Jimmermania

In case you've been living in a cave for the last couple of months, I thought I'd just let you in on some news - Jimmermania has taken over BYU campus, the happy valley, the state of Utah and frankly, much of the United States and beyond. To infinity and beyond, actually is the reach of Jimmermania.
Don't think so? Well, then you haven't read any newspapers, national magazines, listened to any radio or sports broadcasts or been on the internet. Jimmer is e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e! And he should be!
For example, check out this link - Jimmer the greatest Mormon missionary in the world.

Some naive girl wrote a letter to the editor at the BYU student newspaper about how she was tired of Jimmer and the “idol worship” of him at BYU. Here is some of her letter:

I can’t walk across campus without hearing Jimmer Fredette’s name a dozen times. His name comes up everywhere: in class, at work, during lunch … really, people? Cut it out with the Jimmer worship. Last time I checked, idol worship was very much frowned upon in the scriptures.

Don’t you have a life to live? Then quit wasting it in front of the TV or in lines at the Marriott Center…

…As far as I’m concerned, Jimmer is perfectly free to live his dreams. If he reaches his goals and lives his dreams, more power to him. I would like the same courtesy from his fans: let me live my own dreams in peace, even if they don’t include ever sitting in the Marriott Center screaming my brains out.

And then she posted a link to the letter on her Facebook wall, which was completely open for anyone to comment. Someone on Cougarboard picked it up, and 600 posts later, she closed her Facebook wall. The posts were hilarious! We should poke fun at ourselves and our funny cultural idiosyncrasies. Here is the link. You can read all 600 comments by clicking the link at the bottom of the article. It just goes to show - Thou shalt not mess with Jimmer.

Some of my favorites were: (out of the 100 or so I actually read)

~Double Jimmer all across the sky

~One time the BYU basketball team was walking across the beach and they looked back and only saw one set of footprints.

~While playing Scrabble, if you spell the name Jimmer, you automatically win. Forever.

~You are invited to attend the first church of Jimmer. We worship every Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon.

~Jimmer, I didn't say it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.

Many national news outlets picked up the story. This from ESPN:

But asking Jimmer fans to tone it down? At BYU? In a public forum? Bad idea. Even worse idea? Posting about the letter on your public Facebook wall and leaving that wall open to comments. As you'd expect, it took approximately .03 seconds for fellow students and BYU fans to find that thread and begin posting hundreds of hilarious Jimmer-related comments, a sampling of which you read at the top of this post. (And there are so, SO many more.) My favorite thing about this thread: None of the comments (at least none that I read, and I spent a solid 40 minutes reading through them) are overtly angry, profane, unintelligent or mean. Instead, they're hilarious. They combine Chuck Norris jokes with obscure bits of Jimmer-appropriated scripture. I suppose this is what happens when you mix the intelligent sarcasm of your average college student with the religious knowledge you'd expect from kids at a devotional school like Brigham Young. All in all, it adds up to some good-natured, harmless, uproarious fun. That thread might be the best thing I've read this season. And the message is simple: Do not besmirch the name of thy Jimmer in Provo, at least if your Facebook wall is accessible to everyone with an account. Because that Facebook wall will get Jimmered. Hard.