’Poon Double-Dares OK Go

A line of students in tank tops and t-shirts extended 30 feet outside the door to Science Center D. Inside, sheets of plastic enveloped the rostrum, a man in a top hat and a clown suit jogged across the stage, and a black four-string Ibanez bass leaned upright next to a drum set. The plastic would be necessary; the bass and drums would not.

Pop-rock group OK Go’s appearance last night was billed as a “Battle of the Bands,” but instead of making music, the group famous for dancing on treadmills was challenged to a game of “Double Dare.” The event, hosted by the Harvard Lampoon—a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine—was less a musical clash than a nostalgia trip.

The four members of OK Go competed against the 17-member “Lampoon Band” in a mock-up of the “Double Dare” franchise that aired on the Fox and Nickelodeon networks from 1987 to 1993.

Each team took turns guessing at a series of trivia questions. If either group was unable to answer these questions—for example, when OK Go failed to correctly name its own band members—they competed in a “physical challenge” against the other team.

Audience members had the rare privilege of watching the members of OK Go (and the slightly more common privilege of watching Poonsters) throw pies into the rubber trousers of their teammates, throw water balloons into baskets on their teammates’ heads, and race to grab a flag soaking in green slime in an inflatable pool. The “Double Dare” theme music, rather than the songs of OK Go, played in the background.

Onlookers described themselves as quite puzzled.

“I have absolutely no idea what this is,” Zachary A.Y. Pollinger ’09 said. “I’m just dumbfounded.”

“Why would OK Go do this?” lamented Jocelyn R. Sedlet ’10.

Members of OK Go told The Crimson that they were equally surprised to be participating in the contest.

“They just asked us to come here for an honorary membership, and they didn’t tell us any of the rest,” said guitarist Andy Ross, who told the audience that his interests include “kicking Harvard ass and taking names.”

Drummer Dan Konopka said he and his cohorts spent the afternoon with the Poonsters in Connecticut playing a game called “whirlyball” in which two teams of players ride in bumper cars and throw a wiffleball into a goal using a plastic scoop.

“We played about five rounds today. We thought we were just going to come here [afterward] and hang out and eat dinner,” Konopka said. “We didn’t know about any of this ‘Double Dare’ stuff.”

However, band members said they enjoyed the battle. Konopka told a fan after the show, “it was fun! People got slimed!”

Although OK Go lost the competition—their fate sealed by a rout in a game of “Guitar Hero”—the Grammy-winning group received a consolation trophy depicting a basketball player attempting a slam-dunk, with a plaque that read: “Nicholas D. Kristoff [sic], Pulitzer Prize Winner, Spring 2006.”

Meanwhile, vocalist and guitarist Damian Kulash said the audience shouldn’t feel cheated by the lack of musical performance at last night’s event.

“This will be remembered long past any rock concert you could’ve gone to,” Kulash said.

—Staff writer Nicholas K. Tabor can be reached at ntabor@fas.harvard.edu.