Why is throwing toilet paper a staple of New Orleans Mardi Gras?
The longtime tradition will likely be banned next year—but the creators will stick around. Who are the Krewe of Tucks?
One ply. Double ply. Plush. Strong. Extra soft. Small or large rolls. Biodegradable.
Nearly everyone uses toilet paper. Some could care less about the brand, ply, or the environmental impact. They just want to take care of business—and go. In New Orleans, toilet paper goes beyond the bathroom. It also is a desired and expected throw during Carnival and Mardi Gras parades.
There’s been so much toilet paper thrown in parades over the years that city officials recently considered banning it. Too much of the sanitary paper was, well, unsanitary, they said, clogging street drains, hanging off the limbs of the grand, old oak trees for days, weeks, or months.
The ban prevailed in a City Council vote last month but it won’t take effect until 2025. And thereafter, only the Krewe of Tucks—which began the tradition—will be allowed to throw TP.
“Since it is the parade of toilets, they need their toilet paper,” JP Morrell, then-City Council president said as the Tucks exception was approved.
How the Krewe of Tucks began
The Krewe of Tucks was born in 1969 with a bunch of rowdy, we-like-to-party students from Loyola and Tulane universities. The two campuses sit side-by-side on St. Charles Avenue in Uptown New Orleans. Back then, they were young men who enjoyed their own fraternities, and they liked the idea of sharing shenanigans together with other like-minded frat members. These were smart people who studied hard. Some went on to become prominent attorneys, business owners, and doctors.
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The two Tucks cofounders, Bo Reichert and Lloyd Frischhertz, were 19 and 20 when Tucks was created and when the krewe first threw toilet paper when they rolled in 1971. Reichert passed away several years ago. Frischhertz’s grown, matured, and runs a successful law practice. At 75, the self-described “party guy” cannot give up having a good time. He’s the krewe captain and he runs the Carnival Weekend #2 parade like a boss as he bounces from home to his law firm to the krewe “den” to make sure everything from floats to throws are in place. If something on a float doesn’t pass his inspection, it won’t move unless and until his authorized change is made.
“That’s not right,” he said during a recent den walk-through, pointing to something on a float that he didn’t like. “They’re going to change that.”
As he reflected on the early days of Tucks, he recalled what it was like.
“We were Animal House people and we loved to party,” Frischhertz says. The group would often gather at a place called Friar’s Tucks, where musicians like Professor Longhair and others performed. Frischhertz and others would dance with flambeaux torches “so we could pick up the change for our beer money.”
Later, they got a Mardi Gras permit to parade. They started with cars, boats, trucks and paraded around the campuses. One year a bunch of "outsiders"—pre-med and law school students—crashed their parade and started throwing toilet paper.
People loved the toilet paper throws. Tucks adopted the outsiders—and their practice.
The throw tradition is not cheap
Tucks spends about $1.5 million a year on throws. The krewe is best known for their krewe-specific toilet paper throws. When they started throwing TP, they might have thrown about 144 rolls. These days, Frischhertz says, they’ve been throwing more than 3,000 rolls each Carnival season.
New Orleans endorses, supports, and encourages citizens and visitors to have a REAL Carnival and Mardi Gras season with weeks of parades, nearly all throwing plastic beads. The city spends taxpayer dollars on law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical services, first aid stations, and more.
The season is so big that there’s a Mayor’s Mardi Gras Advisory Council. Nearly every year city, economic development, and tourism leaders consider changes. In September 2023, the City Council passed a law banning some throws, including mylar confetti and toilet paper.
The Krewe of Tucks took offense. This isn’t what Frischhertz and his “partner in crime” Reichert would want. No one in the krewe wanted to do away with toilet paper. But they understood the environmental concerns.
Other krewes saw the attention Tucks has had with toilet paper for years and decided to try it. Just one year, one krewe said, according to Frischhertz. “They lied,” he says.
The toilet paper throw became regular in some parades in recent years. Frischhertz was disappointed and frustrated with those who copied them, and with the ban. He felt like Tucks was being punished for the bad behavior of others—and their annoying toilet paper habits.
One year Tucks threw toilet paper in different colors: “That was a mistake, and we stopped it.”
When the City Council took up the toilet paper ban again in January they gave Frischhertz and Tucks time to roll up their sleeves and get to work on their most notable throw and how to keep the rolls.
What’s in store for this year?
Tucks-specific toilet paper is an important part of what parade-goers expect when they come out the Saturday before Mardi Gras to see the Tucks parade. They reached an agreement with the city.
Frischhertz says they’re focused on using specific types of toilet paper to limit waste and reduce what some people see as a disgusting leftover after some parades pass.
“We’re cutting back,” he says. “We threw more as we grew. We promised the city we’d cut what we throw in half. And we won’t have blowers that blow it into the trees.”
Plus, Frischhertz says, no other parade does toilet paper research and testing like Tucks. The krewe has used marine-soluble toilet paper so it disintegrates with a good rain. “Let’s see, we have 50 people on 60 floats and each rider has at least six rolls,” he says, recalculating his earlier estimate.
That’s 18,000 rolls.
Frischhertz says Tucks agreed to buy the most biodegradable toilet paper “in the world. No matter what it cost.” The goal is to have no toilet paper in trees “after one good rain.”
Over the years, Tucks has moved from a strictly social, fun, and party-hardy krewe to a group that regularly raises money and donates to non-profit groups. One year they raised $1 million for their charity arm.
Still, the reality is that New Orleanians expect Tucks and toilet paper, no matter the ply, or how biodegradable. Parade-goers push and shove to get a roll or two from Tucks annually.
“Toilet paper is big,” Frischhertz says with a laugh. “We fought to keep it because it’s part of our mantra. We’ve got three toilet floats. We have a king that rides a toilet ...We have toilet brushes, toilet plungers.
“It’s very human. Everybody does it,” he says of the natural act toilet paper is used for. “What kings would do to have it, to have comfortable surroundings to take care of their bodily needs."
