Blanket party

A blanket party is a means of corporal punishment or hazing conducted by a peer group. Blanket parties are most frequently conducted by groups within the military or military academies. In a blanket party, the victim is restrained by having a blanket flung over him and held down at the corners while he sleeps, then the remaining members of the group strike him repeatedly with improvised "flails" (a sock or bath towel containing something solid, most commonly a bar of soap). During the times of Vietnam, the weapons used varied. Often it was an entrenching tool (folding shovel) which was part of the field gear, or a bunk adapter-piece of pipe used to put a bunk on top of another. Blows to the head were avoided.

Also seen were scrub brushes used for KP although these were more often used for a G.I. Scrub when a person wouldn't bathe. Sometimes the person was also urinated upon while pinned down.

The act of the blanket party became widely known within pop culture by its portrayal in the Stanley Kubrick movie Full Metal Jacket.

The use of blanket parties and other forms of corporal punishment are now illegal within America's military.

In popular culture

• In the film Full Metal Jacket the members of a platoon in training give a blanket party to Private Leonard Lawrence (nicknamed Private Pyle, a reference to 1960's U.S. television character Gomer Pyle) as retaliation for getting them into trouble whenever Pyle fails to succeed in basic training. After the beating, they subtly threaten to do it again if Pyle were to rat them out to the senior drill instructor.
• In the stage play and film A Few Good Men a pivotal plot point is the death of Private Santiago; the extrajudicial punishment given to Santiago is referred to as a "Code Red," a term invented for the play.
• In one episode of The Wayans Bros. Brothers, Marlon and Shawn have a stakeout in their apartment and throw Pops (their father) a blanket party when he enters their home, mistaking him for a burglar who had previously robbed them.
• In the Family Guy episode "No Chris Left Behind," Chris Griffin falls victim of a variation of a blanket party when he goes to a private boarding school. He is beaten with socks that contain money rather than soap.
• In the American Dad! episode "Bullocks To Stan," Stan Smith uses a blanket party in an attempt to toughen up Jeff.
• In the South Park episode "Lice Capades," when everyone thought Kenny had lice, Cartman tells everyone to get a sock and bar of soap. While it appears that they're going to give him a blanket party, they are actually going to wash him with the soap and dry him with the sock.
• The film Igby Goes Down begins with a blanket party.
• In The Shield episode "Dragonchasers" Julien and two other police officers give a blanket party to a cross-dressing criminal who tried to infect Danny with HIV.
• In The Shield episode "Playing Tight" Julien is given a blanket party by a number of police officers as revenge for losing their jobs as a result of bullying him about his homosexuality.
• In the JAG episode "The Brotherhood", Harm Rabb is suspicious of the members of Charlie company having blanket parties.
• In "Resurrection Ship", a second-season episode of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Karl "Helo" Agathon and Chief Galen Tyrol receive a blanket party from several members of the Battlestar Pegasus crew.