On Saturday, Nov. 23, Hopkins’ sketch comedy group, Throat Culture, put on one of their hilarious comedy shows in the Arellano Theater of Levering Hall.
As their many flyers promised for days leading up to the event, the show dished up plenty of “toilet talk.” Throat Culture has never been known for their kid-friendly sketches, and this one was no exception.
The show began with Throat Culture’s usual warning about the show containing content that wasn’t exactly family appropriate, before leaping into the first sketch.
The show opened with a sketch called “Good Cop, Bad Horse” in which a perpetrator was interrogated by a sarcastic cop and his partner, an aggressive horse who succeeded in scaring a confession out of the suspect. It may have helped that the horse was going berserk from its daily dose of cocaine.
In a sketch called “Lame Birth,” a couple is told they can not have their newborn son because something is irreversibly wrong with him. He is too lame for society.
When the mother insists on at least saying goodbye, her baby is brought to her and asks for vegan food. The mother realizes with horror how lame her baby is and throws him from her lap, screaming.
Another sketch, “Fred and Ted,” stars two business consultants named Fred and Ted who consult the owners of a floundering business. Fred and Ted partake in endless nonsensical banter to convince the owners they can save their company.
At the end of the sketch, the owners are informed that they’re being liquidated, making Fred and Ted’s services unnecessary. They are, however, paid generously. They celebrate this pay by dancing and rolling in their money.
Throat Culture also explored different mediums in this show. “Baby Breathing” was a sketch pre-recorded and edited into a mock infomercial for the world’s creepiest child’s toy, a baby doll that audibly breathes. Juxtaposing the commercial for this startling doll with a catchy jingle was an ironic combination that received plenty of laughs.
The most acclaim arguably came for “Ermagedden,” a sketch consisting of three beats. The sketch starred Merlvina, played by Matt Moores, whose speech impediment caused her to pronounce “Oh my God” as “Er Merh Gerd.”
Merlvina appeared first confronting her parents about her pregnancy, next speaking at the funeral of her scuba diving instructor and finally starring in a movie scene alongside Bruce Willis. In all three instances, her ridiculous wig and hilarious speech impediment were side splitting.
“I think our writing was really good for this one. It’s been getting continually better,” sophomore Utkarsh Rajawat said about the show.
“Unlike some previous shows, these sketches weren’t all written by people who are graduating,” Rajawat said.
In this Throat Culture show, Rajawat authored “FBI Sketch,” in which FBI agents train a new recruit to detect terrorist activity online using only a variety of ridiculous code words.
Throat Culture shared the stage with stage with Nevergreen, Loyola University’s sketch comedy group, who did two sketches.
In the first sketch, “Scary Campfire Stories,” a camp counselor told a series of terrible scary stories before finally terrifying his campers. The second, “Wendell,” was about the world’s worst blind date.
This was Throat Culture’s fourth time working with Nevergreen. Throat Culture has twice traveled to Loyola to perform in Nevergreen’s comedy shows, and this was Nevergreen’s second time making a guest appearance here at Homewood.
The show ended with a musical sketch called “Boy Sea Shanty” starring Ben Ketter. Ben sang a ballad narrating a ridiculous tale, which he called his life story. It was accompanied by a video presentation with Ben’s face cropped onto hilarious images. Ben ended the show because, as a graduating senior, this was his final show with Throat Culture. Rajawat commented on Ben’s leave, stating “He’s amazing and everyone’s going to miss him.”
This show was undoubtedly one of Throat Culture’s best. If you missed it, be sure to catch their upcoming comedy show this spring.
