Douglas Adams Society

The Douglas Adams Society, or DougSoc for short, is the name given to a student society formed at various British universities to honour the spirit engendered in Douglas Adams' works. Notable DougSocs exist, or have existed, at Oxford, York and Exeter universities.
In reality the activities of such groups focus very little on Adams, and more on getting drunk, writing and performing revues, role playing pub crawls, and other somewhat creative activities.
Oxford DougSoc
The original Douglas Adams Society was founded at Oxford University in 1990, and continued as a university institution until 2000. While the early termly programmes tended to focus on Adams and his works, as the society grew the focus shifted towards more generalised social activities themed around science fiction and comedy.
Nevertheless, the Oxford DougSoc maintained a popular image as a specifically Adams-themed society, finding this particularly useful in recruitment of new members. The society became well-known for its presence at , where members would typically wear dressing gowns and hand out teabags. Freshers' recruitment events invariably involved home-mixed pan-galactic gargle blasters and two different types of cheese. At its height, the Oxford society boasted some 50 members and enjoyed considerable notoriety among the Oxford student community.
As well as more traditional posts, the DougSoc committee included a Society Poet and a Small Furry Creatures Rep.
Typical DougSoc activities included:
* Poetry evenings;
* Role-playing pub crawls;
* Childhood regression parties;
* celebrations;
* Sketch comedy evenings;
* Findy Things Evenings;
* Fancy dress parties;
* Video evenings (generally oriented around science fiction or comedy);
* Formal dinners.
A termly magazine, Zarking Fardwarks (named after an oath used by Ford Prefect in Life, the Universe and Everything), was published consisting of members' creative writing. Members also formed a successful sketch comedy troupe known as Cruel and Unusual Punishment, later Square Pegs, which performed revues in Oxford and on the Edinburgh Fringe.
Alumni of Oxford DougSoc went on to found the York and Exeter branches of the society.
York DougSoc
Currently the only active DougSoc in the United Kingdom, the University of York society bears many similarities to Oxford's, including childhood regression parties (taking the form of young children's birthday parties) and scavenger hunts, but also some considerable differences; the greatest of these is a complete ban of gratuitous references to Douglas Adams, and also the words 'crazy', 'zany', 'wacky' and 'random' due to a review of the society by a disliked campus newspaper, which used exactly those words. The York branch also produces a DougInfo sheet once a week, a satirical news-sheet often based on current campus news stories. DougInfo is believed to have evolved from a previous society's newsletter the "Daily Disinfo", a satirical pun on the Univerisity's actual newsletter Daily Info.
The York committee also includes some interestingly-titled posts, including that of the Shape Rep (whose duty it is to determine each term's shape) and the Toastmaster General, who must propose a toast at the start of every meeting to whatever he/she feels appropriate<ref name=YorkConst />.
Typical York DougSoc activities include:
* Inflatable Death, an evening of mock violence through inflatable weapons.
* SpecOps, a huge waterpistol fight lasting several hours.
* Board Game Night, an occasion of much foul-play and dodgy dealing whilst attempting to build houses or invade other countries.
* Ritual Humiliation, where members go bowling in order to prove exactly how appalling they are.
* Science Night, where a "scientific" experiment is carried out, such as being to find the most effective method of murdering white chocolate mice or replicating the Cassini-Huygens mission with Blue Peter style homemade craft.
* Game Show nights, taking the format of a stereotypical game show using rounds from various TV game shows.
* Public Awareness nights, in which fatuous signposts and warning signs are made and placed around campus.
* A black tie Christmas dinner held in a local high class resturant, followed by a trip to a pantomime in York

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu