Poll vaulting

Big News’s headline-spoofing creator Michael McCarthy cites Jon Stewart’s 2004 appearance on Crossfire—where he claimed the show’s style of media pageantry was destroying America—as one of the most important political moments in recent history. “American journalists are so fucking complacent that it’s fallen to the jesters to tell the truth,” McCarthy spews. “Even the most apolitical dopey comedian at the Improv actually has a point of view. I think stepping onstage is a political gesture.”

With the election looming and the Daily Show providing media criticism and political satire on a national level, locals are getting into the game. Big News is entering its sixth month of weekly sketch; Raucous Caucus is in midrun at the Annoyance; Second City continues to offer two politics-heavy revues including Campaign Supernova!; Whirled News Tonight recently celebrated its fifth anniversary and is slated to expand with a new election-season sketch show Yes, We Can’t! Thursday 2.

We have all of the makings of a citywide political-comedy powerhouse, but why is most of what’s out there—with the exception of WNT and parts of Second City’s shows—broad, obvious and boring?

It’s not for lack of timeliness, in the case of Big News. If the Daily Show is the rapid-response benchmark, Big News isn’t far behind. The show runs each week, though the performers task themselves with writing, rehearsing and teching each outing on the Tuesday it goes up. Thus, sketches and one-liners, which riff on the week’s happenings, feel cluttered and abrupt—why John McCain is a maverick, followed by a McCain-Palin motorcycle ride set to “Take My Breath Away” and not much else. The show doesn’t focus on the candidates as people and instead depicts them as traits and flaws; a Dubya with social and intellectual blind spots is far more interesting than a Dubya portrayed as an ignorant child.

Second City is on the other end of the spectrum. Its shows, updated only once a year or so, mine politics and pop culture for evergreen topics like the mortgage crisis—things that will still be relevant a few months later. (Its after-show improv sets allow the performers the chance to respond to current events.) But despite the old-news subject matter, Campaign Supernova! succeeds because it gives the issues a human face; in one memorable scene, two basketball benchwarmers are so petrified of change—entering the game—that they feign injuries to remain on the sidelines.

Raucous Caucus enjoys less success when it comes to portraying three-dimensional political figures. Two candidates take audience-provided hot-button issues to heart, making them the center of their campaigns. Then the show launches into improvised debates and attack ads to flesh out the election process. So what, though? The presidential hopefuls stick to repetitive remarks about their platforms, and when an interesting personal detail arises (when we visited, it was revealed that the pro–sex-ed candidate was a virgin), it’s resolved too quickly to elicit many laughs (he hired a hooker in the next scene).

Where Caucus falls flat, Whirled News excels. It wisely humanizes its players via improv, thereby creating honest, hilarious political commentary. The audience cuts out news clips from the week’s paper and tacks them onto the walls; an improviser grabs one, reads it and the show begins. The first scene a few weeks ago began innocently enough with a wife serving her husband genetically enhanced chicken. As both improvisers dug in, it quickly morphed into an argument about living in a tampered world, with the husband—the casually brilliant Steve Waltien—refusing to accept that the standards for excellent chicken are now set by man. “This is what always happens—you can’t lower expectations, exceed them and be impressed,” he laments. “That’s why Sarah Palin is going to win in debates.” In the context of the scene, uttered with frustration, it felt natural.

The second half of the show is more directly personal: improv inspired by cast monologues on a provided topic—when we attended, it was puberty, which became sex education. The improv reflected prying parents and four-year-olds experimenting with masturbation, stuff that doesn’t seem overtly political. But with abstinence-only education on the table, it couldn’t help being so.

Considering Yes, We Can’t! comes from the same folks who created Whirled News, it has the potential to be the brightest of the bunch. We hope the show takes to heart what the Whirled News team has proven: If you let improvisers and sketch comics explore the people side of political issues—what the mediums thrive on—the results will speak volumes.

Whirled News makes headlines Saturday 4, and Yes, We Can’t! does its thing Thursday 2. For more on politically-themed shows, listen to episode two of Back of the Book, our arts and entertainment podcast.