By Ilena Peng
Throughout high school, MVSNL director and senior Jeremi Kalkowski has shaped his personal brand of humor. He refers to it as satirical, with his topics of satire including everything from his own life to political situations. But Kalkowski still perceives humor as an abstract concept, something that is difficult to capture in a tangible form like a play script.
“If [someone is] trying to be funny, they just do whatever is funny to them,” Kalkowski said. “If you want to show a meme for example, [it’s] because you think it’s funny, not because you know it’ll make them laugh, right?”
Kalkowski’s thought process while writing MVSNL’s Celebrity Jeopardy sketch revolved around that idea — he focused on what made him laugh.
“You can't really be concerned with what other people will think will be funny because otherwise you'll never write anything,” Kalkowski said.
It was only when he started directing actors and putting the skit itself together that he began to worry whether other people would find it as funny as he did. There have been times where his personal brand of humor hasn’t translated well to those around him.
“My way of just generally coping with life is rooted in comedy, right?,” Kalkowski said. “So there are definitely times when humor isn’t appropriate and that has definitely backfired for me but generally, I think people that aren't afraid to push themselves and push their confidence with their own humor are generally more successful in more professional situations like SNL.”
MVSNL producer and senior Hima Tammineni echoes that sentiment — that not all humor is appropriate and relatable to the MVHS audience. She describes her personal sense of humor as dry and sarcastic and says that some others in the drama department also share a similar sense of humor. Although she feels that the sarcasm is typically very detectable, she says that sometimes their sense of humor may come across as “morbid” to others.
So for MVSNL, they leaned towards a form of humor that Tammineni believes is both easier to understand and more prevalent at MVHS — memes.
“There's so much humor out there that if we performed it here, it would not be allowed,” Tammineni said. “So [we focus on] keeping it PG for one [and] trying to reference modern day, in the moment, trends.”
Director and senior Yash Goyal, who wrote the sketch “Hip Hop Disney” also feels that another aspect of making a sketch humorous and relatable is the actors in the sketch itself. Goyal’s sketch featured English teacher Hannah Gould in a rap battle with other students, and he says that the sketch’s casting helped elevate the humor to another level.
“If I didn't have Ms. Gould as one of the characters, the skit wouldn't have been as funny as it was, just because that whole idea of a teacher rapping, … which only people [at] MVHS would get, couldn't really be easily replicated in other places,” Goyal said.
Tammineni agrees, referencing junior Alex Logie’s role as “Brett” in the sketch “You on Kazoo.” She explains that the somewhat childish persona of his character combined with his creepy delivery of certain lines helped contribute to the sketch’s humor.
“Usually the crazier characters, when played by certain people, can bring out the highlighting qualities and make the audience laugh just because they’re so extra,” Tammineni said.
Tammineni also references exaggerated movements and emotions in the sketches “Substitute teacher” and “Slow motion hallway” as a way of adding humor.
Throughout the entire process, MVSNL’s directors and producers were always concerned with making their audience laugh, considering every aspect from a joke’s appropriateness to a skit’s casting. But in the end, Kalkowski says that writing sketches takes a certain level of confidence in one’s own sense of humor.
“At some point you kind of figure out what makes you laugh as a person, as an individual,” Kalkowski said. “And once you figure out your niche — what is your specific type for humor — you kind of get a better understanding of how you can make other people laugh.”
Photo of Ms. Gould by Fatima Ali