Last week Keenan Hall presented their infamous dorm event, The Keenan Revue, aptly named “It’s Not Revue, It’s Me: A Breakup Revue.” And I thought it was hilarious. All of it. Nearly every skit hit on some aspect of Notre Dame life and though I found myself laughing to the point of tears, the Revue’s ability to address serious student issues was seriously impressive.
Even if providing a social commentary on Notre Dame phenomenons was not at all the intention of the writers of the Revue, they still succeeded in doing so. I’m probably using my ex-English major analytical skills to completely overthink the deeper meaning behind every skit (so please feel free to correct me if you actually wrote them and really didn’t mean for any of them to be serious at all). But I feel like this screenshot of a retweet of a screenshot of a tweet by our very own HCND Twitter account attests to their original intent.
The right way to talk about race relations.
Yes, even “Revuepoint” was hilarious, in which the Keenan Revue appropriately pointed out the way in which students like myself are so conservatively liberal in Viewpoints that we get caught up with our own ideals and attack others for their insensitivity to social concerns. I thought it was really funny and clever, and to be honest I am really honored to be such an integral (if obnoxious) part of the Notre Dame culture that I am relevant in one of the most important dorm events of the year (That may have been a slight overstatement for some *IrreleventDillonPepRallyandFisherRegatta*).
Though I think that providing a commentary on diversity relations of every sort at Notre Dame and elsewhere is very important, as evident in my intense Viewpoints, it is also important to remember that attacking people with different views than you own will not change any ideas or views. I have learned a lot by analyzing my writing style and the opinions of those like the writers of the Revue.
The Goose has a good point in his response to a particular Keenan Revue critique.
Furthermore, what better way to inform people on their insensitivity of non-athletes and numbness to serious mental disorder than to joke about it (#seriously)? I laughed hysterically at the “Domerfest” skit because of how real the situation was, but I realized there is a legitimate problem when all girls care about is whether or not the boy they are dancing with is a football player. I mean we even have the ND Non-Athletes Program to identify oneself as a non-athletic ethnic student.
The Keenan Revue targeted its audience very effectively, considering 99 percent of the people in the first ten rows were literally all girls. It’s a problem when your jersey chasing is so obvious that boys have to call you out on it, ladies. It’s little embarrassing that being a Notre Dame or St. Mary’s Girls is directly associated with such thirst. Remember: next time you’re at Domerfest (yeah, you, you crazy upperclassmen) or just grinding away at Hip Hop Night, if he’s not wearing issue gear that says Notre Dame (Insert Sport Here), DO NOT ASSUME HE IS AN ATHLETE BECAUSE HE IS PROBABLY NOT. Honestly, more often than not you will be able to tell who the football player in the room is by his issue geared sweats, stop trying so hard.
Additionally, I thought the #Hashtag skit was unapologetically hilarious, and it was made even better with the important social commentary it brought as well. We joke far too often about depression here that it’s really difficult to tell when a friend or acquaintance is legitimately depressed, and hopefully that skit opened some eyes to the innate seriousness of even joking about depression. Honestly, more than a handful of my friends have told me they believed they have been legitimately depressed during at least one semester while attending school here, and didn’t seek aid because they didn’t think it was that serious. It is scary how common this is. Also, my end of the semester goal is to make it to the sun room in St. Liam’s #SeasonalAffectiveDisorder This may have been one of the skits I overthought, but it was still a great one.
Too much booty.
Despite the rampant “typical” Notre Dame girl imitations and St. Mary’s jokes that I subconciously loved, the Keenan Revue did its job and delivered a great event. Not to mention, those lead singers in basically every song were AMAZING. Why have I never heard those great voices before? Am I allowed to say I almost loved that “Stacy’s Mom” cover more than the original?
The only problem I did have was the dancing men. I was almost in tears every time a group of boys appeared in nothing but booty shorts, drenched in whipped cream or some other unidentifiable substance. I didn’t know where to settle my eyes. Sitting in the third row, I was afraid of awkward eye contact as a boy seductively rubbed whipped cream on himself or thrust his hips at the crowd. The perfect choreography was unsettling and my blatant objectifying of men was too foreign to fully appreciate the beauty of it all. I LOVED IT. I am almost tempted to request dancing lessons from whoever choreographed the whole thing. You go boys!
Backstreet Boys have nothing on Keenan Boys.
To be honest, a number of my friends did not attend the Revue this year because “it sucked last year.” Sorry, guys. It’s the harsh reality; last year’s Revue wasn’t exactly your best performance. But this year made up for awkward forced laughs from last year’s revue, and hopefully it paves the way for an even funnier revue next year. Can’t wait! And also Mattie’s beautiful eyes didn’t hurt either (that’s so weird, I don’t even know him!).