North Dakota State’s improvisation group “TBD” kicked off 2016 with its ComedySportz show Jan. 23. The show featured several strong performances from each of the actors and started the spring semester with a touchdown.

The show comprised of eight different games that the improv actors would participate in. The challenges pitted the Red Team (Nose Goes) vs. the Blue Team (The Swag-Ians) in a battle to the death.

Throughout the entire show, two rules had to be followed: No swear words or inappropriate jokes and no bad puns.

If someone swore or made an inappropriate joke they had to wear an embarrassing brown paper bag with a celebrity’s face on it. The bags ranged from having the visage of Ellen DeGeneres without teeth or eyebrows, to the red faced Donald Trump. If an actor told a bad pun, then they had to sincerely apologize to the audience.

By the end of the night, both of these rules would be broken multiple times, much to the appreciation of the crowd.

The auditorium the show was presented in was a great atmosphere to watch comedy of this caliber, loud laughter and clapping echoed off the walls and allowed for a lot of fun. From everyone booing an actor who made a terrible mustard pun, to ritualistically chanting like samurai, the auditorium boomed.

Obviously, like with any live show, small things went wrong here or there, but they never let minor flubs stop the momentum of the actors.

“Scenes From a Hat” was the final game the two teams played and it definitely allowed the actors to come up with the funniest, dirtiest jokes they could think of. Scenes like “Things You Can Say to Your Motorcycle but Not Your Significant Other” and “Things Not to Say to Your Dentist” set up the stage for all six brown bags to be used (the actors wearing them definitely thought it was worth it.)

Improvisation shows have the opportunity to be a hilarious coalition of nonstop jokes or make the audience feel incredibly awkward at lame attempts to be funny.

In this regard, NDSU’s performers hit a home run.