An unexpected look at the Vancouver Canucks' recent win against the San Jose Sharks through the lens of improv comedy. The author compares the lackluster game to the 'Boring Game' improv exercise, highlighting the challenges of playing it 'straight' and how the Canucks struggled to find excitement in a lackluster matchup.
I love a boring game . I should clarify. You might be able to tell from the general vibe I give off, but I used to do a lot of comedy improv. One of my favourite improv games to play was one that we always called the Boring Game . It’s also known by other names: the Not Funny game, No Laughs, Serious Switch, or Dead Serious. It’s a pretty simple game. You get a suggestion from the audience — the more outlandish, the better — and you play out a scene.
The catch is, if the audience laughs, the improviser who made them laugh jumps out of the scene and is replaced by another improviser. What a lot of improvisers get wrong is they take the name “Boring Game” too literally and try to avoid laughs by being boring. Unfortunately, that approach isn’t particularly entertaining for the audience and often falls flat. That makes the game a challenging one even for experienced improvisers. But improv doesn’t have to be limited to just comedy, which is why I like the Boring Game so much. You can take an outlandish suggestion from the audience — a scene about mammoths with rocket boots, for example — and play it completely straight, aiming for drama, tragedy, or romance. When done right, playing it straight can often end up being way more funny than trying for a silly joke and there will be plenty of laughs to keep improvisers rotating into the scene. So yeah, when done right, I love a Boring Game. When a boring game is done wrong, it’s less fun. The Vancouver Canucks game against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night was the wrong kind of boring game. It was so bad that it had me reminiscing about comedy improv. It was a dreadfully dull, uninspired performance from both teams. There were long stretches of time where nothing of note happened. The Canucks had two power plays in the first period where they didn’t get a single shot on goal. It was like their strategy was to lull the Sharks into a catatonic state, like when you turn an actual shark upside down. Since the Sharks are last place in the NHL, it’s a little bit concerning for the Canucks that they struggled so much to beat them. But at least they did actually beat them, even if it took overtime and a penalty shot. “It wasn’t pretty but we found a way to stick together and come out of there with the two points,” said Dakota Joshua. “That was an important win for us. We need all the points we can get here down the stretch.” The Canucks have managed to get points out of six of their last seven games, going 5-1-1 in that time, so it’s probably not worth getting too bent out of shape about one ugly win, especially when it came without the team’s best player in the lineup. Unlike the show that introduced most people to comedy improv, the points did matter when I watched this game
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