They start off screaming. Thirteen lunatics put their body and soul into shouting, “I get knocked down,” from the song “Tubthumping” by British punk band Chumbawamba, so loudly that a security guard enters the Gargoyle, surveys the group and shakes his head. It only gets weirder; some radioactive dads drop in, wolf soup is made and pants almost hit the ground.

“We heard someone from Cadenza was coming…so we were going to get naked,” junior Max Bieber says. (No one actually did, but if you’re curious, check out last year’s Sex Issue of Student Life).

“Always insane and never the same”—nothing is planned at Monday’s rehearsal for Suspicious of Whistlers, Wash. U.’s premier (and only) long-form improv and sketch comedy group.

“We only need one word to get started,” senior Yasemin Kuyumcu says.

Kuyumcu is one of two co-presidents of Suspicious of Whistlers, along with fellow senior Aaron Zemach. Kuyumcu tends to invent bits of deadpan dialogue, perfectly delivered with the stone-face of a badger from “Redwall,” quite unlike Zemach’s specialty: “flirty female characters.”

“I play good moms. What can I say?” Zemach says.

One word (this time, “flute”) is a pretty small unit of inspiration for a 30-minute comedy set after only a few word association warm-ups. You know things are getting good when, in the trenches of an imagined war, a rap battle breaks out between juniors Kiki Milner and Katie Goldston. Kuyumcu sums up the scene perfectly: “I’m strangely aroused.”

While the antics continue as Bieber and junior Alex Felder play a radioactive (literally) father-son duo, the group is actually preparing for its second show of this year: “Talking To People Who Aren’t Talking to Other People.” The titles for the Suspicious performances come from chalkboards in empty classrooms where the group practices.

“That’s led to great titles, like ‘Eat, Pray, Alaska,’” Zemach explains.

The group rehearses a Harold, an improv set comprised of an opening followed by a repeated pattern of three short scenes and a group game. Because Suspicious does long-form improv, it focuses on building relationships and connections within scenes and throughout its whole set—each rotation of scenes is meant to build off the prior one, letting the Whistlers bring back their funniest bits as the show goes on.

“Seeing that payoff at the end, that’s what draws us to doing improv…we like long, burning jokes,” Kuyumcu says.

Suspicious has had a busy year already; it held its 10th-anniversary show in September, featuring a decade’s worth of alumni, and the group has started a series of themed shows in Bear’s Den at 6 p.m. every Thursday, titled “Laugh Hard.” This week’s genre is ’80s movies.

“Talking To People Who Aren’t Talking to Other People” will be held in Rebstock Hall, room 215, this Saturday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. According to Kuyumcu, “It’s going to be the best free laughter.”