Has there ever been a show designed around comedy?

[Jeff Ream]

Bridgemen 76-85, VK 82 to 96 and a few of the OC years recently. Surf also went this route in the early 2000's and last year and this year

[Peel Paint]

Satire was an element of what VK and Bridgemen did so well, and both corps would have had a field day with the current fondness in design for intellectual symbolism and stuffy pretension. Example: when other drum majors would stand at strict attention for finale, VK's drum majors would sit out in lawn chairs with a cool beverage. One show director thought that was very disrespectful and took the lawn chairs away to evidently more audience acclaim for Michael Boo's drumming.

[Kamarag]

Drum corps desperately needs something like VK or Bridgemen. It needs this badly. But of course, no corps who takes this artistic approach will ever be a champion. Bridgemen perhaps could have won a title in 1980; that was probably the closest any of them have come. Under the current scoring and judging regime, no comedy-based show could possibly win Finals. (In fact, you probably couldn't end up in the medals, or qualify for G7. No corps director would take that approach today. It would be tantamount to suicide.)

Jersey Surf has incorporated many of the Bridgemen/VK elements into their program over the last two years (and many shows in their history have had great comedic moments as well). It's been a major contributing factor in Surf's emergence as a crowd favorite. It's working very well for them.

The next step is to dail up the achievement level, particularly in the brass.

[Northern Thunder]

There were several Midwestern senior corps that used to do such things as dropping spare shoes on the field (making field judges try to find who "lost" them).

Somebody else had a bass drummer who always smoked (as a joke) while performing on the field.

And then there was the Bellettes All-Girl Corps from Belleville, IL. Once, back in the 1960s, they performed their field show while wearing roller skates!

[skywhopper]

Surf, obviously, the last couple of years. Crown threw in some funny-ish stuff at the end in 2007. Tink pushing the DM off the stand to conduct Puck in 2009 was funny! Academy has a stand-up routine for their pre-show this year. I laughed at quite a bit of the details in Blue Devils show this year and last, actually. In 2012, angry pit girl bashing the hell out of some percussion tree thing with a pipe? I laughed out loud at that during the show! The crazy antelope-hopping brass player on the far left 1/3 way through BD's show this year? Also made me laugh out loud. He really gets into it. Spirit's drinking scene this year.

Still, I would say since VK we haven't gotten any truly pure-comedy type shows. Usually just a moment or two. I'd love to see a strong corps that needs a competitive bump try this out as a way to get some notoriety. But I think they're afraid it'll turn into this year's Academy show which best I can tell hasn't gotten anyone too excited about the change in direction. It's harder to do comedy than drama.

[Northern Thunder]

It's a safe bet this guy was the section leader in the funniest hornline:

[TerriTroop]

Does anyone else feel like it's a failing of us "older" generation fans and alums, that the OP didn't seem to know about the Bridgemen or Velvet Knights? We need to do a better job, folks!

To the OP - this is in NO WAY a dig at you. Some of us forget how quickly the years slide by and next thing we know it's been 20 or 30 years since we saw these great junior corps gracing the fields of DCI Finals.

[NeutralNovice]

Does anyone else feel like it's a failing of us "older" generation fans and alums, that the OP didn't seem to know about the Bridgemen or Velvet Knights? We need to do a better job, folks! :blink:/>

To the OP - this is in NO WAY a dig at you. Some of us forget how quickly the years slide by and next thing we know it's been 20 or 30 years since we saw these great junior corps gracing the fields of DCI Finals.

Yeah, I probably need to brush up more on DCI history--it's just that every show I've seen since my introduction has elicited emotions other than laughter. Sure, a funny moment here or there but I would love to see what a corps can do to design a comedic show around the current judging sheets.

[Michael Boo]

In 2001, Blue Knights played Paul Hart's "Cartoon" for the entire show. When I was writing the DCI program book, I was told the designers programmed moments in the show for the audience to laugh. Later, though, they forgot to tell the audience.

Humor either happens or it doesn't, but it needs to happen on its own. VK understood that for a show to be funny, the audience has to be let in on the joke. However, being "let in" doesn't mean to be force fed the joke and instructed, "Now you will laugh."

[TerriTroop]

Yeah, I probably need to brush up more on DCI history--it's just that every show I've seen since my introduction has elicited emotions other than laughter. Sure, a funny moment here or there but I would love to see what a corps can do to design a comedic show around the current judging sheets.

If you have a Fan Network subscription, totally go watch some Velvet Knights and Bridgemen shows. I promise you'll enjoy yourself! As for the current judging and humor: I don't know if it would work, but I'd love to see a corps like Surf grow into the role if at all possible. But I bet it's difficult to keep that kind of humor up, year after year.