Divine Comedy (BYU)
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Divine Comedy is BYU's scripted comedy troupe which performs skits that poke fun at Mormon culture, BYU cliches, and popular movies and TV shows.
History
The group began in 1994 but it was difficult at first to drag an audience into the shows. Now, however, the group performs regularly during the school year and are tragically funny.[citation needed] As cast members graduate, auditions are held and the students replaced. In 2010, Divine Comedy released a music video spoof, Provo Utah Girls (a spoof off of Katy Perry's California Gurls), which caught over 1,000,000 YouTube views, completely topping the normal 14,000 views each sketch generally received. Following that, Firebolt (another Katy Perry song, Firework spoof ) received several positive comments from people of non-LDS backgrounds who appreciated the clean, fun, and witty humor presented by the BYU students.
In 2012, several members of the group moved to BYUtv to form the new comedy show, Studio C. Under the direction of Theatre and Media Arts professor George Nelson, the group brings smiles and laughs to everyone who watches them. In 2012, Steven Rosenfield, director of the American Comedy Institute in New York, visited BYU and presented workshops about the comedy business. He spoke about the challenge to write and present clean humor. He said of DC members, "They are fantastic ambassadors for Brigham Young University."
In May of 2013, Divine Comedy troop members traveled to Chicago, Illinois and attended a workshop by comedic writer, Derek Shipman. Also in spring of 2013, Divine Comedy's offshoot TV show, Studio C, was featured as the cover story in BYU Magazine. Divine Comedy's parody music video Fail made it on the Top 13 BYU Videos of 2013.
It no longer has club status under the student union. BYU remains its sponsor "through the Theatre [and] Media Arts Department," that is, it has "the same organization status as Living Legends and other well-known BYU sponsored [sic] groups."[1]
Notable Alumni
- Brandon Mull, author of the popular Fablehaven series.[2]
- The cast of BYUtv's Studio C
