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; rumpusdiscusslist

Dear 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.