The Sketchup Comedy group had a dress rehearsal on Tuesday, Dec. 10th

Five minutes into Sketchup’s open dress rehearsal for its end-of-the-semester show Tuesday evening in an Art-Sociology building lecture hall, there wasn’t a fart joke or poop joke to be heard.

Thirteen minutes in — still no poop jokes. Forty minutes — not even one. An hour later — nothing.

The rest of the university knows Sketchup as “that sex group,” said Reed Bjorntvedt, a junior studio art major in his third year with the sketch comedy group.

“There was one show last year where I played nothing but characters who pooped,” Bjorntvedt said. “I was the pope and I pooped, Sean Connery and I pooped, FDR and I pooped.

“They were great roles, and I loved them,” he continued, “but this show is noticeably less sexual, less raunchy.”

Tonight’s “Sketchup and Get Down,” the group’s last show of the semester, signals Sketchup’s gradual shift away from its traditional crude humor to classier jokes and a more professional show.

It’s what senior marketing major Lauren Mazlin, who’s in her fourth year with Sketchup and serves as the group’s advertising director and recruitment chairwoman, calls “smarter humor.” There are still sexual jokes involved in this show because the group is playing to a college audience, but its members said there’s noticeably less crass.

“The feel of Sketchup has been continually changing, in my opinion, for the better,” Mazlin said. “I can very vividly tell that each semester that goes on, we’ve gotten to a level of more intelligent humor.”

Sketchup’s old tone can be found in its YouTube channel. A video uploaded in February 2010 titled “Funeral Ditty Dat” — “Or should I say… Titty Dat??”, as part of the description reads — is about a man who can’t stop staring at a dead woman’s breasts as she lies in a casket. Another, uploaded in December 2012, calls a feminist some derogatory names, and several sketches poke fun at racial stereotypes.

Bjorntvedt referenced a sketch uploaded in December 2012 in which he impersonated Sean Connery’s way of making “sit” sound like “shit,” before defecating on a bench.

There won’t be many of those groan-worthy moments in the first 15 or so of the group’s sketches of tonight’s show.

Bjorntvedt said while the group didn’t explicitly decide to change the tone — it was more a push for professionalism — it’s going to promote humor that will focus on “things that are not necessarily degrading or offensive toward certain demographics and identities.”

Mazlin said while sketches weren’t a big part of the audition process in earlier years, Sketchup has put increasing weight on them. It’s changed the dynamic of the group from mostly theatre majors (who possess “performance quality”) in previous years to those with positive energy and writing chops.

For Bjorntvedt, the tonal shift is a big-picture one. He hopes to pursue a career in comedy and pinpointed Sketchup alumni across the country, including former members with television credits and one alumna who’s touring with improv group Second City.

“I’m someone that wants to go on to a comedy career, so my attitude about it, I think, influences other people in the group too,” he said. “We think about it in terms of our whole career.”

Sketchup has been growing on the production level too, said Bjorntvedt, who’s also the group’s marketing director and graphic designer. They’ve been recruiting stage managers since 2008 to improve their shows and order two unique T-shirt designs each year.

“We’ve kind of rebranded since I’ve been with the group,” he said. “We’ve had a shift in our professionalism.”

Noah Ferentz, a sophomore enrolled in letters and sciences in his first semester of Sketchup, feels the group gives him a chance to sharpen his writing and comedy skills and become part of a close-knit community.

“At the end of the day, we’re all madly in love with each other,” Ferentz said.

While prepping for the dress rehearsal, parts of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” blared through the lecture hall. Sketchup members ran props back and forth and etched a set list on the blackboard next to a chalked Sketchup logo. An antsy feeling of excitement ready to explode seemed to pulse through the room.

So when the members rushed the bottom of the lecture hall with their signature chant — “arf arf Sketchup, arf arf Sketchup” — they did it with all the energy of years past and a focus on the future.

Sketchup’s free end-of-semester show “Sketchup and Get Down” will take place tonight at 8 in Hoff Theater at Stamp Student Union.