Gaudeamus igitur

The lyrics reflect an endorsement of the bacchanalian mayhem of student life while simultaneously retaining the grim knowledge that one day we will all die. The song contains humorous and ironic references to sex[1] and death, and many versions have appeared following efforts to bowdlerise this song for performance in public ceremonies. In private, students will typically sing ribald words.

The song is sometimes known by its opening words, "Gaudeamus igitur" or simply "Gaudeamus". In the UK, it is sometimes affectionately known as "The Gaudie". The centuries of use have given rise to numerous slightly different versions.

• The melody is woven through the soundtrack of Harold Lloyd's silent film The Freshman (1925).
• It can be heard in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, during part of the sequence where the Wizard presents awards to each of Dorothy's companions.
• The song is sung in the James Stewart movie The Mortal Storm (1940).
• It was sung in Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire (1941) by a number of academics at a party where they are celebrating the upcoming nuptials of a professor played by Gary Cooper.
• It is sung in the remake of Ball of Fire, A Song Is Born (1948), starring Danny Kaye.
• It is performed as the musical theme of the classic 1951 Joseph L. Mankiewicz's film People Will Talk, delightfully "conducted" by Cary Grant - actually under Alfred Newman's baton. This film is a remake of the German Frauenarzt Dr. Praetorius, in which actor/director Curt Goetz performs that scene with the same music in the film based on his own play and screenplay.
• In Yasujirō Ozu’s 1952 film The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (Ochazuke no Aji), the first verse is sung in a Tokyo bar by a young man who has just graduated and is about to embark on his working life.
• The song is sung on several occasions during the film The Student Prince, (1954), starring Edmund Purdom and Ann Blyth.
• The music is played at the end of the Perry Mason TV episode "The Case of the Brazen Request," (Season 5, Episode 12, Sept. 1961) during Perry's characteristic "wrap up" of the case.
• Peter Alexander sings this song in a medley in the 1963 film Der Musterknabe.
• An arrangement of the tune is played on The Andy Griffith Show episode "The Education of Ernest T. Bass" (1964), when Bass receives his diploma.
• In the film Lord Love a Duck (1966), a fairly modern vocal version is sung during graduation ceremonies.
• The Happy Days episode "Fonzie Drops In" (1974) plays the melody when the character Fonzie goes back to high school.
• It is alluded to in the Terry Pratchett novel Equal Rites (1987), where the character Treatle misquotes it: "Alma mater, gaudy armours eagle tour and so on."
• A modified version can be heard in some episodes of the Saturday-morning cartoon Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
• The melody also served as the music of the fictional school, Greenleaf High anthem, 'Hail To Thee O Greenleaf High' in the 1997 film In and Out.[11]
• The song is sung in Lars von Trier's 1997 Danish TV mini-series Riget II, by a group of medical students as a sign of appreciation to their pathology teacher Professor Bondo, as a response to the latter having let a malign sarcoma be transplanted into his own bowels.
• An excerpt of the song was performed by cast members of the television series The West Wing during the episode entitled "Debate Camp" (2002). Afterward, one character is asked by another what the lyrics mean, and he gives a standard English translation of the first verse.
• A sped-up orchestral version of the song plays shortly during a scene of the characters chasing a pet pig in the 2013 film Monsters University.
• In the 2013 Dutch film Feuten: Het Feestje, the song is sung to uplift spirits, after a party of the fictional student society HSV Mercurius is shut down by riot police. Singing the song makes them feel proud to be students, as they stand their ground against the riot police.
• Yale University alumna Jodie Foster included a slightly sped-up version of the Yale Glee Club's 1991 a cappella recording of the song, arranged and conducted by legendary YGC Director Fenno Heath, in her 1991 film Little Man Tate. She wished to express "the grandeur of the college experience" on exceptionally-gifted-child character Fred Tate's first day at university.
• The song's title is featured in several section headings in Infinite Jest.
• This song is sung at Smith College's convocation ceremony in Northampton, Massachusetts at the start of every academic year. It is known as Smith's anthem.
• "Gaudeamus Igitur" is a short story by Shirley Jackson that appears in Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writing. [12]
• The song was often heard in Tiny Toon Adventures' in establishing shots of Acme Looniversity.

• Ars longa, vita brevis
• Gaudy

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gaudeamus igitur.

Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article: Gaudeamus Igitur

German Wikisource has original text related to this article: Allgemeines Deutsches Kommersbuch:122

• De Brevitate Vitae performed by the Roosevelt Academy Choir
• Gaudeamus Igitur, lyrics in Latin, English, German, Finnish and Esperanto, midi and mp3 recordings
• Hoisting of the FISU flag during the opening ceremonies of the XXV Summer Universiade Belgrade 2009
• Gaudeamus Igitur sung at Smith College convocation, 2008 Note the stomping and enthusiasm for the "Vivat academia!" and "Vivant professores" lines.
• Thank you to our donors A witty presentation of Gaudeamus by the University of Sydney
• Gaudeamus Igitur. Full Latin version. Sung by Basil Billow (audio)