Photos by Jacob Reiskin'17

If a general consensus were conducted on the performance by stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress, it would go something like this: The drunker you were, the more you laughed. The more sober you were, the more you sat there in silence with brief scoffs sprinkled here and there. Although that’s not to say if you were part of the sober crowd, you could hear a pin drop after every joke, but at times a laugh had to forcefully snake its way in.

Touching on the topics of hookers, Nyquil abuse and rappers, one might think the comedian was sure to cover all the bases in terms of what “not to say” to an audience filled with liberal arts college students. However, I don’t believe this is the reason those who were sober failed to crack up, and therefore remains almost irrelevant in this case.

I believe humor is humor, it’s meant to be offensive and poke fun at topics that normally are not acceptable to poke fun at, and I believe as a community we respected that throughout his performance. Therefore, I don’t believe our campus is too “PC” or “socially conservative” to handle Buress’ crude commentary on sex and destructive partying, but I do believe that something bigger was missing from the entire picture of his performance.

Skidmore College is certainly a place of knowledge and higher learning, where creative thought and wit are valued. If one was considerably inebriated, Buress may have possessed the qualities of sharp humor, but being sober, he just did not make the cut. Although a few jokes here and there harnessed a lot of laughs, his humor was missing the well-rounded, cunning aspect that many of us enjoy while watching comedians such as Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld and the illustrious Jon Stewart.