Porn 'n Chicken - Possible Beginnings

Possible Beginnings

Contradictory histories have appeared in the Yale and national press. Supposed leaders of the PnC club in the 2000-2001 school year were quoted saying that the club had been founded in 1996 during one of Yale's periodic grad student strikes. Grad students had founded PnC, this story says, both as an organizing society for a variety of monkey-wrenching activities intended to hurt the Yale Corporation, and as a venue to watch pornographic movies. According to a PnC leader quoted in 2000, "for the past five years they've been engaging in technological, intellectual, financial, and reputational terrorism against Yale with the main goal of damaging the careers of the Yale Corporation — those individuals who hold the purse-strings of Yale's bank account and represent the worst effects of a capitalist society."

An alternate history contends that the organization was founded in slovenly frustration by a bunch of Yale undergrads who had not been asked to join any other secret societies. "We were sitting at dinner coming up with various combinations of words, and came up with Porn 'n Chicken," one told the Yale Herald.

A third theory, and the one best supported by recent evidence, is that PnC did not exist at all, and that the entire organization had been fabricated by a group of pranksters on campus, possibly the secretive Pundits. These folks allegedly even staged meetings for reporters when necessary.

According to reports in the campus press, 30-35 students would show up for each screening. The crowd was overwhelmingly male, but never 100% so. Films were chosen with an eye toward "providing a meaningful experience for the audience," as one of the club leaders ironically described his responsibility. A club leader would provide commentary and fast-forward through 'the boring bits'.

Members claimed to have access to a secret bank account, presumably funded by club alumni, to cover their small expenses.

As recently as 2007, the secret society of P'n'C has been confirmed to exist at the University of Virginia. Anonymous sources familiar with P'n'C claim a direct link between the Yale and UVA clubs, and that at least two of UVA's club members have gone on to begin successful careers at Yale University after graduating from the University of Virginia.