The Bachelors of Fine Arts

Here's the latest article I got published in the Broadside.

Bachelors of Fine Arts: Raunchy College Humor at its Best

Broadside Staff Writer Alison Brown

Pittsburgh, Pa. is known for its culture, traditions and scholars. The Southside Bar Crawl is renowned as near impossible; the Steelers have become legends within the city and the universities such as the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne bring in the brightest students.

At the University of Pittsburgh, five college students released a sketch comedy DVD that is causing a stir around the city and on the Internet. But on the same note, Pittsburgh is not called “The Dirty Burgh” for nothing. These scholars are not quite what you would expect.

The Bachelors of Fine Arts are the self-proclaimed premiere film-sketch comedy group in Pittsburgh. On Friday, Feb. 2, the BFA’s released “The Bachelors of Fine Arts' DVD, Volume I,” which is packed with innuendos, sex and some questionable content.

“This DVD mainly comprises itself of the sketches we could never do in high school. It just happens to be very sexually charged,” said Brenden Gallagher, 20, a member of the BFA’s.
The Stewartstown, Pa. native and dual film studies and English major at U-Pitt said the release was well received by those who attended.

“We may not have gotten huge numbers of sales, but the people who came either enjoyed themselves or were completely offended,” Gallagher said. “We’re getting our names out there, and that’s what’s important right now.”

The BFA’s YouTube account has generated thousands of hits inside and outside of the Pittsburgh area, which Gallagher and fellow member Erik Hinton agree “proves the idea of self-promotion”.

Several of the skits released on YouTube are featured on the DVD including “Room for Boners,” a spoof of Calvin Klein’s underwear ads from the 1980s and early 1990s, “Insane Clown Party,” a depiction of the Insane Clown Posse fan base in Pittsburgh and “Douchenheimer and Deebs,” an ice cream ad that promotes a “delicious disguise for detestable deeds.”

The DVD features exclusive sketches like “The Founding Fathers,” which depicts a drunken George Washington drafting the Declaration with his buddies John Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Ben Franklin has a cameo and the resulting debauchery is comedic gold. Another sketch, “Great Moments in Porn History,” documents the rise and fall of the fictional German pornography director Fritz Schlang.

Despite its questionable subject matter, the DVD is an impressive feat. The quintet, comprised of Kevin Riley, 20, Alex Burkat, 21, and Ben Hickling, 21, in addition to Gallagher and Hinton, wrote, directed, filmed and edited all of the sketches. They also created some of the songs featured on the DVD.

Seamlessly shot and edited, the sketches look better than many low-budget produced independent films. The writing is quick and often shadowed in what society deems as serious and politically incorrect.

“A lot of what we’ve done is because we want it to make it okay to laugh at this stuff again. It’s all right to make fun of sex; it’s okay to joke about being different. We’ve become a society where we’re all too serious and afraid to offend,” Gallagher said.

“Life should be fun,” Hinton said. “We don’t set out to offend people. It just happens that way because it’s not what people expect to hear or see on screen.”

“It’s amazing our parents haven’t disowned us yet,” continued Hinton, laughing. “At their requests, our next DVD won’t be so sexually charged. The next release will probably still offend, but the subject matter will be different.”

New material for the second release is still under progress. For previews of the sketches or to purchase the BFA’s DVD, visit www.thebfas.com.