It can get cold - very cold - in Northfield, Minn. And with a team that went 0-10 last year and is 0-9 this season, you might think there was little reason to go to a Carleton College football game.

But some of college football's best entertainment can be seen at Carleton games in the person of the Gender Neutral Cheerboys and the Honking Knights pep band.

The Cheerboys, sporting spiffy yellow T-shirts and toting megaphones and pompoms, try to pump up the crowds with their cheers. And the Honking Knights, a group partial to kazoos, provide the soundtrack. Especially if you like "I'm a Little Teapot." More on that later.

The Honking Knights - their number fluctuates between eight and 25 or so - have been around for four seasons and feature clarinets, saxophones, French horns, trombones, drums and, of course, trumpets.

"We have more trumpets than any other ensemble on campus," said Matt Strait, a senior physics major from Oak Park, Ill., who plays the contralto clarinet in the group. "I have no idea why. It just happened."

They provide the perfect musical accompaniment for the Cheerboys - a half-dozen strong - who were formed last year to try to ignite some school spirit during the Knights' winless season. They've succeeded to a degree: The fans love them, although the Knights could still be blanked for a second straight year.

And what kind of routines do the Cheerboys perform to fire up the crowd?

"Well, 'routine' is a strong word," said Justin Schoolmaster, a senior music major from Evanston. "We're crowd motivators. We have cheers and chants. But we're definitely not like regular cheerleaders."

He can say that again.

One cheer is known as the Oompa Loompa cheer.

"It's a cheer with a dance and a chant based on characters from Willy Wonka," explained Sarah Maxwell, director of Carleton's news bureau.

Asked how it goes, she only giggled.

Maxwell also said that the Gender Neutral Cheerboys are known for the occasional physical routine ... er, stunt.

"Sometimes they do pyramids that fall down," she said. "You don't have to necessarily be athletic to join."

The Cheerboys also have learned the importance of props.

"We took a piece of cardboard and cut out the letter D," Schoolmaster said. "Then we took a portion of a fence from near the stadium. And we put them about 10 feet apart. One person holds up the D, one person holds up the fence. Then they get closer together, and the crowd does the 'De-Fense! De-Fense!' cheer."

Then they pushed their luck.

"We tried to turn the D into an O when we were on offense, but that didn't work out as well."

The show at Carleton is definitely a two-act performance.

The Honking Knights have their own idiosyncrasies, such as playing the fight song of archrival St. Olaf - the Fighting Oles, for those into team nicknames - in a minor key. (And for the record, this year the Oles slipped by the Knights, 49-0.)

Then there's their fondness for that classic football tune "I'm a Little Teapot."

The band used to play "Teapot" in a minor key - Strait sang a few dirgelike bars - every time Carleton's opponent scored. "But the other team scored so much, the football team told us to stop it because it was depressing," he said. "So we don't do it anymore."

They do play it now in the proper key - not necessarily after touchdowns or at halftime but at random moments of musical inspiration.

Lest anyone believe the Cheerboys and Honking Knights are in this merely to poke fun at a struggling football team, think again.

"It's definitely not looked upon as any kind of mockery," Schoolmaster said. "We're out there because we love the team and want to support them. We're not a school with 30,000 students and this huge cheering section. So we do what we can."

"I don't know any football players personally," Strait said. "But I've heard they really like us. Except when we play 'Teapot' in a minor key."

William Hageman writes for the Chicago Tribune.