The annual Keenan Revue opened last night with the theme of "It's a bird, it's a plane... it's the Keenan Revue." But one might call the show super-sexual, or super-funny, rather than super-heroic.
Keenan Hall rector Fr. Daniel Nolan prefaced the show by asking those in attendance to behave themselves, but then said: "that might be hard to do when the strippers come on."
And the audience didn't have to wait long for that to happen.
In the opening act, entitled "Cum On Feel The Noise," a group of males came on stage and stripped down to their boxers, dancing to the song "Cum On Feel The Noize," by Quiet Riot.
Wiggling, rubbing and thrusting their way around the stage, the dancers set the tone for the rest of the show, in which there was minimal pants wearing, overtly sexual humor and more guy-on-guy grinding than will ever be seen again at Notre Dame.
The acts focused on poking fun at various aspects of Notre Dame life, including Hip Hop Night at Legends, Melissa Buddie, the growing losses of Notre Dame Men's Basketball team and the non-existent Dillon Pep Rally.
Keenan Revue director Danny Wheeland, said this year, they tried to give the audience something different that they wouldn't expect.
"I'd say we've rested some of the older stereotypes like the [Breen-Phillips] jokes, the Saint Mary's jokes and [we're] branching out into some newer directions because ... some of those jokes have kind of gotten stale," Wheeland said.
One alternate direction included poking fun at the hook-up culture at Notre Dame. Christian Galvan-Gonzalez and Tanner Ryan sang "Hook-Up Story," sung to the tune of Taylor Swift's "Love Story."
"Have another drink, we'll make it out of this mess. It's a hook-up story. Baby, just say yes," they sang.
Later in the song they sang, "He put his beer down and pulled out a ring and said, 'Marry me, Pangborn girl. I don't even know your name. But I went to Jared's and picked out a ring.'"
Senior Patrick Braga-Heneburg commented on the chemistry between the two male singers, one masquerading as a girl.
"I very much enjoyed the hook-up story. I liked the musical aspect of it and the chemistry really played out on stage. There were definitely sparks," he said.
The men of Keenan ignored societal taboos and political correctness, poking fun at anything and anyone, ranging from the secret bathroom lives of girls to people in vegetative states. But even more prevalent than off-color jokes was sexual humor.
One act gave examples of sexually explicit pick up lines, like "Do you have a keg in your pants? Because I'd really like to tap that."
The risqué material was not well-received by all students however.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything more raunchy ... I couldn't watch most of it," senior Kristen Drahos said.
She said the pick-up lines were one of the more "raunchy" parts of the show, along with an act where the Keenan men re-enact the first gay couple to have sex at Notre Dame.
The audience alternated from responding with uproarious laughter to flat-out shock.
Freshman Kelsey Gallagher said she was surprised the explicit content of the show was approved, but she said she still enjoyed it and found it comical.
"A lot of the jokes were very sexual," Gallagher said. "[But] obviously you laugh about stuff. I thought it was really funny."
"It's a bird, it's a plane ... It's the Keenan Revue" will take place again tonight and tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in the St. Mary's O'Laughlin Auditorium.
