Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

Realist, suddenly noticed that when he made the V of the peace sign with his fingers, hisentire arm formed a Y shape (Jack Hoffman 89). From this “dope joke” of turning a Vinto a Y, Krassner came up with the idea of “Yippie” (David Farber, Chicago 3; Rubin,Growing 82). “Yippie” played on the word “hippie,” the slang term for members of thepacifist counterculture, and also “yippee,” an exclamation of joy. The word “Yippie” inturn lead to the idea of political movement named the YIP: the Youth International Party.An alternative narrative of the genesis of Yippie places the core group on vacationin Florida in December, 1967, where they enjoyed the sights of the Seaquarium whileunder the influence of the drug LSD, and were inspired to form the Youth InternationalParty by a “smirking dolphin” (Krassner, “Morning” 37; “Anita” 45). They then returnedto New York for the New Year’s Eve party. The two different narratives of how Yippiebegan demonstrate the fluid nature of Yippie history. The tendency of the Yippies tocontradict and embellish their own history stems from their mind-altering drug use,competing memories of the same event, and a general Yippie preference for good storiesover bare facts. It seems likely that the origins of Yippie lie in both narratives, and thatthe concept of Yippie formed over several days in late December, 1967.The differing origin narratives for the Yippie movement serve as a usefulreminder of the constructed nature of history. My narrative of the Yippies can never trulyknow the exactness of Yippie events, not only because historical moments andperformance are ephemeral, but because the Yippies were a tongue-in-cheek movement.Yippie documentation is suspect because the Yippies delighted in confusing the media.Even in books published for an audience of their own followers, Rubin and Abbie23