R/W Week 2022: OPINION: Roastmas compilation and its cyberbullying problem

KC Ciresi

Manual student adjusts R/W Week decorations before heading to class.

Weston Corak
October 29, 2022

It is a tradition at Male and Manual to make lighthearted roasts about each other in the week of the big Male/Manual game: “Roastmas.” It can be viewed by looking at the #roastmas tag on Twitter where anyone can participate.

 Alongside the fun of the tradition, however, there have been growing worries about cyberbullying in the trend over the years, as some students begin to take the jokes too far. Examples include racism, homophobia, and outright tasteless comments attacking individual students and faculty. These comments are unjust and should be put to rest immediately within the fun tradition.

“I think it started out as a good thing—a good fun—but a few bad apples ruined the batch, and a lot of people have taken it too far,” Patrick Ryan (12, HSU) said. “We just got to trust everybody to do the right thing. We’re Manual; everybody knows what the right thing to do is.”

These horrible actions should not be tolerated in any school that holds themselves to high integrity. With a fun tradition like Roastmas, it is important to keep in mind personal virtues and empathy for peers, so jokes don’t continue to be so problematic, as they have in the past. Roastmas is a fun, unique expression of rivalry that must not be confused with unjust words and attacks.

With that being said, here are some of the top roasts from this year.

Manual:

https://twitter.com/muckfale2022/status/1584524321762181120

https://twitter.com/MALESUCKSASS/status/1585289305114673154

Male:

https://twitter.com/burneracc7744/status/1585260277473300480