The Capitol Steps employ outdated jokes, easy gags

I was amazed when I read that the Capitol Steps have been around for over 25 years and performed for five U.S. presidents. Equal parts clever, crude and cliche, the performance seemed much more on par with the group's Christmas office party beginnings than with a quarter-century of professional performing experience.

The show's opener,"76 Unknowns on the Campaign Trail," a parody of the musical "The Music Man," quickly displayed the somewhat dated nature of the show, which seemed altogether tailored to an older audience. Songs were often taken from classic musicals such as "My Fair Lady," instead of, say, from contemporary pop music, which would have seemed more appropriate for an auditorium full of college students.

The program claims that the Steps' music varies from show to show "based on the scandal of the day," but there were a plethora of antiquated references left over from scandals past. No more Monica Lewinsky jabs, please -- Bill Clinton was impeached almost ten years ago. A joke contest between President Bush and John Kerry was similarly passe -- the only recent reference to John Kerry would have to mention that kid at the University of Florida that got himself tasered during a Kerry speech. And although the Steps mocked the hackneyed custom of poking fun at our current president with the song "The Brain-Mouth Connection," there was no lack of dumb Bush jokes in their performance, many of which came across as rather trite ("I used to think FEMA was a bone in the leg").

On the other end of the satirical spectrum, several of the allusions were too obscure for the less politically minded audience members. For instance, the sexual harassment controversy between Anita Hill and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was touched upon, which none of the Dartmouth students in the audience would have been old enough to remember.

Not only were most of the jokes outdated, often they were tasteless as well. Of course, one expects a certain amount of stereotypical and crude humor at a political satire show such as this, but after several skits involving actors in turbans lampooning terrorists, the laughter at "The Sunny Side of Tikrit" was noticeably weaker. A song involving Mitt Romney failed to develop beyond the overused "all Mormons are polygamists" gag. "Juan Nation" crossed the line between blasting the current administration's anti-immigrant policies and being racist itself. The actor portraying "Juan," wearing an enormous sombrero, declared that if he became president, his nineteen cousins would have to move in to the White House, but "at least the Rose Garden would be immaculate."

That is not to say there was nothing praiseworthy about the performance. Mike Thornton did a very accurate impression of George W. Bush's laugh that drew huge laughs from the audience. There was a particularly witty parody of Don McLean's song "American Pie" about the outsourcing of American jobs to China ("When you buy an American pie, your grandma didn't make it, it was made in Shanghai"). A rapping and break-dancing turn by actors playing Bush and Cheney in "I Like Big Cuts and I Cannot Lie" elicited an enthusiastic response from the audience and offered a rare modern reference that the student portion of the audience could relate to.

And the most laugh-out-loud moment of the night also involved a choreographed song-and-dance routine, equally well-known to both the younger and older contingents of the audience. A lively rendition of "Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees was performed by actors portraying the four "liberal" Supreme Court Justices -- Ginsberg, Stevens, Souter and Briar -- with painful grunts and dying groans taking the place of the repetitive chanting of the chorus.

The famed "Lirty Dies" segment, written by producer Elaina Newport, director Bill Strauss and Mark Eaton, kept the audience laughing with its original wit and innuendo. In this skit, words are turned backwards and letters reassembled to form frequently suggestive statements. After getting used to translating this quasi-pig Latin, the audience was amused by the clever wordplay: "We must keep soap in our holes if we are to move sporward as a feces."

Perhaps one of the best moments of the show was the one specially tailored to Dartmouth. C. Everett Koop '37, former Surgeon General of the United States under President Reagan and current holder of three professorships at the college, was brought up on stage to perform a brief skit on HMOs. Koop's last line -- "Remember, laughter is the best medicine. And that's a pretty good thing, because most HMOs are a joke" -- triggered a standing ovation for the honored professor as he walked back to his seat. The show continued, ending with the mediocre song "Springtime for Liberals," but Koop's cameo performance was the highlight of the night.