Card stunt

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Large card stunt performed at the 2004 Rose Bowl Game, note instruction on screen

Card stunts are a pre-planned, coordinated sequence of actions performed by an audience where they raise cards that, in the aggregate, create a recognizable image. The type of image they create can range widely and, through careful planning, the same cards can create a number of different images by alternating how the cards are held up. Although they are now performed at a variety of events ranging from sports to political rallies, the card stunt is most closely associated with American football, particularly college football. The North Korean mass games, however, were the first to extend the card stunt to an art form, using flip-book cards to produce enormous hour-long animated sequences.

The first card stunt was performed by students of at Cal during the 1910 Big Game, between Cal and rival Stanford, and consisted of two stunts in total: a picture of the Stanford Axe and a large blue "C" on a white background. While the card stunt is closely associated with college football, this first instance took place at a rugby match because all the major colleges and universities on the West Coast of the United States had briefly dropped football in favor of rugby during the early 1910s. As universities switched back, students brought the card stunts with them and by that time they became a national phenomenon associated with college football.

While the tradition has subsided at many American colleges and universities, the University of California maintains the tradition through the UC Rally Committee.

A somewhat similar action was performed at the opening ceremonies for the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary. Instead of holding cards, spectators donned colored ponchos, which created images throughout the stadium. The poncho stunt was similar to a precursor to card stunts often performed at college football games in PAC-10 schools. During such stunts, rooting sections would often wear colored hats or jackets and arrange themselves in such a way as to display a school logo or other design.

The card stunt has been the object of several famous college pranks, including the Great Rose Bowl Hoax and Yale's "We Suck" Prank.

A 2006 Super Bowl commercial by Budweiser, titled "The Wave," features a fictional card stunt using computer animation. The crowd at the Rose Bowl performs a card stunt which shows a beer bottle being opened and poured around the stadium into a glass and subsequently being consumed one gulp at a time. The crowd finished with a collective "AHHHH."