Pulling in some prospies

Author: DANIEL ROBERTS '09

I was walking into The Grille when I saw crowds pouring into McCullough Social Space. A whole entertainment-fest was being given for prospective students. Apparently, Monday was the first of two preview days, a chance for admitted students to come and decide if they want to go to Middlebury.

The College certainly busted out its most talented performers, and who can blame them? We naturally want the visiting kids to believe that everyone, at Middlebury plays a sport, pulls A's and still finds time to be in an a capella group (and in truth, most people here are like this). Senior Ellen Wohlberg came out and told some jokes. You know, warm up the crowd, get the prospies to pull their fingernails out of their mouths and laugh a little. Then out came the Mamajamas, to the delight of screaming girls all over the balcony. After this our swing dance club went on. Sure, the dancing was great, but I was simply impressed that this club even existed. Stuck in the Middle (SIM) went up, entertaining as always. Finally, the moment that inspired this article arrived.

The Brothel was introduced as "a sketch comedy group that's just like Saturday Night Live." I had thought that Otter Nonsense stood alone in the Middlebury comedy scene, so I was excited to see what this new group had to offer. Their first skit was set in an AP English class, which I thought was a pretty clever way to cater to the audience of mostly high school kids.

However, the "teacher" soon asked one of the "students" to read a poem. The boy explained nervously that his poem was entitled, "Confused." He read aloud: "I think I might be gay. At prom, Chelsea kissed me, and it was gross! I just wanted to look at Jerry..." After this, the actor awkwardly patted the other male student on the shoulder and sat down. I laughed for a moment, because it was clear that we were supposed to. Then my friend sitting next to me whispered, "That kind of seemed more mean than funny." I thought about what she said, and realized yeah, I was pretty offended. Was the idea for us to laugh at the gay kid? I turned around, and behind me, the six or seven other first-years I had been sitting with all looked horrified. One of them, a Feb guy, looked at me and said, "I'm really offended, and I'm not even gay." I felt the same.

The skit, to be fair, improved from there. The teacher made a pass at one of the female students, which garnered wild laughter from the crowd. Perhaps they had regained their fans. The next skit was okay too. But I found myself still upset. It was that first skit; the more I thought about it, the more I saw it as being in poor taste. I mean, if there are high school boys coping with the possibility that they might be gay, isn't that exactly how they would feel - confused?

I know a couple of guys in The Brothel, and they are funny, nice kids. They can do far better, I'm confident of that. My point here is not to give the group a bad review, but to suggest some advice that really goes for any performers here. Think about what message you want to send to your audience. Especially when performing in a venue that has the goal of luring admitted students to enroll at Middlebury.

I know that the issue of being too "politically correct" is a hot topic here right now. In fact, I myself greatly resent the cautious, overly-PC culture we find in much of America today. I hate people who are too PC. I mean, if we can't joke about race, sexual orientation or religion, then where does that leave standup comedians? Still, I think our school is too clever and talented to resort to mocking gay teens. Personally, I have really been making an effort to stop using one phrase I unfortunately picked up in high school along with so many other kids: "That's so gay." Let's all make an effort to be more appropriate in our humor, at least in public. Am I wrong?