With the The Game approaching, the Yale-Harvard rivalry looms sharper than ever. But while “#yuckfale” and ingeniously original chants of “safety school” across the football stadium are all good fun, how do Harvard and Yale measure up off the field and in the studio? Here are five of Harvard’s (evil) twin counterparts to some of Yale’s most popular student arts groups. 

1. The Yale Whiffenpoofs vs. The Harvard Krokodiloes

The Yale Whiffenpoofs, the world’s oldest and “best-known” collegiate a cappella group meets its match with the Harvard Krokodiloes. Founded in 1909, the Whiffs sing hits from across the decades and perform more than 200 concerts across six continents each year. The Harvard Krokodiloes, self-professed “oldest and cutest” a cappella group at Harvard trace their roots back to 1946. 

There are some striking similarities between the groups — both the Whiffs and the Kroks were originally founded as quartets. According to the Krokodiloes’ general manager Gregor Kossmann, the Kroks’ initial foursome were four members of the Hasty Pudding Club, Harvard’s oldest collegiate social organization. 

Both groups have a history as bar habitués; the Whiffenpoofs trace their origins to Mory’s Temple Bar, while the Krokodiloes were frequenters of Pudding’s Upstairs Bar. The groups also share strange animal namesakes. The Whiffenpoofs are named for a fictional dragonfish in the Victor Herbert musical comedy Little Nemo. According to Krossman, Harvard’s pioneering songsters were inspired by the stuffed crocodiles mounted on the wall of the Pudding’s Upstairs Bar. The group adopted the Greek word for crocodile, and the Krokodiloes were born — is Krokodiloes more pretentious for being Hellenized?

Finally, both groups boast a diverse repertoire. 

“We like to make the whole show a performance, so we incorporate humor bits, choreography, more upbeat songs and slower ballads,” said Krossmann. 

Still, there are some notable differences. The Whiffenpoofs are a group of 14, while the Harvard Kroks number only 12. TikTok popularity is another divergence; the Yale Whiffenpoofs have 652 followers on Tiktok, while the Kroks boast over a whopping 203,900 followers on the platform. Krossman told me that this newfound fame has been a notable experience. 

“When I had just joined, we weren’t really that well known,” said Krossmann. “I still had to explain to a lot of people around campus who the Kroks were. Then, throughout 2023 and 2024, we kind of blew up on TikTok and Instagram. It’s been super cool traveling around the world and, for example, getting recognized in the streets of Japan.”

2. The Purple Crayon vs. On Thin Ice

The Purple Crayon is America’s oldest collegiate long-form improv group. At each year’s Yale-Harvard game, with the exception of this one, they collaborate with their Harvard counterpart and self-professed “hot and chill” improv group On Thin Ice. 

Founded in 1985, the Purple Crayon hosts several shows each year on campus, appears at various comedy festivals and tours each spring and fall. Performances mostly consist of one or two 25-minute sets. 

In contrast to the Crayon’s long-form improv, On Thin Ice is Harvard’s only short-form improv group, founded just one year prior in 1984. Serena Jampel, co-president of On Thin Ice, said that the group performs about once a month for Harvard audiences and has also done shows for other colleges locally and in the Atlantic area. 

“Because we’re a short-form group, we do a series of games in the style of ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway.’ In practicing the games, you learn the form and learn how to build up a joke. We also do some musical improv, so at many of our shows we’ll spend 10 to 20 minutes creating a musical on the spot,” said Jampel. 

On Thin Ice, despite being rivals with the Crayons, had only nice things to say about Yale’s group. 

“We love Purple Crayon. We’re huge fans,” said Jampel. “We performed with them at Harvard-Yale when it was at Harvard, and they graciously invited us to join them last year at Yale. Now we’re welcoming them back. They’re hilarious, they’re wonderful. They’re also hot and chill, I’ll let them join us on that.” 

Both groups boast an extensive range of notable alumni, including actor Phil LaMarr ’88, film director and comic book writer Greg Pak ’90 and writer Alex Rubens ’00 from the Purple Crayon and Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson from On Thin Ice. 

3. Yale Glee Club vs. Harvard Glee Club

The Yale Glee Club, established in 1861, and the Harvard Glee Club, founded slightly earlier in 1858, are two of the oldest collegiate choral groups in the United States. While the Yale Glee Club is co-ed and includes all voice parts, the Harvard Glee Club is a tenor-based choir of 60 voices, forming a trio of Harvard’s choral organizations alongside the Radcliffe Choral Society and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. 

Max Semegran, president of the Harvard Glee Club, expanded on Glee’s repertoire. 

“We’ve been singing songs from the Renaissance, folk music traditions, Harvard football songs and contemporary compositions,” he explained. Both Harvard and Yale Glee also commission and perform new works — Harvard through student composition programs and Yale sponsorship of two annual competitions for young composers. 

Both groups have a strong tradition of touring internationally. Yale Glee Club has performed in every major city in the United States and hosts performances throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa, while Harvard’s recent Western European tour included performances in venues like London, Paris and Milan’s Duomo. 

The groups collaborate annually during the 132-year-old football concert tradition, though since 2019 the Radcliffe Choral Society has joined Harvard Glee, allowing for performances with all four voice parts. Semegran recounted last year’s concert at Yale with fondness.

 “Our music building, I hate to admit, is not as well-endowed,” said Semegran. “We were really impressed with [Yale’s] music building and how expansive it was. There was also a very nice reception afterward where we were treated to hors d’oeuvres and drinks. We’re trying to return the favor this year.”

4. The Yale Dramatic Association vs. The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club

Founded in 1901, the Yale Dramatic Association is Yale’s largest undergraduate theater organization and the second-oldest in the nation. Over 100 current students and thousands of alumni have been involved in six annual shows: two experimental productions staffed entirely by students, the First-Year Show — or FroShow — that is run and performed entirely by first years, Fall and Spring Mainstages in the University Theatre that are collaborations between professionals and students and the annual student-staffed Commencement Musical after spring finals. This fall’s experimental play “Stupid Fucking Bird” premiered at Iseman Theater to a sold-out audience. 

The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club — or HRDC — founded in 1908, is an umbrella organization headquartered at the Loeb Drama Center, the home of the American Repertory Theater. According to HRDC co-president Emma Barnes,  as opposed to Yale’s Dramat, the Harvard drama scene is much more decentralized. 

The HRDC simply facilitates productions led by a wide range of student groups like the Asian Student Arts Project, or ASAP, the Harvard Black Community and Student Theater Group, or Black C.A.S.T., the Hyperion Shakespeare Company and the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players, who are dedicated to comic opera. 

“We do a lot of high-level support for shows,” said Barnes. “Every production at Harvard is put up by smaller organizations or groups of students, not by the HRDC, but we work with these groups to facilitate them using our spaces or with our centralized casting process.”

Barnes continued, “This semester we have 12 productions that we consider HRDC productions, and we usually have 10-15 productions a semester.” Groups can apply for spaces and assistance through a venue application process that happens at the end of every semester, where they explain their visions and expectations for their show. 

Barnes also said that HRDC has a strong tradition of supporting undergraduate student-written productions like an annual musical. 

5. Bonus: Yale Undergraduate Consulting Group vs. Harvard College Consulting Group

Anonymous sources from both Yale and Harvard vigorously asserted that “consulting is also an art form.” The News was unable to independently verify this claim.