Your Improv troupe was Almost named…

[thestorie]

For those of us who appreciated or found interest in this record of fwand’s naming brainstorm:

What were the memorable runners-up for your own troupe’s name? And is there a good origin story for the name you kept?



• Shark Tank was leaning towards Chinese Elevator in the early days. We debuted with the name Kid Skitz, but none of us liked it. Matt Fisher ended up suggesting Shark Tank in an email. I’m not sure how he came up with it.


• there were various factions among Raynard pushing for Team Discovery Channel, Dr. Zaius, and a few others.

In the first scene of our first Harold in our very first rehearsal, Zhubin says to Hallie, “you’ve got a beautiful son.” Hallie, cradling the baby, says “Yes, I love my little Ray…nard.”
We all thought the name was funny. And Raynard grew up over the course of the Harold; the last scene was his Harvard graduation.

We knew that it was the most organic name possible, and so it was settled.

 

[PearlBrunswick]

What were the memorable runners-up for your own troupe’s name?

Gorgeous George (ick)
Teenage Girlpants (hee)

And is there a good origin story for the name you kept?

 

[goldfish boy]

Butter was almost The Hotness.

 

[Matt Little]

Sugar Cookie.

Chris Scott even came up with a logo, because he's batshit.

 

[Maddy]

Butter was almost The Hotness.

YEAH! Also I rallied for Pro-Nasty but I don't think it was almost that ever.

Also

Stockholm Syndrome was almost Uncle Orlotan

 

[BrendanMc]

kid dervin was almost named poop towel, our privates are broken, retard musical theater, the ewing theory, lethal merman, the claw, blue collar shogun and maude.

 

[Dave B]

Fat Penguin grew out of a practice group with like thirty-two people called "The League of Make-Believe".

 

[Marx the Spot]

Ugly Stick was temporarily called "Carnie Freak Parade", then it was called, "Carnie Riot" before someone had the good sense to switch it completely to Ugly Stick.

Tantrum was almost called 'Railroad Bible'.

 

[ssw]

Junior Varsity was the first and only name anyone* suggested.







*It was Lucia.

 

[Stanny!]

Evel Cathedral called ourselves Feel Wheel at our first show. We said that night "We're Feel Wheel, but tonight you can call us Evel Cathedral". We then just kept that name. We also were almost called Fat and Slutty.

 

[ThePhilWells]

Sid Viscous was almost:

Pizza and the Gang
Three-Legged Pizza Slut
Mrs. Esterhouse
Mulch

and several others. By posting almost-was names here, are they off the table for future teams to use? Maybe we should be conserving all the wackiness.

 

[bully]

Evel Cathedral called ourselves Feel Wheel at our first show. We said that night "We're Feel Wheel, but tonight you can call us Evel Cathedral". We then just kept that name. We also were almost called Fat and Slutty.

Also in the running: Seven Pounds of Cock and a Huge Vagina.

I credit Stan and Chris with creating another rejected name so funny and so incredibly offensive that to this day, I still laugh when I think about it.

 

[AndrewMendillo]

Junior Varsity was the first and only name anyone* suggested.







*It was Lucia.

That's amazing.

Caligula was one out of a massive email list of names from a dude who practiced with us twice, then disappeared. We all liked it right away.

I wanted Mile High (Fight) Club, and still wish to have a group with that name, but may just write the screenplay instead.

 

[Gavin]

Name's considered for Rogue Elephant included:
Your New Third Baseman
Robert Kirkland's Moped
FOIL
Anstercable
The Potato Chip Band
Stanley Anstercable And The Potato Chip Band (This was my #1 choice)

 

[Eric Appel]

Mailer Daemon was almost:

The Kennedy Family
Easy Lover
Friend Factory
Gigantor

While arguing and trying to narrow down one of those four names, Shannon came riding in on a dark horse called MAILER DAEMON and blew our fucking minds with such an obvious name, we immediately threw all four of those out the window.

SHIT-STORM was once SLEAZY SHIT. Once.

 

[MikeStill]

Twelve Thousand Dollars was almost...

Phuket
Spitzer (missed the boat on that one)
Beast
Beast Island
Fenster Hall
Steam Pipe Explosion
The Majority
Death Molar (we almost just kept our starter name)
September 12th (we just didn't have the BALLS)

 

[paulose]

Prozac Morris came out of a practice group of 9 called "Horse Love". We got a little tired of the name and threw around other names. Rejected group names:

• Agent Tang
• Hercules Fancy Grocery
• Moped Zeppelin
• Who is John Galt
• Binu World Order
• Diagnosis Stat
• Gloria Estefan
• A Clockwork Tang
• Children of the Kornfeld (this was our favorite, but Louis Kornfeld asked that we not name ourselves this).

 

[Justin Noble]

Madam
Madame
Madam?
Madame?

These took about 3 hours to decide between.

 

[Hal Phillips]

This is a cool thread.

Sherpa was almost The Military Industrial Complex (my idea, because I like scary political names). I also spent a while trying to convince people that Fireball Island would be the best improv group name ever (and I guess I can never use it now that I'm saying that in public). In the second and final practice of the proto-Sherpa practice group, we did a Harold that involved a bunch of sherpas, and Steve Slate declared that even though he was quitting the group, we should call it Sherpas. Later, we spent several days trying to choose between Sherpa, Sherpas, The Sherpa, or The Sherpas.

In my previous group, Big Tobacco, that was the first and only name we ever considered, suggested by Brandon Gardner.

 

[d_chadwick]

Later, we spent several days trying to choose between Sherpa, Sherpas, The Sherpa, or The Sherpas.

And Joe Spellman got stuck with an entire truckload of "The Sherpas" foam "#1" fingers.