Four boys are sitting on the floor. They complain that there is nothing to do because it’s raining outside. While the boys stare into space with blank faces and bored eyes, a look of joy comes on one of the their faces. He enthusiastically suggests that they use their imagination. “What’s imagination?” the others ask.

“I’ll show you!” he says.

The boys get four chairs and pretend they are driving in a car down the Autobahn in Germany. Soon Nazi-robots are attacking the car with napalm bombs, and the players tell an imaginary journey ending with three of the boys dead. The other is left crying in agony reaching to the sky yelling, “Imagination!”

This is the typical style of comedy you can expect from Cornell’s premier comedy group the Skits-O-Phrenics. The team of 12 writers and performers played to packed houses at Cornell’s Risley Theater this weekend, dishing out their latest dose of comedy they called the “Traveling Medicine Show.”

The team’s brand of comedy can be compared to the popular sketch comedy group Kids in the Hall, featuring bizarre concepts and surreal happenings. Having no limits and complete creative control, the Skits-O-Phrenics are fearless in their content and don’t restrict their comedy. From the moment the show opens, audience members are immediately thrust into the creative, sick and sometimes twisted minds of the group’s members.

Several of the sketches have scathing religious or social commentary. An E! Hollywood fashion show titled “Fashion of the Christ” features the cast modeling togas, “Aramaic” Jordans and yes, “Pontius” Palm Pilots.

In another sketch, the players dramatize how the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) may have reacted during the Middle Ages. As a knight is about to slay a tunic-wearing, horned devil, a line of picketers wielding signs comes to stop the knight. The knight argues that he is simply killing beasts that terrorize defenseless peasants. But PETA ignores him and calls him uncaring. After all, dragons have feelings, too.

The group presents two blue-collar workers with foul mouths and husky voices. Dressed in flannel shirts and with scruffy beards, they begin discussing how to win the beauty pageant next year. Between their curses and crude gestures, they decide on using glitter eyeliner for the modeling part of the contest.

Some of the skits border on obscene, while some crossed the line. In one scene, two men stand by a table with a plate of baked goods. They introduce themselves as inventors at the Hostess cake factory. They present us with their new creation “Babycakes.” As the two begin to bite into the pastry and red jelly-like substance oozes out, the cries of a baby are heard in the background.

Musical numbers were also an important element of the show. The troupe presents a woman dressed up as a nun and a man in torn clothes on a deserted island, standing beside a blow up palm tree. He argues that the nun doesn’t do anything but pray while he does all of the work. The man expresses his emotion in song with a parody of the Weezer song “Island in the Sun” with his song “Island with a Nun.” A chorus of nuns slowly dances on stage and helps to sing back up.

Near the end of the show, the lights are dimmed for a scene change, and crashing and screams of pain come from backstage. The lights then fade up to reveal a funeral for one of the group members who recently died backstage.

“But this is no ordinary funeral,” announces the priest. “This is a rock-opera funeral.” Meat Loaf’s song “Bat Out of Hell” is pumped through the speakers as the deceased cast member rises from the grave dressed in long hair and a bandana. Determined not to die, he faces the reaper in a battle, one on one, guitar to sickle.

Finally, the reaper is defeated during a strobe-lit bout. God tells the man he will be granted life as long as he agrees to “rock out!” When he agrees, the cast fills the stage to rock out, too. The show ends with the cast, dressed as characters from throughout the show, playing air guitar to the music on whatever prop they could find, not excluding a makeshift crucifix.

The Skits-O-Phrenics have time and time again taken sketch comedy to a pulp theater stage. They dispel the flashiness of television sketch comedy and the sometimes college-style humor of other such comedy groups. The team has risen to a higher status of theater groups often only found in the theater scene of major cities.