Whitest Kids U’ Know to perform at Comedy Attic

Widely known for their irreverence and generally offensive content, the New York-based sketch comedy group the Whitest Kids U’ Know will perform today through Saturday at the Comedy Attic.

Trevor Moore, Darren Trumeter and Sam Brown will perform at 8 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday, with additional shows at 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Tickets range from $12 to $16, and Comedy Attic owner Jared Thompson expects all five appearances to be sold out.

Three of the five members of the troupe appeared at the venue last March.

Moore, the founder and best-known member of the group, released his debut album, “Drunk Texts to Myself,” in March 2013.

A collection of songs borrowing from rap, country, rock and pop genres, the album was inspired by Moore’s habit of drunk-texting himself a to-do list and then later reading the nonsensical messages.

Nevertheless, Moore views the album as expressing cultural topics.

According to an IDS article from March 28, 2013, Moore said of the album, “I didn’t want to just do parody songs.

“I wanted each song to have a point,” he said. “I go into a song about circumcision. I wrote a song about the Founding Fathers smoking pot and the Pope and how much money he makes.”

Moore has worked with his troupe for more than 14 years, although the Whitest Kids U’ Know only emerged as a viable sketch comedy group in the mid-2000s after several of their videos went viral on YouTube.

“We were kind of in the right place at the right time,” he said. “People were taking videos off our site and putting them on YouTube and spreading it around the net.”

Thompson said their viral success was an unorthodox approach to their later fame.

“There really never was a way to make it without being handed a TV show,” he said. “They kind of pioneered marketability based on just YouTube views. They were definitely on the forefront of that.”

Whitest Kids U’ Know released its self-titled debut album in 2006 and was also named Best Sketch Group at the Aspen Comedy Festival the same year.

Though Thompson describes himself as skeptical of sketch comedy, he realized the troupe’s potential after coming across their popular Civil  War sketch on the Independent Film Channel.

“I think they just have a natural feel for each other,” he said. “They’ve been
doing this for so long. A lot of it is just their understanding the strengths and weaknesses of what they have to work with.”

Unlike most other comedians that have performed at the Comedy Attic, the Whitest Kids U’ Know does not feature much stand-up. Instead, it relies on multimedia, skits and songs.

Thompson said showcasing a troupe with such a diverse approach to comedy was a new experience at the Comedy Attic.

“We’ve never done anything that wasn’t remotely stand-up at all,” he said. “But everyone who was here last year just had so much fun.”