Clamor and giggles acted as the loud melody within the four-person apartment, all in anticipation for what to come. The opening of Mike’s Hard lemonades and White Claws acted as the percussion with each bottle cap hitting a surface or pull of a pull tab. One of the guests asked what the hell she needed to do while scrunching her face at her laptop screen.

All eight participants took their place within the small living room, either seated on one of the chairs or barstools. Laptops were open on all of their laps to export their presentations onto a flash drive. Tonight, was the big reveal of their performances and jokes, highlighted through bullet points and bar graphs. Tonight, was PowerPoint Night.

“Basically, all of my roommates and a few of our friends that Zoomed in created a PowerPoint about whatever we wanted and presented them, so pretty lowkey. Nothing super glamourous but a good time,” said one of the hosts of PowerPoint Night, Taylor Van Vliet.

PowerPoint Night is set up like a regular classroom presentation but with a nonacademic twist. Participants work on their topics before presenting on a designated night. All of the final products have a varying degree of effort to help drive the humor. “We’ve all collectively put way more effort into PowerPoints than we have into assignments lately, which is questionable but it’s all in good fun,” admitted Van Vliet. 

Some of the participants take the time to fully research, like looking for statistics and images, or put minimal effort in finding facts to enhance the topic they are presenting. All of the rules of a good academic or professional presentation are thrown out the window.

When it comes to what topic is allowed for presenting, anything is on the table. From politics, to Dance Moms, to even convincing the group they should be allowed to sleep with someone on campus, it’s allowed on PowerPoint Night.

“There was a lot of Dance Moms content at this last one, which I think there’s going to be more Dance Moms content this weekend,” said Van Vliet “Really anything is on the table. If you can put some graphs with it, it’s fair game.”

Lindsey Kruse, a sophomore and fellow host for the night, queued up her PowerPoint up on the television as the first presenter. Loud howls of laughter erupted due to her subject of possible new career choices for someone who is leaving Morningside campus and the image that was on the title slide. 

Kruse cleared her throat and began to present with her best humorous presentation voice. Some of the possible career choices varied like telemarketer, model, and therapist due to the dad energy the person gave off. Kruse pressed next on the slide, coming up as “Enginir” which caused another loud burst of laughter. “[They] did in fact take the tape from the bleacher, which our asses sat on, to fix [their] mask,” stated Kruse while pointing to the photo as reference to why they should become an engineer. 

“[PowerPoint Night] was based off of some trends we had been seeing on Tik Tok, at least as far as I remember how it got brought up” explained fellow host Elizabeth Obermeier, “We were talking about something really random and then one of us was like ‘hey we should do a PowerPoint Night, that can be really fun’ and it just kind of went from there.”

Obermeier explained that the combination of inside jokes or pop culture in the PowerPoint format helps with making it so comical. Majority of the inside jokes relate to what has happened on Morningside campus or within the groups that a majority are a part of, like band. Pop culture related jokes tend to land better with the group when most know the reference they are talking about, like in the case of Dance Moms.

Obermeier took control of the remote and brought up her presentation titled “Sports that Rank Above Me.” She flipped to the first slide which garnered an instant response from the audience. “Golf, because that’s what my ex-boyfriend decided was more important than our relationship,” stated Obermeier in a sarcastic tone.

She flipped to the next slide which said ‘The End’ on it. The group began clapping and cheering wildly. One audience member began yelling, “Good dinner! Good dinner!”

Presentations about American politics also tend to be a hit within the group. One of the well-received politically driven PowerPoints was about ranking the Midwest governors and their replacements. The replacements would be something ridiculous as well, like replacing Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds with single ply toilet paper.

Sarah Severes, sophomore and an invited guest, set up her presentation ‘Things I Would Rather Do Than Vote for Donald Trump.” Severes put a disclaimer that she would be voting Joe Biden and that there was no particular order to her list. Some of the things she listed was having a Lego stuck in her shoe for forever, drink UV Blue every day, walk up Dimmitt Hill fifty times a day, or get hit by a train. 

Severes emphasized with each slide how much she hates what she listed but is willing to do it if it meant not voting for Trump. Reactions acted a little bit wilder with her presentation due to most being finished with their second or third drink. All of whom agreed they would rather be hit by a train than vote Trump.

Alcohol and the time at night when presenting plays a part in the humor of PowerPoint Night. These two factors, along with the stresses of college, help with knowing how to play along with the audience. “It’s the end of the week. We’ve had a long week. So, we’re already on that, you know, crackhead kind of energy,” said Obermeier.

These nights have been a stress relief for all who are involved. PowerPoint Night has become an event to look forward to and help release any stress the group has. Some of the stress causers become content for PowerPoint Night.

Samantha Warren, a sophomore and apartment resident, presented her PowerPoint titled “People That Fucking Terrify Me/Stay the Fuck Away from Me.” Her list included any man that wears Vineyard Vines, men with mullets, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. 

Warren listed that people with Androids also need to stay away from her. Her reason was that “the image quality of an oil painting was better than the phone quality than an Android.”

PowerPoint Night has been a way for the group to do an activity that does not involve going out or heading to the bars due to the concerns about COVID-19. The concerns with heading out during the weekend is a reason why the activity was created. “You have to think about it more, especially with who are you going with and where you are going,” said Van Vliet “Being able to stay at home but still do something fun, especially with Zooming in people. We wouldn’t have thought about doing that before. But now, we’re like ‘oh yeah someone wants to join but they can’t come, make a PowerPoint and share your screen and we can all have a good time.’”

Everyone who is involved has become closer with each other, even if they have met each other for the first time that night. PowerPoint Night has allowed laughter about inside jokes while creating new ones. It has also become a moment of normal college shenanigans. 

Taylor Van Vliet stood up, placing her beverage down, to present what Morningside figures would be if they were on The Office. There was instant chatter about what a good topic it was. The sound of sipping drinks complimented her subject as well.

Van Vliet paired her unfavorable Morningside figures with the more despicable Office characters. Each slide had a list of bullet points on why she paired them, making a connection to the person and the character selection.

She concluded on the fact that she would be Angela Martin. Her reason being that “my collection of cardigans is just as excellent.”

When asked about how Van Vliet would explain this college activity to her grandkids, she began to laugh. “Oh my gosh, my four grandkids. Well, we were all stuck inside. We all had so much more time to just think about things because what else were you going to do. And what better way to express your absurd thoughts, than in a Microsoft PowerPoint. Truly beautiful,” stated Van Vliet.