History Main / StrawmanU

** Liberty University used to merit inclusion on this list, but in the new millennium and particularly since the passing of its founder it has become a ''lot'' more laid-back on issues like clothing, tattoos and piercings, and other personal style choices. Drinking, drugs, sex outside marriage and NC-17 or X-rated movies are still off-limits, though. By the mid-to-late-2010s, virtually all of these schools have scaled back their dress code. It's still stricter than at non-religious universities, and it is still enforces right-wing politics to a great extent, to the point of firing its social media managers for supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement.

* UsefulNotes/UniversityOfMichigan, Ann Arbor -- Great for pegging the character as an activist. Actually active, that is, rather than just slinging the activist lingo. [[AnimalWrongsGroup Good one for anti-animal testing shenanigans]].

[[folder:Other]]
* The JustForFun/AtheistProfessorCopypasta is a group of fundamentalist Christian UrbanLegends about a student humiliating a smug HollywoodAtheist professor in an argument; Rational Wiki has a whole [[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Atheist_professor_myth article]] full of them. One popular variant ends with the TomatoSurprise that the victorious student was a young UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, which led to the phrase "And his name? Albert Einstein!" becoming a meme in New Atheist circles.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''VideoGame/EchoBazaar'' has both -- Benthic College is Berserkeley (to the point of having a few devils on its roster) while Summerset College is a Jim Jonestown University.

** The ''other'' delegation at the tournament comes from a French WizardingSchool called Beauxbatons that seems more in the St. Old Geezer the Posh mold, as evidenced by Fleur Delacour's snooty disparagement of Hogwarts, itself a thousand-year-old British BoardingSchool located in a literal castle!
** Within Hogwarts, which is an AbsurdlyDividedSchool due to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_system house system]], Slytherin House is treated as the Jim Jonestown house. Okay, on paper Slytherin is associated with ambition and strategy, but [[AmbitionIsEvil in practice]] Slytherin is seen as the home of bullying, [[FantasticCasteSystem elitist]] villains. (To be fair the other houses have their share of bad eggs too, and later in the series we meet some decent Slytherins.) Meanwhile, Ravenclaw House has more of a Sokal reputation, given that Ravenclaw students are selected for intelligence, though this can also take the form of eccentric outside-the-box thinkers like Luna Lovegood (and the occasional deluded egomaniac like Gilderoy Lockhart, who merely ''presents'' himself as talented). The other two houses are less associated with specific Strawman U tropes: Gryffindor is the {{badass}} house, while {{Hufflepuff|House}} is theoretically associated with loyalty and diligence but in practice is stereotyped (both InUniverse and among much of the fandom, despite giving us some decidedly cool characters like Cedric Diggory and Nymphadora Tonks) as the miscellaneous StrawLoser house.

** Within Hogwarts, which is an AbsurdlyDividedSchool due to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_system house system]], Slytherin House is treated as the Jim Jonestown house. Okay, on paper Slytherin is associated with ambition and strategy, but [[AmbitionIsEvil in practice]] Slytherin is seen as the home of bullying, [[FantasticCasteSystem elitist]] villains. (To be fair the other houses have their share of bad eggs too, and later in the series we meet some decent Slytherins.) Meanwhile, Ravenclaw House has more of a Sokal reputation, given that Ravenclaw students are selected for intelligence, though this can also take the form of eccentric outside-the-box thinkers like Luna Lovegood (and the occasional deluded egomaniac like Gilderoy Lockhart, who merely ''presents'' himself as talented). The other two houses are less associated with specific Strawman U tropes: Gryffindor is the {{badass}} house, while {{Hufflepuff|House}} is theoretically associated with loyalty and diligence but in practice is stereotyped (both InUniverse and among much of the fandom) as the miscellaneous StrawLoser house.

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here until he got expelled for delving a bit ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards too]]'' far into BlackMagic. On the other hand some of the students are decent people, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum, who visits Hogwarts in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' along with Durmstrang's other candidates for the Triwizard Tournament. The ''other'' delegation at the tournament comes from a French WizardingSchool called Beauxbatons that seems more in the St. Old Geezer the Posh mold, as evidenced by Fleur Delacour's snooty disparagement of Hogwarts, itself a thousand-year-old British BoardingSchool located in a literal castle!

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here until he got expelled for delving a bit ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards too]]'' far into BlackMagic. On the other hand some of the students are decent people, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum, who visits Hogwarts in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' along with Durmstrang's other candidates for the Triwizard Tournament. The ''other'' delegation at the tournament comes from a French WizardingSchool called Beauxbatons that seems more in the St. Old Geezer the Posh mold, as evidenced by Fleur Delacour's snooty disparagement of Hogwarts, a thousand-year-old British BoardingSchool located in a literal castle!

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here until he got expelled for delving a bit ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards too]]'' far into BlackMagic. On the other hand some of the students are decent people, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum, who visits Hogwarts in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' along with Durmstrang's other candidates for the Triwizard Tournament. The ''other'' delegation at the tournament comes from a French WizardingSchool called Beauxbatons that seems more in the St. Old Geezer the Posh mold, as evidenced by Fleur Delacour's disparaging comments about Hogwarts, a thousand-year-old British BoardingSchool located in a literal castle!

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here until he got expelled for delving a bit ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards too]]'' far into BlackMagic. On the other hand some of the students are decent people, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum, who visits Hogwarts in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' along with Durmstrang's other candidates for the Triwizard Tournament. The ''other'' delegation at the tournament comes from a French WizardingSchool called Beauxbatons that seems more in the St. Old Geezer the Posh mold, as evidenced by Fleur Delacour's disparaging comments about Hogwarts, a thousand-year-old British {{boarding school|s}} located in a literal castle!

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here until he got expelled for delving a bit ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards too]]'' far into BlackMagic. On the other hand some of the students are decent people, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum, who visits Hogwarts in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' along with other candidates for the Triwizard Tournament.

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here until he got expelled for delving a bit ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards too]]'' far into BlackMagic. On the other hand some of the students are decent people, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum, who visits Hogwarts in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' along with the other candidates for the Triwizard Tournament.

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here before being expelled for delving a bit ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards too]]'' far into BlackMagic. On the other hand some of the students aren't all that bad, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum, who visits Hogwarts in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' along with the other candidates for the Triwizard Tournament.

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute, first introduced in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here before being expelled for delving a bit ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards too]]'' far into BlackMagic. On the other hand some of the students aren't all that bad, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum.

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here before being expelled for delving a bit ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards too]]'' far into BlackMagic. On the other hand some of the students aren't all that bad, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum.

* The Literature/HarryPotter series's Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts). PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, the most dreaded EvilSorcerer before [[BigBad Voldemort]], went here. On the other hand some of the students aren't all that bad, including beloved athlete Viktor Krum.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', Durmstrang Institute appears to be a fantastical {{Uberwald}}ian Jim Jonestown, with a former [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] for a headmaster, a [[FantasticRacism discriminatory policy]] excluding [[MageBornOfMuggles Muggle-born]] students, and a curriculum that teaches TheDarkArts (while Hogwarts only teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts).

Life outside studies consists of getting intoxicated and performing hacks and pranks. And, of course, MacGyvering things. Every other dorm looks like a complex maze of adjoined {{Hacker Cave}}s built over miles upon miles of underground steam tunnels to play [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] in. Expect a lot of science, astronomy and chemistry geeks, {{Playful Hacker}}s, {{otaku}} and LARP fanatics. ''Everyone'' will be [[MotherNatureFatherScience male]] and [[NerdsAreVirgins single]], save perhaps for the occasional TechBro the rest of them worship as a heroic figure (and who's still male anyway).

* There's a plethora of fundamentalist Christian UrbanLegends about a student humiliating a smug HollywoodAtheist professor in an argument; Rational Wiki has a whole [[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Atheist_professor_myth article]] full of them. One popular variant ends with the TomatoSurprise that the victorious student was a young UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, which led to the phrase "And his name? Albert Einstein!" becoming a meme in New Atheist circles.

* The University of Southern California is often stereotyped as this (but with American football instead of rugby): alumni of their rival UCLA joke that "you can work your way into UCLA, or buy your way into USC". This got less funny after Operation Varsity Blues: of all the families accused by the FBI of bribing their children into college, more than half bribed USC, and the university's image is still recovering. (Funnily enough, USC is located right next to the infamous {{Gangsterland South Central}}, while UCLA is located close to super-rich Beverly Hills)

* The University of Southern California is often stereotyped as this (but with the NFL instead of rugby): alumni of their rival UCLA joke that "you can work your way into UCLA or buy your way into USC". This got less funny after Operation Varsity Blues: of all the families accused of bribing their children into college, more than half bribed USC, and the university's image is still recovering. (Funnily enough, USC is located right next to the infamous [[Gangsterland South Central]], while UCLA is located close to super-rich Beverly Hills

"Shameless" is simply not enough to describe this school. It's is filled with [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl nudists]], {{Granola Girl}}s demanding you go vegan, {{Hollywood Atheist}}s who get furious at the mere mention of something vaguely religious and won't hesitate to tell you you're a [[Main/BeliefMakesYouStupid deluded fundie who believes in an Invisible Sky Wizard Fascist who Doesn't Believe In Rationality]], [[TheStoner stoners]], {{Straw Nihilist}}s, [[DirtyCommunists angry socialists/communists/anarchists/your choice of far-left radicals]] spending most of their time plotting to overthrow Western civilization if they're not fighting each other on how truly leftist they are, [[MalcolmXerox pissed-off black nationalists]] and/or [[EverythingIsRacist similarly militant minorities]] who really hate white students and/or minorities not their own, [[StrawFeminist angry radical feminists]] who see sexism everywhere and will fight you (and each other) over your role in enforcing gender norms (or even not enforcing gender norms), irritating, pretentious, elitist {{hipster}}s wearing risible fashions and [[ItsPopularNowItSucks sneering at "the mainstream"]] (anything not their art, really), radical postmodernist philosophers who claim everything up to basic logic itself is but a social construct and/or systemic oppression, [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot angry marijuana-toking nihilist anarchosocialist-communist anti-white radfeminist hipster Nudist artists]]. The faculty will be all of the above -- just with pieces of paper saying they're better educated. And they'll probably throw nudist parties with weed.

Like Sokal, a [[AwesomeEgo shamelessly elitist]] IvyLeagueForEveryone, but unlike Sokal without the shameless focus on hard science. It does, however, has a shameless focus on social elitism; how intellectual it actually is, is less important. In fact, what it does is not as important as what it ''is'': a stately, centuries-old school that will never let you forget the weight of its history. Ever. The buildings and interiors are all of well-worn stone and polished hard wood, possibly built in some sort of Gothic Revival architecture (or simply Medieval Gothic, especially if in Europe), there might be marble statues standing around, and the school might actually put the "tower" back in "ivory tower". Expect everyone on the premises to be some flavour of WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant (or its local equivalent), with just enough minority figures to fend off accusations of ''overt'' favouritism, and predominantly male. JewishAndNerdy is just enough on the posh side to register as minority while not looking too out of place. If a specific faculty is mentioned, it's probably going to be Literature, History, Classical Studies or some other discipline that carries the connotations of "old" and "posh" -- Law, Medicine and Mathematics being among the more practical to still check out -- and there might actually be a Theology faculty as a leftover of the school's ancient past. The teaching staff will include many an AbsentMindedProfessor, who unlike in Sokal, will probably spend more time eating lavish dinners with other members of the faculty than doing science, supplemented with a DeanBitterman enforcing the school's centuries-old rules in the name of Tradition, a ScaryLibrarian standing guard over the school's [[SpookySilentLibrary spooky]] [[GreatBigLibraryOfEverything old library]], and [[Film/DeadPoetsSociety an occasional Robin Williams lookalike encouraging his students to read old literature]]. The most outright hostility you'll encounter, aside from the stuffy deans not allowing fun, is probably the [[CausticCritic bizarrely angry film/art/literary critic]] who may be as much of a [[TheGadfly contrarian as the protagonists]] and is either angering the faculty or the protagonists by claiming some well-lauded work is, in fact, total rubbish. Traditional gowns and headgear might actually be used as everyday clothing.

Expect a grand hallway in the main building with oil painting portraits of notable alumni and statues of Nobel laureates who have graduated there. If the university is European, it ''will'' have a centuries long history, often claiming it is [[NewerThanTheyThink older than the Aztec Empire]]. There will be Latin and/or Greek inscriptions everywhere, and the university itself ''will'' have a PretentiousLatinMotto. There may be marble tables listing the alumni who have died in the nation's wars. The university takes exceptional pride on being ranked among the top 50 universities in the world [[note]]there are some 10,000 universities and colleges in the world[[/note]].

[[folder: Western Animation]]