It was a movie about one day in the life of a group of high school kids (and soon to be high school kids).  The two main story arcs were Jason London taking a stand on principle and Wiley Wiggins perfect day (even the ### tanning which he handled like a man after a nails performance in his baseball game).  Another overriding theme was the cycle of the whole process with the younger generation being mirror images of the graduating seniors.  And hazing is mean spirited and dooshy, it doesn't make the people who do it bad it just makes them normal high school kids.  I think they captured every aspect of it almost perfectly.  Of course high school hazing in my day fortunately didn't involve paddles, but if it did I would definitely have named mine "Soul Pole"  

 .I can see why those things might rub some the wrong way, but to me they felt honest and it didn't take me out of the comedy.  It really is one of my top comedies.