. Watching grown men play games and supporting the system that makes this shit is a travesty. America is particularly disgusting in its obsession with sports. F1 racing is nearly all I approve of.
The world’s obsession with soccer dwarfs America’s obsession with sports by a big, big margin.
Hemingway said something to the effect that the only true sports are mountain climbing, bull fighting, and motor racing, the rest are merely games. Hopefully some one here knows the exact quotation.
Wasn’t he also into boxing ?
“However, in no way is a male cheerleader given the same honor as the boys duking it out on the field of war.”
Go fuck yourself. Signed, Someone who has actually been to two Real “fields of war”
What the fuck is wrong with some of the morons here?
Playing sports is blue pill? Watching sports is for pussys?
Are you high?
It’s about having FUN!
Does it make you better, as a man, to fuck a woman? Hell no!
Sure it relieves some stress, but first and foremost, its about FUN!
Same with playing instruments, sports, video games or even watching TV.
You
fucktards think it’s all only about impressing the ladies, then you are
lost. If you can’t have fun, it’s all for nothing. Everything I do in
my life is so I can ENJOY my life more. Fucking hot women, watching a
fight or playing football (or soccer, for you barbarians out there) is
all the same – it’s to enjoy my life. I try to earn good money so I can
enjoy the money afterward. A big house or a nice car won’t do that for
me, I’m not a damn woman.
So would you all do me a favor and go
cry in your wet cushions cause you still dont know how to enjoy your
miserable lifes? But leave us the fuck alone for having fun – cause
thats what life is about!
You’re spot on. Sports keep a guy fit, give him time to chill with his bros, and are a lot of fun. They are about strategy, agility, endurance, etc. Nothing more red pill as that. Most of the guys here are beta and gamma as fuck and not athletic, that’s why they are hating on sports.