Lewdness at play: Bring your intellect instead

Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Improvisational comedy is like midair acrobatics without a safety net. You head onstage with only a general idea of what is coming next; you place your faith in yourself, your teammates and the luck of the draw for how things will go that night. But there is one factor that you can't control: the audience. While improv doesn't always involve audience participation, most groups use it, as do my fellow improvers and I in Quipfire! Surely the unpredictability involved in having the audience suggest locations, objects, relationships or celebrities keeps even us experienced improvers on our toes?

Unfortunately, however, there is one aspect of facing an improv audience that is all too predictable. I call it a "lowball." Can I get an occupation please? "Porn star!" "You're a gay midget!" An object? "A dildo!" "A retarded monkey!" Okay, a location then? "A whorehouse!" Well, I think you get the point. And as funny as the oft-requested scene involving a gay porn star midget in a whorehouse might be, it is sure to get old (not too mention a bit blue for Theatre Intime's tastes) mighty quickly. And yet, show after show, the same requests come forth, usually eliciting laughter from the audience. Among improvisers, making fun of such suggestions is a well established inside joke.

Why do we have this need to go for the cheap, crude and salacious? There is an old saying: We get the government we deserve. I would venture to add: We get the culture we deserve. Improv is as democratic an art form as you're likely to find. It provides an insight into what audiences want, or at least think they want. There is nothing new in lewdness in art of course. Bawdy humor appears prominently in Greek and Roman comedies, Shakespeare and a good many other works that have an esteemed place in the canon of Western civilization's "high culture." But with the elimination of the restrictions on art and society, which necessitated artistry in the puns and allusions through which these topics were expressed, a flood of trite obscenities has ensued.

Believe me, I am hardly a prude, and I'm definitely not for censorship of art. But part of the artist's task is self-censorship. As an improver I've had to tackle this reflex towards the lowbrow and uncreative in myself as well. Going for cheap topics and easy laughs is a tempting fallback when you draw a blank, but you also end up with cheap results and an audience that quickly tires, not to mention disappointment in yourself for going down the road well-traveled. Particularly in a setting like Princeton's I have to ask: Shouldn't we be aiming for something higher? I won't rehash the whole "Intellectualism at Princeton" debate in this space, but put simply, if we don't try, who will? I know that there are amazing, brilliant people here. Hell I talk and work with them every day. So why is it that their voices get drowned out by the buffoons and the ignorant, at least in that setting? Or is it that the same smart people are acting differently to conform to what they think is expected by their peers? The inventive students calling out "Roman galley slave!" or "19th century opera virtuoso!" are few and far between, it's sad to say. I can't tell you what a treat it is as an improver when someone hands you something really original or interesting to work with. I'm plenty happy to handle risqué topics if they're offered creatively, if it were Bettie Page or Sappho and not just "porn star."

This issue goes far beyond the admittedly minor importance of improv comedy. There has always been a balance in societies between "high" art and culture and "low" or popular culture. But over the last half-century or so, in our zeal to erase the perceived snobbery and 'elitism' (used pejoratively by its critics) in our culture, I think we have lost much that is good. And so it has come to be that millions watch average Joes and Janes do sub-par imitations of pop songs on American Idol while the vast majority of Americans have never been to the opera — an art form that in its time was itself considered 'popular' culture but that certainly has a higher claim to artistic merit than Ryan Seacrest or Kelly Clarkson (aha! he knows their names, but one has to know something to criticize it, no?).

Getting the culture we deserve. I'm hardly sage or worldly enough to give my two cents as to what America, let alone the world, needs or deserves. But as I finish my last year at Princeton I can confidently say that the culture we deserve here is rich and noble. Goethe's words hold particular relevance for us Ivy Leaguers. Brilliance is nothing without respect, especially respect for our civilization and the values that underlie it. Don't restrict your learning, wit and insight to the term papers you write or the job interviews you go to. Be proud to let the merits that brought you to this great institution proudly shine through in every conversation you have, if we're still afraid of looking like "snobs" or "bookworms" here at Princeton then our society really is in trouble. So for those of you out there who are busy creating, innovating and shining brightly every day, keep on truckin'. And for those of you simply dying to see comedy involving a gay midget porn star, I recommend an episode of "South Park."

Matthew Schonfield is a Wilson School major from Los Angeles, Calif.