When MBAs Get Downright Silly

At some of the best business schools in the world, there’s an annual ritual that spoofs B-school culture and MBAs in general. It’s the Follies Show.

In the tradition of Saturday Night Live, these sketch comedies allow students to shuck their MBA personas–at least for a few nights–to become the B-school equivalents of Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, and Jimmy Fallon. For years, some of the best and most irreverent skits were put on by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, schools with large enrollments and resources.

This year’s batch of early Follies’ Shows at the best schools indicate that there is no shortage of comedic creativity on B-school campuses. They also prove that MBA students can be far from politically correct. Among the best: A Columbia Business School MBA asserts he will do anything for a job (with the exception of giving up alcohol); In a spoof of Wharton’s Advanced Negotiations course, students try negotiating sexual encounters; and New York University’s Stern School MBAs do a hilarious send-up of movie, The Social Network.

One of our favorite skits so far involves a Columbia MBA who has an obsessive crush on a fellow classmate who won’t date him because he’s not Jewish. Never mind the A he got in finance.

And then there is what Kellogg is now calling the first LipDub video by a business school. Filmed to Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose,” the video features a cast of 70 Kellogg students. The cast learned their parts, rehearsed, and were filmed as a single, continuous shot in less than 3.5 hours on a Sunday morning.

Anything For a Job (With the Exception of Giving up Alcohol)