ONE OF THE guys on stage asked, "If you rape a prostitute, can you also be arrested for shoplifting?" This was the first of many tawdry lines presented in Newcomb Theater on Sat, March 31 by the sordid characters who composed The Hooligans "comedy" troupe from Northeast Mississippi Community College.
The Hooligans were one of six troupes invited to the University by U.Va.'s own "The Whethermen" improv comedy group. To their credit, The Whethermen did not know in advance that the Hooligans would expect people to laugh at such things as rape, child molestation, the Ku Klux Klan and a host of witless sketches.
While the above rape joke should have immediately alerted myself and other audience members to the low-brow sketchiness of the invited guests from Mississippi, our guard was lowered by some intervening improvisational skits which seemed tame enough to pass as normal. But then came a huge turn for the worse.
The next skit, "Wacko," turned out to be about a disgruntled clown who wanted to leave a child's birthday party, but who was asked by a nine year old birthday boy to perform "one more trick." To make a long story short, Wacko's "trick" ended up being the anal rape of this little kid. For those looking for a punch line, that was it. Unsophisticated, lowest-common-denominator "humor" at its worst.
"They don't call us The Hooligans for nothing!" remarked one of the performers, with a smile on his face. The audience should have responded, "They didn't invent the phrase 'get off stage' for nothing either!" But silent disbelief was the reaction of choice.
Immediately after "Wacko," many members of the audience had their shock doubled-over when they listened to the next piece of "comedy" presented by the Hooligans. It was a song about some guy's passion for his girlfriend who, incidentally, looked so sexy as she moved around in her white Ku Klux Klan garb. The singer was entranced by this girl, though there was one minor query he had for her, "Clarise, why don't you quit the Klan?"
Again, there was no punch line other than this one lyric. This lyric was repeated over and over again throughout the song by a singer who obviously expected people to laugh each time, as if it were inherently funny. It wasn't.
I can already predict what the few people who actually laughed at the Klan joke might say in its defense. "It was satire about a very real issue," will most likely be the response. "Aren't you being over-sensitive?" will possibly be another.
I leave it to anyone who knows me to attest that I am not over-sensitive to comedy. To say that I appreciate good sarcasm would probably be laughed off as an understatement. But to those defenders of The Hooligans, I tell you this: What they did on that stage was not satire. Their simpleton lyrics are most definitely not deserving of that intellectually-heralded label.
Satire entails wit. Satire entails creative irony. Satire entails the mockery of something foolish. Their song contained none of those things. The most positive statement that can be made about this song is that it featured a singer who was not himself a racist. But the very words this person sang had tolerance of racism and tolerance of Klan membership written all over them. It was this tolerance which was supposed to be laughed at with every passive query, "Clarise, why don't you quit the Klan?"
I have been thinking for a couple days about whether it was worth my time to call attention to The Hooligans' tasteless performance at our University. After all, it probably took me more time to type the first two paragraphs of this viewpoint than it took them to write their low-brow skits. But I am writing because I believe it is wrong to sit silently by as socially demented and borderline-racist sentiments are passed off under the banner of comedy. To those who may disagree with me, that is your right.
In the end, however, I think it is unarguable that a "comedy" troupe specially invited to travel hundreds of miles to perform at U.Va. should have been able come up with something more genuinely humorous than the dim-witted sketches that were actually presented. In lieu of the wit from Mississippi which never came to be, hopefully The Whethermen will choose not to mistakenly invite The Hooligans back for our second annual comedy invitational next year.
(Adam Green is a second year Law student.)
Read More
PATEL: Personal development courses support students beyond the gradebook
By Heer Patel | 11 hours agoThe University must rethink its approach to education beyond traditional major-specific requirements and mandate personal development courses.
EDITORIAL: Commercialization threatens U.Va.’s educational mission
By Editorial Board | YesterdayAfter all, measuring the University’s worth in terms of accrued capital, operational efficiency and numerical rankings molds this space into just another cookie-cutter institution.
YOUNIS: Why every U.Va. student should say yes to English
By Ayat Younis | 5 days agoEvery student at the University, regardless of their primary field of study, can professionally and academically benefit from engaging with the English department.
