Absurd and Unbelievable Hazing Rituals from College Life

There are more than 26 thousand fraternities and sororities in the United States. While many of these organizations have a strict rule against hazing, rushing is still a part of the pledge process. While not all rushing is negative, there are many absurd and unbelievable hazing rituals that might make you think twice before pledging.

To compile a list of absurd and unbelievable hazing rituals from college life, 24/7 Tempo reviewed Reddit threads of sorority and fraternity initiation stories. We looked for threads that focused on stories that people were directly involved in rather than ones that they had heard of in passing. Many of these hazing rituals range from horrifying to downright ridiculous.

24/7 Tempo does not endorse or condone the actions of these organizations.

This post was updated June 17th, 2025, to reflect additional information.

One user noted that a sorority at their school forced pledges to sit on newspapers and watch adult films. The pledges were not released from this position until the newspapers were "soaked through" with bodily fluids as per the poster's story. This story is roughly in line with many others regarding the regular humiliation of sorority pledges and is a truly wild story of sorority hazing, even if there was no physical danger involved.

In some areas, this hazing activity might be considered sexually abusive to the pledges, making it a shoo-in for one of the most intense stories of sorority hazing. However, many fraternities and, apparently, rugby clubs are hellbent on making sure this seems tame.

This story is not quite as horrifying, and perhaps a bit more amusing. In one sorority, pledges were assigned a senior member and had to play "Tanks." The pledges would get on all fours while the senior member, equipped with a bag of flour, rode on their back and gave them instructions for movement, such as "move left," "turn right," "reload," and "fire."

When the command to "reload" was given, the senior member would stuff the pledge's mouth with flour and order them to "fire," which involved spitting the flour in their mouth all over whoever was in front of them. This activity could certainly cause some rather severe dry mouth but seems mostly fun and harmless. We hope that none of the pledges had celiac disease, or if they did, they were given gluten-free flour.

One commenter shared a rather disgusting story of fraternity hazing. It was one of many that focused on making the pledges throw up excessively, which can be quite dangerous in reality. In this case, the pledges were given pins and fed excessive amounts of food and alcohol until they vomited. They were forced to throw up in a communal garbage bag.

Then, the pins they were given were tossed in the garbage bag with the vomit. The pledges were then forced to dig through the bag full of vomit to find their pins. This story is quite the tale and presents a very real danger to the pledges, as vomiting is extremely bad for your body. Additionally, the high intake of alcohol could also be dangerous.

While not a fraternity or sorority, one user shared a story of their university's rugby club and their initiation practices. This was one of a few stories shared specifically about rugby clubs. It seems hazing is quite popular with these clubs. In this case, the new members were brought on a pub crawl.

There, they played a rather horrifying drinking game. A Belfast sink was placed in the middle of the table, and if a member got sick during the game, they had two options: throw up in the sink or throw up in their cup and down the cup. However, after the game, they were informed that the sink siphoned into a container and each person who threw up in the sink would get a pint of communal vomit.

Additionally, new members were instructed to wear thongs and bikini tops under their clothes. They would lose articles of clothing for various transgressions during the game and would be forced to walk around town in a state of undress after the game.

This one is a little bad but, we suppose, comparatively tame when other organizations are making you drink vomit. In this case, pledges were forced to listen to Wham!'s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go for most of the waking hours and all night at a very loud volume. The poor pledges, naturally, got no sleep as Wham! was being blasted in their vicinity at all times.

Sleep deprivation can be very dangerous in severe cases—it is even considered torture—but as long as this was a one-time thing and pledges weren't kept up regularly, we guess this one isn't so bad. The biggest danger would be if the pledges were driving while sleep-deprived, which could endanger not only them but the people around them.

One person recalls a fun and harmless game his fraternity played, which he refers to as "find the cheese." The older brothers would stick slices of American cheese to surfaces in the kitchen, and the younger brothers had to find the cheese slices before the time ran out.

He also recalled a game where if you drank your whole beer, you were rewarded with another beer. These are more cute and fun, very harmless. It's all fun and games, and no one gets hurt—the best kind of initiation, in our opinion.

One horrifying story recalled by a person happened to their close friend. The pledges were given hoods so they could not see. Then, the senior members turned on a hot plate and held their hands over the plate. They intended to scare the pledges with the hot plate. However, they messed up with this little stunt.

The hot plate was too hot, and even though the pledge's hand never touched the plate, he still ended up with second- and third-degree burns on his hand from the heat. The user states his hand was only over the plate for 5–10 seconds before the senior members realized he was actually burning. They removed his hand as soon as they realized. The friend recalls him having a blister that stood a half inch tall after the incident.

While not a fraternity, one person recalls their friend's experiences with "initiation rites" at boarding school. The new students were given two choices: "The Gauntlet" or "Stinkybath." The Gauntlet consisted of running down a corridor while being pelted with hockey sticks from the doorways. Apparently, many students sustained serious injuries from this.

The other option, Stinkybath, required the student to bathe in a bathtub filled with the most heinous possible substances the other students could come up with. They cite mayonnaise, beer, and ketchup as tame options. However, they add that urine and semen could be involved in this ritual.

One poster recalled a rather sadistic but, ultimately, rather tame-in-comparison example of hazing. The students were given excessive amounts of alcohol. Then, they were shown an obviously drunk person with a sharp cutting implement, preferably an axe. The student was blindfolded and told to place their private part on a block.

As the axe hit the block, the other students would pour an extremely cold liquid on the blindfolded person's body part to numb it, making it appear that it was cut off entirely. They described the activity as "good times for some people, but it may be a little scary for the guy with the blindfold."

This story was recounted several times by multiple people with varying details. Thus, it seems to be a more commonplace practice than it maybe should be. Several people recounted stories of fraternities and sororities pouring hot water used to boil shellfish (one person said crab; another said crawfish.) on pledges.

They did not specify if the water was still boiling or simply hot. Either way, this is dangerous beyond belief, and one person recounted that the fraternity that did this was eventually removed from the campus. We think makes sense from an administrative perspective.