Why these students who want to be doctors and engineers are minoring in comedy

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By Daniel Miller, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Under the harsh overheard lights of a small theater stage, the comedian commandeered the microphone and unfurled a short set laced with jokes about poop anxiety and penis size.

“My preschool had these communal restrooms — just five toilets lined up … no barriers, no doors. It was like a Roman bathhouse,” the performer said, drawing a laugh from one woman in the second row.

She was the comedian’s professor. And he was a USC student.

Junior Joshua Ou was performing in a class that may seem unlikely in an era of fraught debate over what can and can’t be said on college campuses: “ Introduction to Stand-Up Comedy .” It’s a core offering taken by students minoring in comedy performance.

Wait.