Sometimes, in response to loss or a large-scale catastrophe, just about all we can do is laugh. Laughter can be brave—at once acknowledging how little control we really have, how small we are and asserting our will to go on, happily even.

And so we want to congratulate last Friday’s stand-up funnies, the various witty Grinnellians who threw themselves to the proverbial comedic wolves—packed into Bob’s Underground all the way to the hallway—to make us laugh and send some dollars to people who need them. Overall the event not only provided a kind of escape—or at least comic relief—from the weight of the events in Haiti, it also raised almost $300 towards the relief effort. Stand-up comedy purely for entertainment is all fine and good, but this show’s effort—and the audience’s laughs and donations—deserves special recognition. You all were self-deprecating, goofy, ironic, dry, a little off-color, smart, profoundly human and overall, pretty f***ing hilarious.