Homecoming Weekend is a beloved University tradition that reunites old friends and provides alumni with a warm welcome back to campus. While this can seem like just a normal weekend for some, the arrival of one particular University graduate stirred headlines.

Barles Cheers ’19, former satire editor and creator of NBC sitcom “The Bucknellian,” had an inauspicious start to his visit. 

Cheers arrived on campus to attend an alumni career panel in MacDonald Commons but fell into the newly-constructed koi pond between Academic East and Academic West. Unfamiliar with the layout of the new features on campus, Cheers became the first person to fall victim to the pond.

“I guess a lot has changed since I graduated,” Cheers said. “This was definitely not a good sign for the rest of the weekend. I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.”

Cheers eventually arrived at the panel, soaked from his slip, hoping to discuss the third season of “The Bucknellian.” While the show has received critical acclaim, Cheers was surprised to find that University students were largely unaware of the show’s existence. 

“I only watch shows on Netflix, so I had no idea what show Cheers was talking about,” Regina Manager ’22, a student who attended the career panel, said.

As Cheers exited the career panel, he was pulled aside by Public Safety for questioning. According to Officer Toby Flenderson, an ongoing investigation revealed that Cheers had been secretly living for the past four months at Stuck House, the University’s home for student media and site of the inception of “The Bucknellian” sitcom. After the University installed DOORO, a security app that requires dual authentication to enter buildings, Cheers resorted to sleeping on Stuck House’s back porch.

Local law officers arrived on the scene to detain Cheers, who had previously been evicted from Stuck House following his graduation from the University.

Eddy Inchief ’20, a close friend of Cheers who served as assistant to the production manager when the show first launched, expressed shock at Cheers’ sudden arrest.

“I know Barles better than practically anyone else. He would never hurt a fly,” Inchief said. “Although now that I think about it, he did once hit one of our staff members with his car.”

As most Homecoming visitors made their way towards St. Catharine Street on Saturday afternoon, Cheers was seen entering a police vehicle, attempting to shoot surprised facial expressions at passersby as if he were in a mockumentary, and referencing quotes from an old television show he copied to produce “The Bucknellian.”

“I just wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days, before you actually left them,” Cheers said.