The Keenan Revue. The only good reason to walk to Stephen center on a day where campus was hit with over a foot of snow. This yearly event fascinates, scars any new viewers, and manages to satirize the university.
It started off super strong, with their new Rector acknowledging the immense task that is putting on the show. The great team of RAs in their experience with the Revue provided a perfect counterpoint to the dreams and claims of control their new rector made through a fantastic Disney Medley. It brought out what all viewers know: the Revue is insane and a Notre Dame institution, nonsensical and long-lasting in its 42nd year.
The review this year was not as focused in as last year’s State of the Revunion with its more unified political satire, but Revuena Matada brought out all the best and worst of Our Lady’s University on the largest platform outside of Observer Viewpoint articles.
Speaking of those, we saw some familiar controversies appear on stage.
One skit touched on how the university deals with our past history of racism, bringing up the Columbus murals in main building through a presentation on how to deal with history. Another skit touched on how to not socialize at work, and avoiding asking super racist questions about where people are from, you know, originally. Poking at how well ND prepares many of its students for a more diverse world leads to many a good snarky joke.
Sweatpants Anonymous evoked the dressing well for class debate that’s been happening for weeks about what sort of assumptions we attach to day to day college student style.
Six semesters was one of the bite-sized skits, presenting the university’s decision as utterly ridiculous as to make admitted students try and make a break for it. Lasting a minute at most, the Revue doesn’t even want to entertain this new requirement as a sketch for very long.
One of the absolute best moments of the Revue was hearing the safety updates at a Notre Dame Admin meeting. After getting an email about a potential case of tuberculosis the week before, most of us were anticipating a sketch mentioning this occurrence. But, the sheer speed at which this sketch listed all of the random safety emails and concerns on campus was astonishing and amazing.
The classic Keenan move of hating on Zahm and making a few jokes about Stanford was the most comedic I have ever seen it. Joking about hall staff training connects with our emphasis on residence halls, and those jokes were actually funny when buffered by the one serious Zahm RA character.
As always, Father Jenkins was a central character in this grand show. At least twice he artfully dodged a handshake and on one occasion offended a prospective athlete. He did also try and downplay any safety concerns and rave about the success and good decision of building Crossroads. My favorite joke was a comment where he worried about Father Pete’s rising popularity and how that worried him.
All in all, the Revue served, as it always does, as one of the best mediums for critiquing the University. We are doubled over in laughter and nodding along at the surprisingly thoughtful sketches, because we know acknowledging the faults and failings of Our Lady’s University is the first step to improving this institution.
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