With another year at Marymount came another performance by one of Yale’s premier acapella groups: The Baker’s Dozen.  This group was founded in 1947 and is comprised of sixteen undergraduate men at Yale University.  The Baker’s Dozen’s annual visit to the Mount is traditionally one of the student body’s favorite events, but this year many aspects of the performance sparked campus controversy; the student body was driven into an absolute frenzy and the administration notably objected to the song selection.  

It is to be expected that when sixteen college men descend on our all-girls campus, the student body will get excited. However, the level of hysteria, for lack of a better word, was unprecedented: screaming for the Baker’s Dozen as if it was a Beyonce concert, distraction and disruption for the remainder of the day, and notes on the bulletin board in Butler immortalized the craziness for weeks to follow.  

To compound the ridiculousness of the students’ madness, the administration and many of the students took issue with the questionable song choices and aspects of the performance.  One song that especially irked many members of the audience was The Baker’s Dozen’s rendition of the early 2000’s hit “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne.  The song features the storyline of an adolescent boy realizing the physical attractiveness of the mother of one of his childhood friends; understandably many disapproved of the selection of this song for a performance at a Catholic high school, especially on a day when middle school shadows were present for Meet Marymount.  While the song is catchy and the performance impressive, this piece strays from the acceptable repertoire that The Baker’s Dozen has traditionally brought to our campus.

Another facet of the acapella set that shocked the vast majority of viewers was the rather horrifying toothpaste “halftime” show.  I will spare you the gory details, but the skit, in part, consisted of underclassmen brushing their teeth in front of the audience and consuming the byproduct of their backwash.  While I understand the concept of “hazing” younger students as part of the initiation process, a distasteful display like that in front of an entire audience, at a school that is paying for the ensemble to perform conveys a lack of judgment on behalf of the group.  

Overall, this year’s Baker’s Dozen performance maintained the musical status of years past, but they lacked the discretion of which we all know the group is capable.