I think it’s fair to say that there are issues with your sketch show when the funniest thing that happens is that a man fingers a swiss roll.
The target audience will of course expect this childish humour given the title of the show. Then something happens. About a third of the way into the show, a man hits a woman.
Did that shock you? The QMU Comedy Society certainly hope so. I mean, I was certainly shocked by the opening of the show. Can you believe it, Mrs Thundercünt's Splooge Adventurers! opens in a doctors office?! Such sparkling originality! In what will surely be remembered in the annals of comedy history, the doctor spits water in his patient’s face and the patient then proceeds to make his way into the audience(!!) and screech about how he doesn’t want to die. It’s an apt opening for a sketch odyssey into the puerile and uninspired, one which gives the impression that a bunch of friends watched The Hangover one time and thought ‘that, but shorter’. But believe me, I wish the crass material was the biggest issue.
The show trundles along with a multitude of problems. Both lines and chairs are stumbled over. The punchlines are weak or non-existent. It’s so far, so unfunny. The show is bilge but it’s forgivable - these are university students who are still honing their craft. The sketches might offer up a couple of amusing moments and I can leave disappointed but comfortable in the knowledge that the troupe will improve for next year. On top of this, the target audience will of course expect this childish humour given the title of the show. Then something happens. About a third of the way into the show, a man hits a woman.
And everything changes.
I hasten to add that there’s no actual physical contact, but this is besides the point. We move swiftly on to the next scene, an examination of what just happened by the cast. In one of the shows countless self-referential moments, there’s general agreement by the ensemble that the slap was not OK (they are right). Where is this dark turn leading? I’ll give away the punchline - it turns out the slapped woman wrote the sketch because she recognised she was being annoying. Apparently it’s acceptable for annoying women to be slapped.
I am sure that this was not the intended message. It was just one of the multitude of risqué jokes gone awry due to a young cast lacking the wit or experience to successfully pull them off. There is both power and insight to be had in tackling sensitive subjects with comedy, the problem here is that there are no subversive messages (or at least discernable ones). The slap acted as an epiphany, opening the audience’s eyes to the amount of sexism existent in the show. The women, generally fulfilling the roles of sexy assistant, sexy secretary and breast-haver, are spanked, mocked and objectified in lines such as “her ass be red raw”, “bitch”, “f*ck off you feminist dyke”, “bitch” and “thank God, she was such a fussy bitch”. This is to say nothing of the race jokes and how they banded about the word ‘faggot’.
This review may feel like it contains too many spoilers, but after watching this assault on taste, I want to remove all the shock power from the show. Without that, there’s nothing. In my heart of hearts, I know that Mrs Thundercünt's Splooge Adventurers! is not intended as a malicious venture. It’s ignorance. I don’t care though - these people should know better.
