About Us

Formed in 1986, The Viola Question is one of Yale's oldest comedy groups.

Since its founding, The Viola Question has performed at many notable venues, including The Second City Chicago, Atlantic City, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre of New York, Caroline's of New York, Standup NY, The Comic Strip, ComedySportz, Level 3 Communications (A Fortune 500 Company), ImprovOlympics, Providence's Perishable Theater, and Branford College at Yale University.

Members of The Viola Question have recently performed with Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock), Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock), Tim Meadows (Saturday Night Live), Stephen Colbert (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report), Gilbert Gottfried (The Aristocrats), Julia Roberts (Mona Lisa Smile) and Kevin Nealon (Saturday Night Live, Weeds).

For more, be sure to check out our facebook group and to friend our mascot Vio La Question! Vio will keep you up-to-date on all our activities and shows.

Our Shows

Improvisational comedy performances take the form of a series of unscripted comedic scenes and plotlines, guided by audience suggestions and participation, and a simple-set of rules, called the "game". Each game that The Viola Question plays is unique, interesting and creative. Some of The Viola Question's standard games include:

Revenge - An audience member provides a story of wrongdoing, and The VQ enacts a fitting revenge upon the perpetrator, to universal satisfaction.

Circle of Death - A true fight to the death of hilarious proportions, this game involves four VQ performers in a series of two-person scenes culminating in the darkly comedic demise of most or all participants, a process decided according to audience vote.

The Oracle - Our favorite member of The VQ, the enigmatic Oracle, is able to answer any audience question. However, it has three distinct brains, so there's no telling what kind of answer you'll get!

Chocolat - An audience member provides the title of a movie that The VQ has never seen, and our players reenact the film "as it was meant to be." As our longest-form game, Chocolat is a variation on the traditional Harold format.

Pillars - Like a live-action MadLibs, two VQ players enlist the help of audience members to provide them with crucial words and phrases
to complete their scene.