The crowd at the third Wicked Smaht Comedy show at the Questrom School of Business auditorium on February 24. Photos by JD DiMatteo (COM’25, CAS’25)

Arts & Culture

Could This Be the Next SNL? BU Student’s Wicked Smaht Comedy Troupe Performs This Weekend

Bella Ramirez (COM’25, CAS’25) founded the intercollegiate sketch comedy group that gives back to charity

The road to becoming a CEO for Bella Ramirez started two years ago as she did sit-ups while watching Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update.”

She put her phone between her knees and the reward for each crunch was seeing the snarky comedic pair of Colin Jost and Michael Che deliver their jokes. “It was the best motivation ever,” Ramirez (COM’25, CAS’25) says, “until I was just curled up on the couch and not actually doing any workout.” 

Her penchant for “Weekend Update” made her wish New York and its comedy scene were closer to Boston. But Ramirez doesn’t usually come up with an idea without doing something about it—as a result, she formed the intercollegiate sketch comedy group Wicked Smaht Comedy (WSC). 

This weekend, Wicked Smaht is about to complete its first season with an April 6 show at Northeastern’s East Village residence hall. 

Ramirez says she started Wicked Smaht Comedy because she wanted to connect people who enjoy and are good at comedy across Boston’s many colleges. Part of the reason she chose to attend Boston University was because of the city’s “college town” reputation. In high school, she founded an interscholastic film production company as a charity, and she missed having that kind of community.

“If laughter is the best medicine, then it can truly soothe the issue of not being able to meet people across schools,” says Ramirez, who was one of BostonInno’s 2023 25 Under 25, chosen for creating the comedy group. In December 2022, she pitched her idea for the show to BU’s Innovate@BU BUild Lab and made the Innovation Pathway program’s first stage, which came with $250 and mentorship for getting the show on the road. Then came a slot in the BUild Lab’s Summer Accelerator program for early-stage start-ups, where she was able to further develop the idea. 

Key to her idea was ensuring their work was making a difference. A portion of every Wicked Smaht Comedy ticket sale goes to charity (this weekend, donations will go to the Massachusetts Climate Action Network), and thanks to BU’s BUILD Lab funding, some of Wicked Smaht’s staffers are eligible for stipends for their work. 

“Part of WSC is trying to address the arts and equity issue,” Ramirez says. “I’m trying to expand it, and the more we have people come see shows, the more support we get, and the more we can address the issue of people not being able to participate in the arts because of financial barriers. So slowly, I’m trying to expand it so that all the roles are paid, and then anyone can be a part of this community.” 

For head writer Blake Ung (COM’25), working on Wicked Smaht is the first time he’s been compensated for his creative work, which he says affirms that he’s on the right path. 

“Being paid is very humbling because I would do it for free,” Ung says, “especially in a college setting, where the people who are writing for WSC are putting their future towards this. They’re embarking on their dreams, which is a very scary thing to do. It was hard for me to make that decision.” 

As head writer, he tries to incorporate everyone’s voices into the final work. He believes this is respectful of everyone’s time, and he wants the team of 25 people to be able to say they’re producing something they have a real part in—that the show is as much theirs as it is his.

Every performance is a collaborative process, with diverse sketches. The troupe varies the show with a combination of prerecorded and live sketches. At the February 24 show, the sketches were on topics ranging from feminism to musical theater parodies of Richard Nixon. 

According to Ung, the spirit behind Wicked Smaht comes from Ramirez and her character—“how much work she puts in, and how much she cares about others,” he says. “Bella is just one of the kindest, most hardworking people I’ve ever encountered. I’m so proud to call her a friend. WSC is a reflection of Bella.” 

The writers room is filled with folks from universities across the city, and Ramirez is often armed with trail mix for their Saturday meetings. At a recent meeting, Tufts political science and environmental science sophomore Justin Solis, munching on a bagel, says he finds the Red Line trip from Tufts to Boston for the meetings a good motivator and that the looming deadline forces him to be creative. 

He says he turns his headphones off, looks out at the Charles River as the train crosses, and gets ready to be in a room of funny people. 

“A big thing for me, in all spheres of my personal life, [has] been [bouncing] off people and making jokes and fooling around,” he says. “A lot of it is super organic and just comes from conversations with other people.”

Julia Ward, a junior at Harvard University studying theater, dance, and media, says Wicked Smaht is “the most formative creative experience” she’s had in college. 

“It’s really refreshing to leave the Harvard bubble,” Ward says. “There are so many hilarious and talented people [from] all the other schools that I wouldn’t have ever met if it weren’t for WSC, and I want to keep creating with these people.” 

To Ramirez, Wicked Smaht is about the community of writers, actors, production team, and the audience. 

“I want [audiences] to know that they’re part of a bigger community,” she says. “People have their different groups who are supporting them, and friends who brought friends, and I feel like even being part of the audience, you’re part of the greater community that is within WSC.” 

Tickets to Wicked Smaht Comedy’s final show of the semester are available here. The show is Saturday, April 6, at 7 pm at Northeastern East Village Residence Hall, Room 002, 291 St. Botolph St., Boston.