UCLA theater students run Extremely Decent, produce comedy sketches for college audiences
Ian McQuown (center) and his roommates David Crane (left) and Nick Smith (right), all fourth-year theater students, are a part of short-film production company Extremely Decent.
This article is part of the Daily Bruin's Graduation Issue 2012 coverage. To view more multimedia, galleries, and columns, visit http://dailybruin.com/gradissue2012
By Dan Peel
June 9, 2012 10:41 p.m.
The members of the video production company Extremely Decent adorn their walls with an antler-bearing can of Keystone Light, dual guitars, a large starfish and the plush head of a snow leopard mounted above a mistletoe. These are extensions of their approach to life, with humor residing at its core.
Fourth-year theater students Ian McQuown, David Crane, Jon Eidson and Nick Smith run Extremely Decent in their apartment, creating comedy sketches for their college-age audience. The group, which formed in 2011, also includes Chapman University student Mikey Caro and University of Arizona student Brendan Rice. That same year, Extremely Decent won Best Picture at UCLA’s 2011 Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest student film festival, for their sketch “The Ex.”
Smith said they considered the name “Extremely Decent” among others such as “Confetti Warfare, “War Panda” and “Kitty Stomp.” After collecting reactions from their peers, they decided to use the favored “Extremely Decent.”
Much of their current humor revolves around familiar college scenarios, such as conversations about sexual innuendos, friendships with ex-roommates and lost keys. Smith said their skits randomly break into song, tailoring their comedy for the ADD generation.
In the Extremely Decent sketch “Snow!” characters dress up in snow jackets and scarves, have “snowball fights” with clods of dirt and make “snow angels” while lying on a wilted meadow. The skit ends with the disclaimer: “Happy Holidays. Love, Global Warming.”
The team said they are inspired by such influences as Stephen Colbert, the musical comedy group The Lonely Island, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and communist dictators for their use of absurdity and irony.
Each member of Extremely Decent contributes ideas for their sketches and then acts them out. Caro produces animation overlay, in which cartoons are transposed over video. Smith writes the music and edits the films.
“Because we have so much information coming at us all the time, people are very hard to fool,” McQuown said. “When you do get fooled (by comedy), it’s like Christmas.”
Smith said their sketches last three minutes or less on average, so the humor has to hit audiences much quicker than full-length comedy films. Faced with this short time span, the group uses jokes that the audience would not expect from the onset of the sketch.
“Comedy is a good way to make commentary on … things that people are too uncomfortable to really talk about,” Crane said. “And if one of our videos makes someone a little bit happier for the day, I think we’ve done a good job.”
For Extremely Decent, McQuown said the creative process entails transforming ideas countless times through discussion and improvisation before settling on a final draft.
“I have masterpiece syndrome,” Smith said. “I can’t show work to people until I’ve edited it for endless hours.”
Smith said their post-graduation approach to humor will continue to reflect the state of their lives, which will likely involve trying to find jobs and paying for Top Ramen.
After spending the summer making sketches, the group plans to move to the Hollywood area and create a character-driven web series. McQuown said the series will be about four guys who live in their apartment and have adventures, such as finding alternate universes beneath the kitchen sink.
“The plan (is) to produce a pilot and a story bible for the entire series arc that explains each episode,” Smith said. “Then we will showcase the series to networks. The hope is to get picked up by a startup production company.”
According to Smith, if their plan does not work out, then the group will continue to build a following through its YouTube channel and website, releasing new episodes each week.
Although Smith said that he could write comedy, act and produce music forever, none of the members are certain where they will end up.
“This is the scariest time to be living … but don’t be afraid to freak out,” Crane said. “Uncertainty is awesome. Before we know it, we’re going to be 35 … with mortgages. We have this opportunity to figure everything out. We don’t even have to worry about school anymore.”
