Chatham’s annual Battle of the Classes was bigger than ever this year, with the first coeducational class joining in on the competition.
Over the course of one week, Chatham’s first-year, sophomore, junior, and senior classes battled against each other in events that varied from window painting to relay races, in an effort to win bragging rights for the rest of the year.
On Friday, October 2, the Chatham community gathered in Eddy Theater for the final and most highly anticipated event of the week — song contest. The event pits classes against each other to see who can best rewrite the lyrics to popular songs to make them about the Chatham experience.
Hosted by stand-up comedian and Chatham alumna Olivia Traini (Class of 2013), who joked, “maybe you’ll come out of this with a bruised ego, but, you know, you’ll get back up,” the event featured everything from zombie-themed rewrites of “The Monster Mash” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” by the Class of 2018, to a skit about embracing the coeducation transition that set the alma mater to the tune of Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” from the Class of 2019.
The Class of 2017 put on a TV show themed performance, rewriting the lyrics to the theme songs of, “That ‘70s Show,” “Full House,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and, of course, “Friends.”
Between performances Traini filled space by advertising a free give-away of Chipotle gift cards; performing stand-up, which included a joke that she was continuously interrupted in the middle of telling; and an impromptu dance session, complete with audience participation, to Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Could Happen,” to kill time during technical difficulties.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, though, was a the impressive rally from the Class of 2016, who put on a funny, engaging, and well-rehearsed “Saturday Night Live” skit, featuring the real President Esther Barazzone. The performance — which featured a song about having overnight guests for the first time, set to the tune of “I Just Had Sex” by The Lonely Island — did not, in the end, lead them to victory, but it was a powerful final performance for the senior class.
The winning class, 2018, pulled out all the stops with all black clothes, zombie makeup, clever lyrics, and coffins full of candy that they handed out to the audience.
Winners were determined by a panel of judges, which this year included Zauyah Waite Dean of Students; Peter Walker, Dean of the Falk School of Sustainability; and Darlene Motley, Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences, and Business.
Though the evening was entertaining, several students noted the lack of the traditional senior slideshow with confusion.
After the performances, students gathered at Rea Coffeehouse to hear the overall winners of the BOTC competition, and after much suspense it was revealed that the Class of 2018 were the this year’s grand champions.