Sober? BYU is full of drollery

PROVO — Brigham Young University's sober reputation is cemented in the national consciousness — more on that in a moment — but 2006 proved that humor, if not alcohol, flows freely in the shadow of Y Mountain.

The biggest campus wits included the president of the Board of Trustees and the president of the university. Since those men double as President Gordon B. Hinckley, leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Elder Cecil O. Samuelson, of the church's First Quorum of the Seventy, students have strong ecclesiastical examples of drollery.

Without further ado, then, let's hand out the 2006 "Sammies."

• The first goes to three students who caused a ruckus after they printed and sold T-shirts with Samuelson's image and the phrase "Cecil Is My Homeboy."

The students — Austin Craig, Landon Pratt and Roger Pimentel — dropped off one of the shirts at Samuelson's office and said they would stop selling them if he wished it. Instead, his secretary sent them an e-mail:

"The president has no objection to you selling it. However, he wanted you to know that he probably won't be wearing it in public!"

Craig said that proved Samuelson has a sense of humor. So did the comment the president provided for this story: "I always enjoy my association with our students, even if I'm not up on the latest terminology."

The phrase became standard student jargon. One example: The campus comedy troupe Divine Comedy does a sketch where Samuelson is a Superman-like character who flies in to save the day. ("Faster than a Provo engagement, able to leap over the Botany Pond, more powerful than the combined testimony of the BYU Men's Chorus, he's President Samuelson!")

During the sketch at a recent show, a student in the audience yelled out, "Go, Cecil."

Improvising, the student playing Samuelson/Superman turned to the audience and said, "Thank you. You're my homeboy."

• The parents of a BYU public relations major named one of his older brothers Warren Tea for a few days, until someone pointed out the obvious and they changed his name to Jody. It took a few weeks to realize what they'd repeated themselves when they named Geren Tea, and it was too late to change it. People have presented lists of more potentially funny names to Tea throughout his life, but he says his wife Megan, also a BYU student, has been the most creative.

If they have twins, her picks for names would be Hump and Dump. Megan actually is due to deliver the couple's first child in January, and she saucily suggests naming it Pace Pecan.