What do Duke students think of “white lotus”?

Duke University may not be interested in its performance in season three of The white lotusBut his students seem to share a different feeling about the show.

On February 16, HBO viewers were presented to the Ratliff family, a quintet of Northern Dramatized Carolinians who seem to prey a rivalry of a century – that of Duke against his neighboring school, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. As the Matriarch Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) explains in the first: “I was also a (UNC) Tar Heel, but (husband) Timothy went to Duke. (Son) Saxon graduated Duke. (Son) Lachlan, our youngest, has just been accepted both. So you can imagine that’s all. ” Although the station staff and vacationers were in fact not aware of the competitiveness between Duke and UNC, it is a theme that has remained a leading scenario for Ratliffs, and the one that their students only know too well.

Nayeli Chowdhury, a Duke’s physical therapy student, said The Hollywood Reporter This “there was definitely a level of excitement with my friends and the people of the program” when his school was presented in the first episode of the HBO show. “I was delighted to hear about it, and it was nice to hear about the Duke (and) UNC rivalry because I know it so well,” she added.

While the episodes were released, the second student of Blue Devil, Olivia Prusky, found “super interesting” that “the image of her school was splashed through the controversial show”, especially when the character of Jason Isaacs, Timothy Ratliff, a former pupil of the Duke, envisages suicide and holds a pistol with a t-shirt with the logo school.

The moment was born of a series of memes, mainly focused on the fate of Duke in the NCAA basketball championship this year. An X Post caused a serious response, collecting more than 3 million views, which prompted Duke to publish an official declaration in a direct response to a social position condemning the use of joking imagery.

In a declaration shared with THRFrank TRAMPL, vice-president of DUKE communications, marketing and public affairs, said: “The University of Duke has not approved the use of its brands in The white lotus“While condemning the imagery of the emission which is disturbing, does not reflect our values ​​or which we are, and simply goes too far.”

After watching episode six, Duke Sophomore Alex Berkman said he immediately knew that the image would be reused in an online joke.

“My first reaction, outside the fairly horrible scene, was:” Well, it will turn into a fairly funny meme “,” he admitted. “It will be used as a number of memes, say, if Duke continues to lose in the Final Four”, which is exactly what happened on Saturday evening.

After Duke lost his final match four against the Houston Cougars, a multitude of memes of the graphic scene circulated online – a movement that Chowdhury and Berkman saw to come. “We knew we would see this image several times,” added Chowdhury. “We just knew it would be talking.”

Just like the White lotus The guests misunderstood the weight of the rivalry between Duke and UNC to the natives of North Carolina, the creator of the series probably did not mean birth of a memend problematic. However, Prusky does not think that the show surrounds the image of his school.

“I think our reputation is alone,” she said. “I think that Duke is known to be intellectually (and) culturally diversified, and I think that the reputation that we have built over time to its own foundations and legs.”

While seeing your university represented in one of the most popular television broadcasts can be shocking, the school’s response to the scene of suicidal ideas also took some of the students. “It was really surprising to see the university’s response,” said Prusky. “It was something I didn’t really expect.” While the college has published a public response opposing the controversial White lotus Scene, Berkman, Chowdhury and Prusky do not remember that Duke directly stretched out the students with resources.

Berkman believes that if the show has dealt with “very sensitive material”, the university publishing its declaration “BR (should) more attention to Duke than they would probably have wanted”. He added: “The statement does nothing.

On the other hand, the alum of Duke and the lawyer for Merlyne Jean-Louis entertainment thinks that the school “had absolutely to say something” to protect their “very strong brand”. Despite the eyes that their answer has attracted, Jean-Louis noted that she does not think that Duke will really bring legal action against producers of White lotus Or HBO “and they rather published a public statement” to cover their bases for the brand “.

“People have said that Duke could have used (their declaration) for different purposes, but I’m sure the Duke council spoke to the powers of Duke and found the best strategy for this,” she added.

Even if Duke lost four in his final match and the university is not on the moon about its performance The white lotusHe certainly did not influence their faithful blue devils.

“For me, it’s never so serious,” concluded Berkman. “It’s television – it’s high quality television.”