A very uncommon type of institutional self-awareness occurs when an organization considers its own identity and consciously and collectively chooses to make a joke out of it. For more than 20 years, the Rhode Island School of Design has been doing just that. Scrotie, the school’s unofficial mascot, is a seven-foot anthropomorphic penis wearing a red cape that wanders the edges of basketball courts and hockey rinks in Providence. Nowhere is that posture more obvious, literally.
This detail may be the best way to describe RISD. Since its founding in 1877 as one of the nation’s first art and design schools, RISD has consistently treated nearly everything with a kind of elevated skepticism while taking studio work very seriously. In particular, athletics appears to be more of a conceptual performance than a competition at the school. The hockey team is known as the Nads. “Go Nads!” is their cheer, and it reverberates through arenas with a genuineness that is completely, exquisitely ironic. The official slogan of the basketball team, “When the heat is on, The Balls stick together,” seems to have gone through three rounds of editorial approval before anyone even blinked. The team is simply known as The Balls.
But Scrotie didn’t just show up. In order to save the Nads hockey team from obscurity, the mascot was developed in 2001. By then, the team had played to almost empty stands for the majority of the 1990s—the kind of silence that descends upon a gym when people just stop caring. B is a puppet designer. Yes, the first costume was constructed, and regardless of one’s opinion of the aesthetic decisions made, the plan was successful. The crowds came back. Students were present. The use of a massive phallic mascot as a tool for community revitalization is almost touching.
The original costume was short-lived. Scrotie allegedly made fun of opposing supporters so violently during a 2004 game against the Massachusetts Maritime Academy that onlookers physically attacked and destroyed the costume. It’s the kind of incident that seems fictitious but isn’t, and it reveals something about the character’s ability to create intensity. Later iterations of the suit came in a variety of colors, including bright red, a purple that was said to be unsettling, and standard skin tone. One version was reportedly designed to shoot water from the tip. Depending on how you feel about conceptual art, you may or may not find that detail admirable.
Beyond the obvious shock-comedy element, the administration’s stance is what really makes the whole thing interesting. RISD does not support Scrotie, but it does tolerate it. The character is prohibited from appearing on campus, but it is permitted at athletic events. Acknowledging the existence of something without either claiming it or shutting it down is a neat institutional compromise. The mascot is still entirely student-driven, which is likely what keeps it going. The joke only works on the periphery; official adoption would most likely destroy it.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that something like this could only occur in an art school. The mascot at the majority of universities is an extension of the institutional identity; it is meticulously maintained, brand-consistent, and the result of committee choices and trademark applications. The students at RISD essentially turned that entire tradition into a satire, which they continued for over 20 years. A documentary about the Nads and the Scrotie experience was even premiered by students in 2024, indicating that the mythology is still producing authentic creative energy rather than fading into stale tradition.
It’s unclear if Scrotie qualifies as a mascot in any traditional sense. However, it has outlasted many more reputable alternatives as an ongoing work of performance art that fills seats, incites rival fans, and withstands being physically destroyed at a hockey game. Seth MacFarlane, David Byrne, and the co-founders of Airbnb are all products of the Rhode Island School of Design. Additionally, it quietly gave rise to one of the more peculiar and long-lasting experiments in American college spirit culture. That most likely reveals something about the school. What exactly is still unknown.
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