User:Doidimais Brasil/Fundão
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Fundão is one of the most influential group of young people in the city of Belo Horizonte, in Brazil. Their website receives an average of 23 visits per day, a high mark for any non-commercial site in the country, and the second most popular non-commercial site based in the city, losing only to Quarto do Chefinho. Coincidence or not, Quarto do Chefinho is also made by students from Colégio Marista Dom Silvério, and even receives contributions from members of Fundão. Even tough some rivalry can perceived between these two sites, they share a common cause: jokes and dissatisfaction against Marista Hall.
A showcase of Fundão´s particular humour. In picture taken in 2001, four members express their recognized undisciplinary activity at school as if they were criminals
Since Fundão is in nature simply a group of friends - even tough with jokes and slangs that rapidly become the talk in Belo Horizonte´s youth- conclusions taken from studies of it are at least controversial, when not outright disagreed upon by every other member.
Names of Fundão members in this article will appear translated to the closest slang or nickname possible to a similiar effect in English. Original names may appear on an eventual Fundão article on Wikipedia Português.
A few Brazilian idyosincracies should be taken in regard before reading this article. First, in Brazil school lasts only for eleven grades, and not twelve as in U.S. or other countries. Second, girl´s special birthday party in Brazil is the 15th one, not the 16th. Additionally, students in Brazil remain in the same classroom all schoolday, during all year- it´s teachers that move from class to class, not students. Also, schoolyear and calendar year are almost coincidential- schoolyear starts in February and ends in November or December. Finally, admission in a Brazilian college is in almost all cases granted to the best scores in a long multiple-choice test involving all school subjects, the vestibular. Unlike SAT and similar tests, each university has its own vestibular.
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[edit] The Composition of Fundão
One of the main topics to be explained while talking about a group is undoubtely the identity of its members. However, how many and who exactly are Fundão´s members is by far the most controversial topic in Fundology (the study of Fundão). There is a somewhat agreed-upon formation of eleven main members, but to this formation a variable number of members- usually from two to five- are more often than not added, depending on which member the researcher interviews.
The "Circle of Eleven", tough, is made of uncontestable Fundão members: Balloon, Borbie, Cee-Dee, Chicken, Jammies, Jay-Sa, Martian, Perocco, Pimps, Dead One and Tosko.
Members usually added are: Foul, Sword, Viotti, Dimitri, Dee-Dee (to a greater scale); Rodolfo, Newton, Gar, Attila, Richie Rick and Ree-Ka (to a lesser scale).
The creator of Fundão´s website, Jammies, estimates only eight people possess the password which allows to post and modify the site.
The twenty people most often considered members of Fundão, including the whole Circle of Eleven
[edit] History of Fundão
[edit] The Humble Beginnings
The history of Fundão starts as early as 1985, the year of birth of its older members. The youngest member was born as late as July, 1986. Almost all members were born and raised in Belo Horizonte, but there are notable exceptions: Dee-Dee was born in the faraway state of Rondônia and Perocco and Pimps were born in Brazil´s greatest metropolis, the city of São Paulo. Additionally, Dimitri was born in Conselheiro Lafaiete.
It is not a subject of (much) controversy to affirm that the roots of the gang started to form in 1998, with its members on sixth grade - that is, they were twelve years old. By this time, Balloon, Cee-Dee, Chicken, Foul, Dee-Dee, Martian and Tosko studied in the same class, and were already starting to spawn a plethora of slangs and jokes that would be endlessly repeated over and over again by virtually each and every of the 300 or so students of the same grade. It was merely the beginning.
The cultural impact of Fundão in Colégio Marista Dom Silvério- which hosts more than 3,000 students- is quite sensible, and quite a number of teachers and members of the administrative board have expressed their feelings of how a given Fundão prank can be so easily spread among all classes. Students joyfully join the ranks of typical Fundão activity- when it´s funny and not dangerous, that is.
By far the most popular prank ever- even a few teachers got to practice it- is shouting and expressing disbelief, horror or any similar mixed fellings when a teacher says the number "1,000". The "thousand" became a taboo in every class- be it Math, Portuguese or Geography-as dozens of students shout, smiling, at the teacher: "Mil não"! (Not a thousand!). Using the number 1,000 is an extremely popular metaphorical expression in Brazil, so more than a handful of teachers with this linguistical addiction have fallen prey to it. The thousand is perhaps Fundão´s most memorable creation, and unarguably any teacher´s nightmare.
Even tough Fundão´s cultural legacy is better recognized and perceived in oral tradition - slangs, jokes, nicknames, tales, gossip, fake rumours- two written records are of notice: the Fundão website and Cee-Dee´s comics. Spanning over a hundred pages through 6th to 11th grades, these comics- a few portraying fictional characters, but most with real-life events- are dear records of moments, jokes and people the gang hasn´t been in touch with for a long time.
[edit] 9th C
Fundão´s time of greatest glory was the year of 2001, the time of ninth grade. This was when all members of the Circle of Eleven- except Dead One- met each other. Seven members of the Circle studied in the same class, 9th C. Not worrying about studies for the vestibular and enjoying a multitude of sweet fifteen parties- almost one per week- the year was a time of pure irresponsible hedonistic teenage bliss. It was at this time that almost all persistent slangs in the gangs´s vocabulary were formed, a great deal of comics were made, and legendary tales of major drinking and vandalism met destiny. Fortunately, Fundão has given up most of its former criminal activities. The group never came close to threatening lives or seriously damaging property, but two or three of its members have broken windows or threw bottles uncatioulsy while drunk.
[edit] 2002
Time went on, and in 2002 Fundão´s members- specially the ones in 9th C- were separated by the administrative board into separate classes for tenth grade, due to undisciplinary beahaviour. This was the year in which the gang met its most recent member, Dead One. Cultural activity split in two main branches.
The first one were the notebooks of 10th F, that were now where Cee-Dee housed his comics. These notebooks, introduced by Ree-Ka, were handed during classes from hand to hand among the notebook´s society- eleven students of that class. These members used the notebooks to produce a plethora of material, including not only comics (which special regard to Perocco´s sensational series), but also interviews, cartoons, stickers, gossips, rumours, jokes, texts, pictures cut out from magazines and glued to the pages, and much more. Four notebooks were completely filled during the year, and each one was given to the best contributor in that notebook, according to voting by the members. A fifth notebook misterioulsy disappeared near the end of the school year. A sixth notebook, smaller than usual, was created by Cee-Dee to replace the current notebok in usage in case the member who took that one home missed class the next day. It was never filled up, and remains as the most insignificant of the six.
The other branch of Fundão activity in 2002 was on 10th E, and is usually regarded as more significant. The quartet formed by Dead One, Borbie, Jay-Sa and Jammies was a remarkably troublemaking joke machine.
[edit] The Final Battle
Eleventh grade is the final highschool year for students in Brazil, and it wouldn´t be any different for Fundão. This is the year in which students take the vestibular, and, despite all fame of being mere undisplined troublemakers, 11 of the 22 members managed to be succesful in the tests of the universities they wanted to enter.
2003 was a great year for Fundão, with a good number of nice parties and memorable occasions. It was a specially good year for Cee-Dee- he had his first date and also a heavily applauded graduation speech.
Fundão´s last day ever at school- December 19, 2003,- included a couple of regular classes and a modest, alcohol-free, musicless morning party at the school building.
[edit] The Future
The vestibular at UFMG- where virtually every student at Minas Gerais wants to pass- was an almost complete sucess for Fundão. Eight members of Fundão are joining the university in 2004- Jammies (Medicine), Cee Dee (Social Communication), Borbie and Balloon (Business), Perocco (Production Engineering), Dee Dee (Electrical Engineering), Foul (Mechanical Engineering) and Martian (Geology). Members Viotti, Jay-Sa, Chicken and Dead One are entering other universities, and the other members, even tough showing mixed feelings about the situation, do not look pessimistic about joining in the next year.
The future of Fundão was until recently considered bleak. After all, it is uncertain if its members, once not meeting five days a week in school anymore, will remain united enough to ensure the same level of intimacy and friendship.
However, a few elements seem to deaffirm this- a series of parties and events after the vestibular, and the existance and continuous use of means of communication such as the website and ICQ in special regard.
[edit] Fundão Culture
[edit] Nicknames
[edit] Slangs
[edit] Jokes and Pranks
[edit] Rumours and Gossip
[edit] Comics
[edit] Website
[edit] See Also
[edit] External Links
- Official Fundão Website
- Quarto do Chefinho - Site was closed down.
