The Snickerdoodles whip up a batch of comedic delights
Susan Alami, a second-year English student, Samantha Little, a second-year undeclared student, and Asmita Paranjape, a second-year computer science student, are The Snickerdoodles. (Jessica Zhou/Daily Bruin)
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 21, 2015 12:50 a.m.
Don’t mistake The Snickerdoodles with the famous tasty treat: They’re a new sketch comedy group at UCLA that cooks up five-minute comedic web videos and plans to eventually create “Saturday Night Live”-style skits.
The group, which began recruiting members in the fall, started small after its founders met through the Shakespeare Company at UCLA’s marketing team. Group leaders Susan Alami and Samantha Little said they now hope to increase their team to eight or 10 people to keep a tight-knit comedy troupe to enhance their creative process.
“Comedy is great when the people are really close, which allows you to play off of each other’s actions and reactions,” said Alami, a second-year English student.
During their time with the Shakespeare acting troupe, Alami and Little, a second-year undeclared student, realized they shared a love of sketch comedy but couldn’t find a group on campus that allowed them to explore different genres of humor. Alami, a member of the Rapid Fire Improv group at UCLA, said she was seeking another outlet for students who wanted to explore comedy in a form different from improvisation.
After studying in UCLA’s theater program during her first year, Alami said the program was not a good fit for her and she opted to change majors while still pursuing comedy outside of the classroom. By studying English instead, she said she has the ability to practice writing in class while actively pursuing her passion as an extracurricular.
The Snickerdoodles hope to capitalize on the growing field of online comedy sketches. Alami said she thinks web series are a growing form of comedic expression and that online-based skits are an increasingly effective way to present examples of work to recruiters in entertainment.
The group emphasizes the importance of television production and “show running,” with hopes to emulate Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s work on “30 Rock” and “Parks and Recreation,” Alami said. By show running, the pair means they want to write, act and produce it’s comedy, taking charge of all aspects of the show.
The group plans to gain a solid foundation of members and followers before transitioning to video outlets like YouTube or Vimeo, she added.
The Snickerdoodles don’t want to be labeled as performers limited to YouTube, Alami said. Their first priority is to form a reputation as a dynamic professional comedy troupe not limited to one performance style.
Little and Alami added Asmita Paranjape to the troupe in the fall of 2014. A second-year computer science student, Paranjape said she began pursuing stand-up comedy in 2014 and competed in the Laugh Bowl against USC students.
Paranjape was a top-three contender in the contest and performed at the Laugh Factory at the end of the competition. She continues to perform at comedy clubs around the area in addition to her work as DJ for UCLA Bruin Comedy.
Together, the three members typically write scripts for the skits collaboratively by exchanging pitches for sketches during their weekly meetings. Little said that once they have a plot idea, the members will toss around different twists to the story and once the script is created, they begin filming.
The Snickerdoodles sketches will run under five minutes and will be in the form of a miniseries with new plots and characters in each episode, Alami said. Together, the three current members wrote their introductory sketch that will debut on their Facebook page.
The first sketch introduces each member of the group by featuring characters that interact to form a purposefully dysfunctional group while satirizing pretentious comedians, Little said.
“For the first skit, we wanted to channel an ‘Office’-style comedic awkwardness and play off of a dysfunctional group of people where the situations are funny because of that tension,” Alami said.
Little said their goal by next year is to perform live shows, send materials to entertainment industries and compete in comedy contests. They also hope to expand their influence on campus and in the field of comedy.
“Comedy is important because its a form of storytelling that can be very cathartic for many people – everyone loves to laugh, it makes them feel good,” Alami said.
The Snickerdoodles’ freshest batch of comedy can be found on their Facebook page, which they update weekly with upcoming events and videos. They will begin filming their next sketch in early February and hope to recruit new members along the way.
