This past Thursday, April 4, comedian Ken Jeong, known for roles like Ben Chang on “Community” and Mr. Chow from the Hangover movies, came to Washington University for Social Programming Board’s (SPB) Spring Comedy Show.

Before Jeong came on stage, Senior Jordan Dubin performed a 15-minute opening set. I was blown away by the quality of Dubin’s stand-up; it was both extremely funny and relevant to the life of a college student. Dubin’s routine ranged from the death of his hedgehog to his experiences with girls to a repeated setup for a joke about the alt-right which was never actually told.

The highlights of his set included his jokes about his relationship with his girlfriend—when he asked if he could exaggerate their fights she responded by slapping him and sleeping with his roommate—and his story about being mistaken for a catcaller when he was, in fact, just a fan of whistling.

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Senior Jordan Dubin performs a short stand-up set opening for Ken Jeong in the Field House.

After Dubin concluded his set, Ken Jeong came to the stage. He began by acknowledging the quality of Dubin’s set before reading over a list of fun facts about Wash. U. sent by SPB president sophomore Adin Erlich. Among the facts were a reference to the Boo Boo the bear incident from 2014 and the Tulip Fund.

After some slight ribbing directed towards the University, Jeong began to talk about his time as an actor on “Community” and in “The Hangover.” As a huge fan of “Community,” I was disappointed that Jeong’s Netflix Special, “You Complete Me, Ho,” barely touched on his time as Ben Chang and was very happy to hear about his experience on the cult classic show. Jeong talked about his struggle playing Chang as the character became less and less attached to reality and his experience sharing a trailer with the multitalented Donald Glover.

After a short stand-up set, he transitioned into an adapted version of Ask Dr. Ken, a bit where Jeong, a former doctor, answers medical questions. Ken Jeong decided to do the segment because of Wash. U.’s large pre-med population.

The bit started off with some silly medical questions—for example, someone asked if you could eat sand—but eventually turned into a general question and answer session. The questions ranged from queries about his favorite memories from “The Hangover” and “Community” to questions about his time as a medical student and doctor to questions about his general experience being an actor. One question asked was about how to get more representation for people of color in media; according to Jeong the key to this is to get more people of color behind the camera: writers, directors and producers.

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Comedian Ken Jeong, known for his work on “Community” and “The Hangover,” performs at SPB’s Spring Comedy Show.

My favorite moment of the show was Jeong’s response to a question about the dumbest thing he spent money on after he started earning movie star money. He launched into a story about going shoe shopping one day. He found a pair of running shoes he liked and was worried that the store would soon sell out of them, so he bought ten pairs. He has yet to wear them.

Jeong’s set concluded with a someone asking if he’d ever seen a case of ligma. As an almost 50-year-old, Jeong was not aware of the Generation Z joke and so after some clarifying questions he called his wife, a still-practicing doctor, and asked if she’d ever seen a case of ligma. Finally the questioner responded to Jeong’s lack of knowledge of ligma with “ligma balls.”

All in all, I really enjoyed the show. I liked that there was very limited overlap between his set here and his Netflix special. However, I wish there was more stand-up in his Wash. U. set. I thought that the jokes he told were good, and, although I really enjoyed many of his responses to students’ questions, I left the show wanting more.