Our most treasured childhood memories and most mortifying childhood embarrassments happened at summer camp. Hormonal teens thrown together with strangers in a new environment with a set end date creates the perfect situation for a coming-of-age tale. Add in the quirky counselors, older kids primed to teach new campers about cool music and recreational drug use, and innately dramatic activities like Capture the Flag and prank wars, and you have all the ingredients for the perfect teen tale. Summer camps are the ideal setting for teenage storytelling, both at its hormonal highs and terribly disappointing lows.
As summer begins, and we watch younger generations march off for a few months filled with pottery kilns, archery, and making out in the boat house, let's look back at the greatest summer camps in pop culture. Here is A Definitive Ranking of Fictional Summer Camps.