In the same way the Brothers Karamazov both "is" and "are" - "is" a novel, "are" Dmitri, Ivan and Alexei - so The Dumpster Kids can claim the interesting linguistic duality of being simultaneously a singular and plural noun. The Dumpster Kids is one of two student-produced shows currently appearing on Brandeis Television Channel 65 (BTV); The Dumpster Kids are Brandeis sophomores Tal Ben-Yaacov '05, Patrick Raymond '05, Derek Sandhaus '05 and Aaron Quint '05.The BTV website (http://btv.brandeis.edu) describes The Dumpster Kids as "a hilarious sketch comedy show." I would not argue with the description's employment of the latter two adjectives. The sketch comedy show, produced by Quint, who also serves as BTV's Director of Original Programming, and performed by the four Dumpster Kids and the occasional guest, airs daily at 9 a.m. and p.m., 3 a.m. and p.m. and alternately at 10 and 10:30 a.m. and p.m. (check the BTV website for exact scheduling information). It is currently in its second season.

As for being hilarious, insofar as jokes primarily concerning drunkenness, masturbation, drug use, flatulence, nakedness, excretion and ramen noodles can be said to be hilarious, I would have to concur. If you turn to The Dumpster Kids expecting primarily sophisticated comedy, however, you will find that the show falls short of hilarity, coming to a rest somewhere in the realm of blah.

Typical examples of Dumpster Kids humor include footage of drunken Brandesians vomiting in East Quad, people pretending to consume the contents of one of our dorm's toilets ("It's better than Aramark!") and the all-too-obvious marijuana joke ("1000 and one things to do with a cardboard box: #420").

This show is not for the easily offended. One sketch from this season's first episode purports to be an advertisement for a new panacea, "a-dilz-upside-ya-head-namine" (rhymes with Benzedrine). "Got a headache?" It asks. "Try a-dilz-upside-ya-head-namine." The person with the "headache" is then whacked in the head with a rubber penis. One of last year's episodes included a sketch wherein Quint was shown "masturbating" to the image of a certain holy figure. In short, to describe The Dumpster Kids' humor as irreverent would be a glaring understatement.

The format of the show includes an introductory sequence featuring a funky theme song composed and mixed by Quint, a series of sketches (both acted and animated) and a set of out takes and credits to conclude. The acting is generally good but inconsistent, with periods of almost total incoherence interspersed with moments of brilliance. In this season's first episode, the group builds a series of sketches around the premise that the Convenience Store has run out of ramen noodles, the pot-head's dietary staple and the source of the necessary nutrient riboflavin. In one of the bits that follows, Ben-Yaacov does an uncanny impression of President Reinharz at a press conference discussing the lack of ramen noodles, particularly uncanny considering that he has never heard Reinharz speak, and Sandhaus delivers a fairly good imitation of a New York reporter, particularly good considering he is from Kansas. Minutes later, however, Ben-Yaacov is permitted to digress as an Aussie croc-hunter in search of the source of riboflavin, and speaks for several minutes without making an intelligible point or joke.

This incoherence might be due to the technique that The Dumpster Kids employ in creating their show. "What we would do is come up with an idea, film and write at the same time, and worry about the rest in editing, kind of," Quint said. Although this technique makes for somewhat incomprehensible live sketches, Quint's adeptness in the editing room (his dorm room) makes up for many of the show's failings. In fact, the show's primary strength is in its interesting use of computer editing in the opening and closing sequences, in the animated sketches Quint creates, and in the special effects - background music, laughtracks and video effects, for example - that Quint deftly employs.

Not only are the sketches employing these editing techniques the most visually and aurally impressive of The Dumpster Kids' repertoire, but they are also frequently the most clever of the bits, as they have been written ahead of time and tend to be more coherent than their improvised counterparts. One animated bit entitled "The Triangle" assumes that a blue triangle is searching for life's true meaning. He encounters a rhombus that tells him, "True meaning is you're the most famous of all shapes. That's what true meaning is ... No one knows me. I'm a rhombus."

Later, after a series of plot twists, the rhombus is thrown in prison, where he is attacked and has one of his corners lopped off. "Now I'm just an irregular polygon," he laments.

Another animated sketch features a sad clown whose tale is told to the bebop of Thelonious Monk. This sketch might be the quintessential - no pun intended - example of The Dumpster Kids' style. At the same time that it incorporates great animation, a killer soundtrack and a few truly clever lines, it still relies heavily on bathroom humor more suited to sixth graders than to a college audience. "Why was the clown so sad?" the sketch asks. "He was sad because when he walked his shoes would make farting noises and people would point and yell at him for disturbing the peace. They wouldn't laugh, they would just be angry. He was also sad because he would always read the poems of Charles Bukowski. This made him depressed ... One day the sad clown was walking down the street and all of a sudden he got hit by a big bus. When the bus ran him over it made the biggest farting noise ever." You get the drift.

Granted, sometimes "sophomoric" humor can be funny. In one live bit - whose merits are limited to a few good lines - a teenage Bostonian art critic named Awtful takes us on a tour of the Museum of Fine Arts. Awtful approaches a Van Gogh and announces: "This one's Dutch. That's where blunts come from." If you can't appreciate the humor in that, then don't bother with the show.

If you have a half-hour to spare, however, check it out. These kids - particularly Quint, who has been the most consistent driving force behind The Dumpster Kids - have real talent. Although the few glimmers of genius that the show contains do not necessarily outweigh the plodding nature of an incomprehensible sketch (I still don't understand the riboflavin) or the effrontery that The Dumpster Kids display in choosing to treat certain subject matters, it is probably worth your while to watch the show at least once. Hey, if vulgarity floats your boat, you'll probably sign on to The Dumpster Kids' fleet. If not, chances are you'll encounter at least one clever quip that will make you smile. And, hopefully we'll come across these names again sometime and remember seeing these Brandesians when they were sophomores.