Every year, Seeples come together to poke fun at themselves, their professors and SIPA life in general. We call this event, “Follies,” which means “a lack of good sense or judgment; foolish behavior,” according to Merriam-Webster. Think of it as an episode of Saturday Night Light, but with a SIPA twist! On Saturday, SIPA hosted its umpteenth Follies, but it was the second year we held the event at the world-famous Apollo Theater, where some of the greatest talents have performed, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., James Brown, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, and Michael Jackson. Today, the Apollo, presents concerts, performing arts, education, and community outreach programs, which makes it possible for our Seeples to perform on the same stage as some of their musical and comedic idols.

Unfortunately, photography is frowned upon at the Apollo. Nonetheless, I was able to snap a few photos (and videos) during the event. (Shh!) Don’t worry, I kept my flash off — as you can tell from the poor-looking stills below — so I wouldn’t disrupt the skits. While you might not understand all of the references, I hope you’ll still get a kick out of the images below. And who knows — maybe you’ll be writing your own skit in two years! Here’s a look at SIPA Follies 2016.

SIPA Follies 2016 made it on the Apollo sign!

 

SIPA students are required to enroll in a 0.5 credit professional development course. In this skit, they poke fun at the course and how our Career Services staff teaches Seeples about the value of a strong cover letter and resume…all to the likeness of an evangelical group that worships “the good book,” aka SIPA’s career book.

 

In this skit, students compete on the hit TV show ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’ The venue: SIPA’s very own Alice’s Cafe, on the sixth floor of IAB.

 

This one is a video parody to “Party Like a Rockstar” by hip-hop group Shop Boyz. SIPA’s version? “Party Like a Seeple.”

 

To recruit the next class of Seeples, “Dean Merit E. Janow” (far right) and her colleagues enlist the help of actor Nicolas Cage (far left). His solution? Create a whole new curriculum plan — including a course called “American Foreign Policy: Just Set Everything on Fire.” And of course, no new curriculum would be complete without a montage of his movie stills.

 

Despite the fact it’s 2016, some professors still require Seeples to submit their assignments as stapled hard copies. But when there aren’t any staples left, what’s a Seeple to do?!

 

Here we have our very own Affan Javed (right), who’s giving a presentation on his day at the UN. Before his presentation he accidentally “cloned” himself (Satbir Singh), so he and his clone are recounting his special visit, and the strange bathroom conversation he had with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEkpBygmpVz/?tagged=sipafollies2016

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEkObfYr3Jt/?taken-by=columbia.sipa

Want to see more? There are segments of Follies where the students prerecorded parodies of famous songs or perform general skits. Here are a handful of those video from the past five years.