Life > August 28, 2008

By Caroline Edgeton | Asst. life editor

It is that time of the year again. The time where new first year students arrive on campus to begin a new phase in their lives … and get severely made fun of. On Tuesday, August 26, the campus comedy troupe the Lilting Banshees performed their annual back-to-school, end-of-orientation comedy fest appropriately titled “Welcome to Wake!”

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We’ve all seen their bright yellow posters around campus with the funny (and risqué) statements prepping us for their performance.

If you are a new freshman at the university, some of their posters may have come as a shock.

Regardless of what you think is offensive, the Banshees will almost always make you feel a bit uncomfortable; they are definitely not known for being squeaky-clean. The posters are only the beginning, though.

The second the doors opened, there were already jokes being projected on the screen ranging from making fun of South Dakota to our recent Olympic competitor China.

Of course, there were plenty of offensive sex-related, sorority/fraternity and freshmen jokes to go around, as well.

The Banshees also had images of different members in the group doing everyday situations with the catch phrase “Banshees, they’re just like us” at the top of the screen. Underneath the text would be an image of a member doing something simple things like eating at the Pit but, of course, you cannot let these initial images fool you.

Moments later another image would appear with the previous member doing the exact same thing you saw before, only, they are not just eating at the Pit, they are eating a dead body, instead. This was somehow appropriately captured by the animated sophomore Riley Peterson.

After seeing a copious amount of jokes and images, the crowd was growing restless and ready to see the show. Once the show began, the lights dimmed and loud dance music began to play.

While the lights were still at a dimmed level, the Banshees all came out on stage and began to dance. This simply showed their free going, we-don’t-really-care-what-you-think image. Their performance certainly continued this attitude all through out.

The opening skit was a mother leaving her freshman daughter at college for the first time. Well, she at least was trying to leave. The mother portrayed by senior Jessica Morris could not bear to leave her “well-endowed” daughter ... so much she pretended to hide behind her suitcase, hit on the boys helping her move into the dorm room and even graduate with her daughter.

Basically, it was the portrayal of the ultimate worst parental situation any student could possibly imagine (unless you are into the idea of your mother being your roommate in college, then I am sorry if I have offended you).

Obviously, there were plenty more freshman related skits and jokes throughout the show.

What I found pretty humourous was an ongoing skit titled “Wii Frat” that occurred every twenty minutes or so throughout the performance.

Banshee members on one side held Wii controllers while members on another side of the stage bounced up and down like characters on numerous Wii games.

While the controller-handling members were pretending to play a game on Wii, the other members would depict the actions that broadcast over the speakers.

Basically, each situation was an equal opportunity to poke fun at the stereotypes of most sororities and fraternities on campus.

Though most were giggle-worthy, making fun of the Greek organizations seemed to take over the evening.

It was almost a roast in that sense, not necessarily a comedic performance.

Something I found quite funny, though, was a freshmen dorm Olympics skit that involved members of the audience wearing tshirts with different freshman dorm names on them.

Each task they were asked to complete involved something funny to play off on, yes, more stereotypes given to the people who live in each of the freshman dormitories. Concluding with a Bostwick girl winning the competition, the audience got a good laugh from the judges and all members involved on stage.

This, too, was funny for anybody who has been a student at the university due to our awareness of the stereotypes through experience or word of mouth.

If you are a new freshman and were not aware of these, well, there you go (they are not all true, mind you).

Other skits included a brief history of the world’s worst roommate situations through showing different possible pairs of roommates dating back to a triceratops and a dragon to Queen Elizabeth I with a girl that wants to go out with her boyfriend.

Unfortunately, the dragon found the triceratops meal-worthy (a better alternative to Pit food) and Queen Elizabeth I was bored and found her roommate’s boyfriend an appropriate candidate for being tortured in the Tower of London. This was quite hysterical.

In addition to unfortunate roommates, another very funny skit was titled “The Dark Pike,” a spin-off of the hit summer film, The Dark Knight. This managed to make fun of every single fraternity label while also portraying similar characters from the film. I have to say, this was funny and creative. Senior Caldwell Tanner played a solid Joker while Peterson played an intoxicated “Frat”man, both of which made the entire audience burst out in laughter.

Overall, the entire evening was full of laughs and gasps. Some jokes did not really make sense, some were over the line and some were hysterical, but overall it was a good performance.

This group certainly knows how to make you smile ... and feel somewhat offended.

Undeniably, though they can get carried away with some jokes, the Lilting Banshees never fail to crack up the campus.

This was definitely an amusing way to kick start the 2008-2009 year.