With the help of flying pink elephants, Disney songs and Harry Potter references, Liquid Fun, Boston University’s only non-audition improvisation comedy group, and ten other comedy acts from the Boston area kept a rotating audience of five to 50 people laughing for 24 hours during the 24 Hour Comedy Marathon at the Sargent Activities Center.

Starting at 4:00 a.m. Saturday, Liquid Fun encouraged non-monetary donations in support of Help Now, a BU charity created to help other organizations work together.

The various comedy groups performed in short-form skits and games, long-form one-act plays, sketches, stand-up comedy and theatre sports.

College of Arts and Sciences freshman Joe Gels performed with three different comedy groups – Liquid Fun, Self Improvment and the Groovy Tie Squad.

“[Improv Comedy] has many incarnations, ranging from Whose Line Is It Anyway? style games to improv that resembles improvised one-act plays,” he said.

The comedy during the marathon included completely nonsensical situations, political and religious incorrectness, puns, wordplay and even dancing and singing. Each segment of the marathon was given a rating, and the uncensored hours involved swearing, partial nudity and crude humor.

ImprovBoston, a well-known professional Boston comedy group, performed four different acts. The Groovy Tie Squad and Self-Improvment had members from Boston Latin High School and various colleges in the Boston area. BU graduate student Myq Kaplan, a winner of BU’s Funniest Student contest, performed stand-up comedy with three of his friends.

Popular BU sketch comedy groups Slow Children at Play and the Outtakes performed as well. The marathon also included a newbie hour, an audience participation hour and theater sports, which are competitions between different comedy groups.

Liquid Fun kept the comedy moving between acts with the “Wheel of Improv,” a spinning wheel of twenty improv comedy games.

“This show has so much comedy in it, it’s not even funny,” Kaplan joked.

Help Now worked with Liquid Fun to organize the event. They also accepted donations of clothing, school and bathroom supplies and food for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Originally created after the tsunami in Asia, the group tries to ensure humanitarian efforts do not become competitive and that the BU community is not exhausted by continual efforts.

Help Now secretary Jeremy Yanofsky said the organization has worked with Liquid Fun in the past.

“Help Now wants to make other groups on campus aware that they can use us as a resource to help coordinate and advertise relief efforts,” the CAS and School of Education senior said.

This was Liquid Fun’s third event with Help Now.

“It’s so exaggerated, it’s fun and it’s a challenge to see if we can actually do the 24,” Liquid Fun member and CAS senior Adam “Burch” Simon said.

“We’ve been planning this since my freshman year,” Liquid Fun member and College of Communication junior Eliana Lane said. “These are some very incredible people.”

All members of Liquid Fun said the event required extensive planning and stamina within the group.

“Each year, [Liquid Fun] is slightly different,” former Liquid Fun member and BU alum Michael Cole said, “but we never did anything like this. I’m pretty impressed at the 24 hour marathon.”

The audience, a key component of improv comedy, dynamically interacted with the actors.

“I’ve never come before, but they are hysterical,” CAS sophomore Liz Marshall said. “They have such a variety in their skits. I would definitely come back again.”

Despite the sleeping bags strewn about and an overwhelming presence of caffeine, the audience and actors’ enthusiasm boosted during the final three hours of the marathon as the ending countdown began.

About five dedicated audience members stayed at the marathon for the full 24 hours.

“I’ve been here since 4:15,” SED freshman Ashley Reuter said. “I think [the marathon] is so crazy, but also so incredibly fun.”

Many students said they were impressed with the performers’ dedication and energy.

“All of these improvers are just like greyhounds,” CAS junior Omar Zeid said. “They just keep on going.”