Jake Brend, News Director of SCTV, spent around 20 hours writing, filming and editing the April Fools’ episode for SCTV, which ended up being 15 minutes and 47 seconds long.

The start of the episode was a remake of the intro to “The Sopranos,” a show from the early 2000s on HBO. Since I have never seen “The Sopranos,” I did not get the reference. I thought that it looked cool, but it did seem extra.

Later in the episode is the skit to find Liv’s replacement as co-anchor for SCTV. I think Jake did a good job during this section with writing the script. Being a parody episode, he perfectly executed what each of the potential new anchors had to offer, while also bringing a good sense of humor to it. 

He made sure to give Liv the credit that was due for what she had done well previously, while also pointing out the flaws she had in a funny way. The surprise interview added another funny bit that people who know Professor Siebert can get a kick out of. 

The final piece of the skit, Brend calling Noah Sacco, was the perfect way to bring credit back to the founder of SCTV. People new to Simpson didn’t know him, but throwing that in there pointed out who started the broadcast.

Following the skit were students’ reactions to SCTV. Some people didn’t know what SCTV was, and others poked fun at the current anchors, potential anchors or the anchors that have stepped in, in the past. 

Brend showed he realizes SCTV doesn’t have the full reach of campus. I feel like this was a good piece to include because it showed his self-awareness of the broadcast, and allowed him to laugh about it.

Next was a review of Marcus Monroe’s stand-up comedy in Black Box. Ethan Humble covered this, reviewing whether his jokes were a hit, adding in his own jokes while doing so. He was correct in stating that Monroe did more juggling than jokes, but for me, neither of them were very funny. 

Following the comedian was the men’s tennis highlights vs Iowa Northwestern. Since I was the one who filmed and did the voice-over for that part, I will refrain from reviewing it as it would be biased. Let’s just say I could’ve done better.

Last on the April Fools’ episode was the 2021-22 school year blooper reel. This part was my personal favorite. Showing the times that our news anchors messed up was entertaining. 

Since SCTV is usually serious while capturing the news for each week, showing that it isn’t always like that was good for the audience. It also allows them to relate with the anchors and those doing packages more, seeing that they do also make mistakes.

So, my final thoughts – was this April Fools package worth Jake Brend’s time? I thoroughly enjoyed it and had a good laugh, but if we are looking at the reach to the rest of campus, it doesn’t seem as though the time put in paid off. 

There were only 185 views on the episode on YouTube and even less interaction with the posts on Twitter. This leads me to say that even though I thought it was entertaining, not very many other people watched it, thus showing that it was not worth the 20 hours he put into it.