Yale Sketchballs Preempt Crackdown
Good sketch comedy is an endangered animal on most campuses, but we hear that Yale's Suite 13 is at the top of the food chain. Their humor is risky to the point of self-harm, their pranks are wicked (apparently they got the YDN to review a fake modern art show), and their performances -- usually in lecture halls -- are famous for the free flow of substances.
A little background, if you care (if not, skip down to the next graf): They started off as a sort of anti-comedy comedy group after at least one of the founding members didn't get into The Fifth Humour. In a 2002 Yale Herald piece, founder David Fabricant '04 described his audition: "I was asked to do a little improv ... so I pulled down my pants, wrote all over my body with a Sharpie, and screamed about how I couldn't get laid. They asked me to stop and, needless to say, didn't give me a callback." But now the group has achieved its own kind of selectivity. As they tell auditioners on their website: "Suite 13 is not Seinfeld, Monty Python, or McSweeney's. Suite 13 is fucked up."
Long story short, the Yale brass must have caught wind (or actually smelled) that a show was in the works, prompting a Suite 13 member to send out this sad announcement:
From: [Redacted]
Date: Dec 12, 2006 7:25 PM
Subject: Suite 13 Show Cancelled (Because of Police Oppression)
To: the.condemned; rumpusdiscusslistDear Unlucky Recipient,
I'm very sorry to have to inform you that the Suite 13 Show planned
for tonight (Dec 12), has been canceled.Due to circumstances completely beyond our control, and of which we
became aware half an hour ago, police were going to be sent to
supervise our show. Since a key part of the Suite 13 experience is our
and the audience's blatant disregard for the law, we've decided,
reluctantly, to cancel this show rather than betray everything we
stand for by holding a dry show.I'm sorry for the late notice, and especially sorry to anyone who
went to Street Hall before getting this email. I just learned about
this travesty myself, and I wrote you as soon as I could.We're looking into rescheduling to a time and place which will be
police-free, but the the show probably won't happen till next
semester. We'll let you know.Thanks, sorry, and fuck the police.
--George
This is a crime beyond all reason. We actually had the privilege of catching a Suite 13 show in the fall of 2003 in august Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall; we're not sure if it's possible to hotbox a lecture hall with 30-foot ceilings, but the audience gave it the ol' Eli try.
The show was a solid A performance even before the final, jaw-dropping sketch: "3rd Grade Geography Class," where cast members playing schoolchildren had to take shots of Jack Daniels every time they missed a question. Except every time, the teacher would offer to go one-for-one, until by the end he had consumed maybe a dozen shots, plus shotgunning two beers in a finale that had the lecture hall on its feet. MADD, you may address complaints here; just know that it was Awe. Some.
13 Comments | 
Digg This | 
Share on Facebook | 
Print This Post | 
Email This Post
Read more: Drinking, improv, Yale
Email – 
Search
About
Report a bug
Archives
RSS Feed
December 13th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
He didn’t *drive* afterward…he just stuck his finger down his throat and vomited prolifically before he could lose consciousness.
December 13th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Dean Betty Trachtenberg’s last hurrah, perhaps? This has her nasty stench all over it. Suite 13 and she have locked horns many times before. As a former Suite 13 President, I’m confident that the group will find a way to beat her, just as we did when she wouldn’t allow us to put up flyers with pointilist drawings of penises around campus
December 13th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
people play drinking games onstage and yalies think it’s funny? I guess it’s suite 13 awesomeness every night at my place. pity new haven.
December 13th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Didn’t Suite13 host a “Start Smoking Day” on campus awhile ago? Their stuff sounds hilarious.
December 13th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Yeah, Betty T is really putting her bitch face on big time as her end approaches. She’s forcing Rumpus out of its current office come spring term, and is currently making great strides in her progress to hogtie fun and slaughter it.
December 13th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Betty T, still a biatch. Unless we get the Grinch or something, her replacement will have to be 10000 times better.
oh and for “huh?”… yup, you got us pegged. you must be SO COOL! OMG I DRINK I’M HARDCORE. crawl back into your hole, please.
December 14th, 2006 at 2:51 am
my sources say we get letriz. otherwise known as the only member of the admin worse than betty t.
merry xmas!
December 14th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Letriz is the one who got so offended about “Fecal Pinata” because it was offensive to Mexicans. Yeesh.
December 15th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
no, it was, in fact, betty t who got all pissed about fecal pinata. in fact, our pres. at the time wore a yarmulke, and betty t, in an attmept to convey the level of offense mexicans would take at our title, asked if he would be offended by a show titled “fecal star of david.” he asked whether we could use that title instead.
December 18th, 2006 at 5:30 am
Im gon’ be REAL wit y’all…Suite 13 isn’t that funny. Because sketch comedy isn’t funny! But obviously it is funnier than the 5th humor, which is to say, it is more than just an organization for gays to mate.
But I like it…because they let you smoke weed at the show! Hell, I would like work if I could smoke weed there!
Fuck Betty T, and fuck Letriz…I had to deal with him once, he’s a little affirmative action poster boy.
December 18th, 2006 at 5:30 am
Im gon’ be REAL wit y’all…Suite 13 isn’t that funny. Because sketch comedy isn’t funny! But obviously it is funnier than the 5th humor, which is to say, it is more than just an organization for gays to mate.
But I like it…because they let you smoke weed at the show! Hell, I would like work if I could smoke weed there!
Fuck Betty T, and fuck Letriz…I had to deal with him once, he’s a little affirmative action poster boy.
December 18th, 2006 at 7:26 am
The sexist and racist (affirmative action eh?) comments are just streaming in with this one. Because when you don’t like someone it always makes sense to go after their gender or ethnicity because like that *has* to be the root of their stupidity. “Yellow bitch” comments would have been hilarious if she was Asian!
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:04 pm
It wasn’t Betty T’s fault after all:
http://yaledailynews.com/articles/view/21059