High Dramma

by Holly Otterbein

[ comedy ]

The Fishtown-based comedy troupe High Dramma has performed some wildly absurd skits in the past year. The most out-there sketch, though, places video game characters Mario and Luigi on Intervention — a lowbrow-as-you-can-go reality show in which counselors rope drug addicts into rehab by placing them in the same room as their weeping family members.

In High Dramma's parody, the plot is tweaked slightly: Mario is addicted to — what else? — magic mushrooms, and Luigi is the uneasy relative by his side.

Mario isn't the only innocent pop-culture icon that High Dramma makes ugly. In fact, dirtying and darkening these memes seem to be the troupe's shtick: They also satirize Cap'n Crunch, The Dark Knight and the Snuggie.

"In one sketch, Cap'n Crunch plays a 'cereal killer' who stabs other mascots with a spoon," says High Dramma's ringleader, Johnny Smith. Sensing my incredulousness, he explains what may be a comic truth. "Listen, sometimes a joke that sounds really stupid in theory kills on stage."

And if it doesn't? "We do some dick and fart jokes," he says, "but we try to do them ... with finesse."

Sat.-Sun., May 23-24, 8 p.m., Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Ave., 215-427-9255, walkingfishtheatre.com.