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Formals!!!
Ok everyone has been blabbering about these formals, and since I haven't yet started my year in Cam I have no clue what they are on about.. they sound boring and fascist 
feel free to throw in anything you might know about them so I can 1) get an idea of what they are 2) maybe attend sometime
thanks in advance
feel free to throw in anything you might know about them so I can 1) get an idea of what they are 2) maybe attend sometime thanks in advance
Scroll to see replies
Formals are neither boring nor fascist.
Basically, a formal is an excuse to wear the gown, flounce around a bit pretending to be Harry Potter, then eat a nice meal in gorgeous surroundings with friends whilst getting as drunk as possible, via games and cunning devices such as "pennying".
Basically, a formal is an excuse to wear the gown, flounce around a bit pretending to be Harry Potter, then eat a nice meal in gorgeous surroundings with friends whilst getting as drunk as possible, via games and cunning devices such as "pennying".
What is pennying (afraid to ask) and I don't exactly have a gown... am I supposed to buy one? The drunk part seems to compensate for all the gratuitous formalities at least do you bring dates and such? are they college specific or can you bring sum1 from another college - go to another college's formal?
do you bring dates and such? are they college specific or can you bring sum1 from another college - go to another college's formal?
Original post by Pho∑
What is pennying (afraid to ask) and I don't exactly have a gown... am I supposed to buy one? The drunk part seems to compensate for all the gratuitous formalities at least do you bring dates and such? are they college specific or can you bring sum1 from another college - go to another college's formal?
do you bring dates and such? are they college specific or can you bring sum1 from another college - go to another college's formal?You'll buy one when you get there - probably from your college, probably second hand.
You generally go with a group of friends. Each college holds formals on different days, eg. my college's are Tuesday and Friday. You can only buy tickets yourself for your own college's formal, but you can also buy guest tickets for friends from other colleges (which cost slightly more than "member" tickets) and set up a big group booking for, say, a society social. So it's pretty easy to go to formals at other colleges as long as you have a friend there!
"Formal swaps" are quite common - this is where a bunch of people (often a sports team or society) from one college go to another college's formal with some people from that college (often a sports team of the opposite sex, or another society).
Original post by Pho∑
they sound boring and fascist
Original post by Pho∑
gratuitous formalities
You sound like a true commie. Stay in King's where you belong.
Otherwise, boatie swaps are quite common.
Who? Me?
parkerpen
sorry aimed at OP... Even when drunk I don't think I can see any link with formal and fascisim
Anything is fascist to the commie.
commie? you sooo need to meet me 
anyway, seems like I had a wrong impression of these things, so glad to have clarified that one
Original post by Pho∑
What is pennying (afraid to ask)
I wanted to know this a few weeks ago!
Basically (from what I have learned) it is a drinking game whereby people put pennies (or sweets or something) into someone's drink and then they have to down it. It can also work with food apparently (soup?).
The background theory is that since the queen's head is on a penny, she'll drown if you drop a penny in a glass. So you have to drink it to save the queen. It spread to food - and not just liquid food. It's not uncommon to penny a dessert, whereby the victim has to eat it without using their hands.
Rules vary from place to place. I've been taught you can't penny someone while they're holding their glass, but to hold the glass for more than 30 seconds, or to cover the top, is to forfeit and you have to down the drink anyway. Some people (at stricter formals) apparently do verbal-pennying, where you just catch the victim's eye and mouth "pennying" or something.
Rules vary from place to place. I've been taught you can't penny someone while they're holding their glass, but to hold the glass for more than 30 seconds, or to cover the top, is to forfeit and you have to down the drink anyway. Some people (at stricter formals) apparently do verbal-pennying, where you just catch the victim's eye and mouth "pennying" or something.
When I originally thought of these formals I didn't realise people get so drunk! 
Are they like falling about all over the place or what?
Are they like falling about all over the place or what?
lol - Tony! I thought the exact same thing. You don't swallow 'em, you take them out beforehand 
Has anyone pennied someone's cheese?
It's not just drinks that you can penny you know!
Visiting_Babylon
lol - Tony! I thought the exact same thing. You don't swallow 'em, you take them out beforehand
I've heard of people swallowing pennies but only when really, really drunk. It's quite scary how you put in a dirty penny, and after it's been in wine for a few minutes it comes out perfectly clean and shiny.
I haven't heard of the verbal pennying (it sounds really rather lame) but I once went to a Girton formal where they are super-strict on pennying, so we just put "imaginary" pennies in each other's drinks - ie. made a penny dropping motion without the penny. Got funny looks from the supervisors as we caught their attention with the movement but when they tried to look closer they saw no pennying had been done after all!
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