This article is featured in the 2025 Freshman Special Issue.
“If for 30 minutes I can have you sit on the sticky frat floor and watch me make a fool of myself and you get some kind of relief out of that, that just means the absolute world to me,” Ellie Appelgren ’28 said.
Appelgren is just one student in a long tradition of Dartmouth comedians. In Hanover, social life is dominated by performances from improv groups Dog Day Players, Casual Thursday and Can’t Sell Culture, giving students respite amidst exams and deadlines throughout the term.
Each group has a distinct identity and flavor. Dog Day performances have a classic college improv approach, according to Appelgren. The group does four two-person scenes in one show, and the storylines are often completely unrelated to one another. Members have to find a way to weave together these disparate storylines in 15 to 20 minutes, Appelgren said, even if there are “times where one really funny or weird [storyline] just doesn't continue on.”
Members of the satirical newspaper, The Jack-O-Lantern, on the other hand, publishes a termly paper that they distribute across campus, sometimes on top of copies of The Dartmouth. They pay close attention to campus politics, Ethan D’Ambrosio ’28 said.
“If something happens on campus — like when admin does something goofy — we have, either in the group chat or one of our meetings, a talk about the angle that we could get at,” D’Ambrosio said.
The groups often stay close after graduation. Dog Day, for example, recently celebrated its founding with a large group of alumni.
“We just had our 30 year reunion in the spring and that was just absolutely amazing,” Appelgren said. “We had one of our founders come, which was super great.”
D’Ambrosio, on the other hand, emphasized the history of Jack-O and the people that have made the group what it is today.
“It's existed for at least several decades, like David Harbour was a member,” he said. “We claim Mindy Kaling was also, but I don't know if that’s true. We’ve been around for a long time. [Jack-O’s mascot] Keggy just turned 21, and that was a big thing.”
Students said that these groups offer community.
“I really think it is the people,” Appelgren said. “I think the fact that I know I can count on all the people in Dog Day and I know I can trust them makes me able to create good comedy with them because I know they'll have my back.”
Furthermore, Appelgren explained that Dog Day helps her with Dartmouth’s rigid academic environment and keeping her “nose to the grindstone.” Performing offers her a moment of respite and allows her to deliver that same moment to other students. This, Appelgren said, is a “testament” to the “power of comedy” and its ability to “bring people together.”
Dog Day’s current president Maisie Pike ’26, said that the group allows her “to be silly and be someone that’s not an Ivy League student.”
“You can play any character you want; let go into a new realm,” she said.
On Monday, August 18 from 9 am - 9 pm, Dog Day recently did a 12-hour improv session on Baker Lawn from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pike explained that the group had originally planned to do a 24-hour session last year, but the plan fell through due to members’ time constraints. Over this summer, however, interest picked up and she pitched the idea.
“Rehearsal would be over and they would be like ‘can we please do more,’” she said. She was met with enthusiasm when she pitched the 12-hour show.
The 12-hour session spiked Dog Day’s popularity and brought more interest to the group, she said. Pike wants to run a 24-hour improv session before she graduates.
“It's just really logistically like a bit of a war, but it'll definitely be coming this fall,” she said.
A fresh round of students will be coming in this fall too, which means auditions. Pike hopes that Dog Day will attract a good amount of new students.
“I think [Dog Day] allows freshmen to try something completely new,” Pike said. “So I definitely want to try to advertise that as much as possible, like trying something new and putting yourself out there.”
Members said that these groups give students a way to push themselves internally and in front of an audience. Students use the shared space of these groups to throw their ideas out there and have others build upon it while doing the same for others.
These groups have also helped to instill confidence in their members, according to Appelgren. She plans on using skills learned from Dog Day in her day to day life.
“I want to be able to translate that quick thinking comedic skill into either something that can help my career or even just adapt that to better interact with the people around me,” Appelgren said.
