Iowa City improv troupes choose to avoid political jokes.
By Natalie Betz
Iowa City’s improvisational-comedy troupes tend to avoid political jokes so they don’t offend anyone, because their main goal is to make people laugh, not address a harsh reality for a lot of people.
Paperback Rhino, the National College Improv Tournament winners in 2016, tends to dodge political jokes not only because people don’t want to watch an argument, nor upset anyone, but also because the members believe there’s not much direction to go with the jokes, said Paperback Rhino captain Leslie Symonds.
While political jokes might start off funny, she said, there’s not much direction to go with the scene, so after a while the audience might feel uncomfortable or start contemplating the state of the country.
Although the group tries to steer clear of political jokes, Symonds said, the members won’t ignore audience requests.
“As a whole, we try to avoid anything too out there. However, we never filter suggestions,” she said. “There’s only so much that the audience will tolerate, and we don’t want to put ourselves in a corner.”
However, some audience members enjoy their occasional political jokes.
“I think in this political climate it’s acceptable. Political jokes are the ones I laugh at the most,” said University of Iowa sophomore Lauren Sanfilippo, a regular audience member.
Not every audience member will appreciate the jokes, which is why improv group members say it important to remove bias from their skits. They don’t want to cause fights.
“While our audience generally knows us, I tend to forget that there could easily be an outburst,” Symonds said.
Another improv troupe, Great White Narcs, avoids political jokes altogether.
It generally does not make political jokes because the members want to have their shows be all-inclusive. Elaine Stewart, a member of the group, said they find it important not to offend anyone.
Not only can political jokes offend audience members, they could potentially cause problems in the group.
“There’s no tension within the group because we’re all pretty blue, but it’s less of a matter of how they voted but a reminder of family drama,” Symonds said.
The all-female improv troupe Janice takes a different approach to political jokes. The members don’t go out of their way to use them, but they don’t necessarily avoid them.
“Political jokes are not particularly purposeful,” said Janice member Talitha Ford. “Although we are clear about supporting women in comedy and underrepresented groups.”
The group still makes an effort to not offend anyone.
“We try not to say anything upsetting because it’s a hit or miss; sometimes, people enjoy it when we acknowledge the elephant in the room,” Ford said. “We’ll make the occasional climate-change reference.”
The troupe members said their groups prefer to perform sketches about their daily lives.