Who Wants To Be in Yale’s Scroll & Key? Or, the Latest Prank Attempt Gone Awkward

by Adam Clark Estes | April 16, 2009 at 4:10 pm

UPDATE: The prank was actually pulled by the Pundits. More below.

Over the next few hours before Yale’s tap night, a few sorry Scroll and Key hopefuls will be finishing up their applications to join the secret society.  We’re sorry all you wannabe Keysmen. It’s a hoax. And if our well-informed hunch proves to be correct, it’s yet another Rumpus hoax.

Several anonymous tips came in to us over the past day or so calling Wolf on an obviously fake email. In short, the message said that Society of Scroll and Key would be opening up the 2010 Delegation to applications.  (!?!)

If you are interested in applying, please submit the following information to kingsleytrust09@gmail.com no later than 6:00pm on Thursday, April 16:

- your full name
- your residential college
- your place of birth
- your gender identity
- your greatest fear
- your three greatest enemies

Even better than asking overeager juniors about their greatest fear and greatest enemies, all applications are to be sent to former Yale Daily News editor Andrew Mangino—who is also a Scroll and Key member according to the list included at bottom of the hoax email. The kicker has to be the @gmail.com account, though. For an organization that supposedly has millions more than Skull and Bones, you’d think the Kingsley Trust Association, Scroll and Keys other more preppy name, could buy a clandestine-sounding domain.

After the jump, a little bit of banter about Rumpus and the full text of the hoax email.

Rumpus, the Yale’s monthly humor magazine, won some attention by a decent publication (name ends with -orker) for pre-emptively spotting a curious Yale prefrosh who would one day ascend to supreme IvyGate fame for his sweet admissions video (name ends with -eyner). Their latest issue, a Best and Brightest kind of thing, features lots of dudes without shirts and one girl with a bronzy-ass fake tan.

Any readers out there know anything else about this? Who applied? (And who can send US those applications to print and humiliate???) As always, you can find us at tips@ivygateblog.com.

Full email:

From: Kingsley Trust Association <kingsleytrust09@gmail.com>
Date: April 15, 2009 10:58:04 AM EDT
Subject: Your Presence is Requested
CSP

The Fellows of the Kingsley Trust Association solicit your application to the 2010 Delegation of the Society of Scroll and Key.

If you are interested in applying, please submit the following information to kingsleytrust09@gmail.com no later than 6:00pm on Thursday, April 16:

- your full name
- your residential college
- your place of birth
- your gender identity
- your greatest fear
- your three greatest enemies

In addition, kindly send a courtesy copy email to Andrew Mangino:andrew.mangino@yale.edu.

We look forward to reading your application.

Jarrad Aguirre (Zanoni)
Jeffrey Brown (Belus)
Rebecca Dinerstein (Arbaces)
Brian Earp (Nichao)
Charles Gariepy (Nolero)
Margaret Goodlander (Chilo)
Daniel Graves (Thales)
Andrew Mangino (Eumenes)
Luis Medina (Prasatagus)
Diana Mellon (Mago)
Rachel Plattus (Periander)
Aditi Ramakrishan (Anselmo)
Benjamin Solarz (Guelph)
Sofia Solomon (Pironis)
Madeleine Udell (Glaucus)

CCJ

UPDATE: It turns out that our suspicious proved faulty. The prank was actually the work of the Pundits, the same pranksters that helped make Ivy League naked parties famous. Evidently, Rumpus is not actually a humor magazine but a tabloid. Their current issue, properly titled “50 Most Beautiful,” looked like a joke to me though.

Also, what secret society did you get into? Or are you not supposed to talk about it?

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7 Responses to “Who Wants To Be in Yale’s Scroll & Key? Or, the Latest Prank Attempt Gone Awkward”

  1. Y12 Says:
    April 16th, 2009 at 6:50 pm

    It was the Pundits, not the Rumpus, who sent out the email.

  2. Y12 Says:
    April 16th, 2009 at 6:50 pm

    It was the Pundits, not the Rumpus, who sent out the email.

  3. Rumpus Editor Says:
    April 16th, 2009 at 11:27 pm

    Thanks for the free publicity.

    That being said, do some fact checking, IvyGate:
    -We did not send out that email.
    -It can’t be “another” prank by Rumpus, seeing as we didn’t send out the emails you linked to, either.
    -We are not Yale’s humor magazine. Although we are humorous, it is the Yale Record that makes that (dubious) claim. We are Yale’s tabloid, and the only magazine at Yale about stuff at Yale.
    -Our latest issue is not a Best and Brightest issue. It is an issue about the 50 most beautiful people at Yale. That’s why we called the issue “Yale’s 50 Most Beautiful People.”

  4. Yale '10 Says:
    April 17th, 2009 at 4:10 am

    Fun Fact #1: Your “yet another” link was a Pundits prank.

    Fun Fact #2: This Scroll and Key e-mail was also a Pundits prank.

    Get it right or go home.

  5. To Be Fair Says:
    April 17th, 2009 at 10:16 pm

    No one gives a shit about any of these Yale groups, so mixing them up isn’t that big a deal. None of them is humorous, hence they are lumped together.

  6. LakeHMM Says:
    April 18th, 2009 at 2:15 am

    Right, “To Be Fair”, why get facts right? Douche.

  7. KEGGY Says:
    April 18th, 2009 at 3:10 am

    “gender identity”

    Oh dear, let’s not offend the trannies now with the boring old “sex” option.