If you were watching Tennessee State versus Duke on Monday night, you might have seen something weird in the crowd. That weird something is a Duke fan cheering on her team not by clapping, but by smacking her hand on the head of a fake baby.
Are we really just gonna sit here and pretend like this woman was not just slapping the shit out of her baby?! #babyslap pic.twitter.com/t6Xp5SMsxP
— Sam Stix (@Stixsam) December 20, 2016
Again, this is a baby doll, which if you look closely, should be very obvious, but it’s not pointed out in the video tweet above, because we live in a cynical world.
Yes the baby is fake, but if i say the baby is fake the tweet doesn't get the same love... the hundreds of people callin me out can cool it
— Sam Stix (@Stixsam) December 20, 2016
This is not first time this has been done at a Duke game. In 2015, a Duke fan (who may or may not be the same woman) brought a baby doll to a game, and well, she violently shook the doll to cheer on the team.
The Cameron Crazies — the nickname for Duke’s student section — use a baby doll because of a chant, according to ESPN:
The Cameron Crazies are renowned for their clever chants, but, really, like Seinfeld's stand-up act, their effectiveness is about delivery and timing as much as it is about content.
They hold up a baby doll, and chant "O-Baby." When a Florida State player misses a dunk, they chide him with, "You can't dunk!" Some fans wear chef's hats in homage to Krzyzewski.
It seems to be one of those celebrations that no one really knows how it started or why it stuck, judging from the responses from Duke fans in this Reddit thread. In any case, y’all are weird.