BATON ROUGE – Local journalists are making final preparations to perform this year’s Gridiron Show, a satirical performance poking fun at Louisiana politics, sports and news.

The show debuted in 1952 and remains Louisiana’s longest-running political satire show. This will be its 74th run filled with songs and skits.

This year, the show features a variety of memorable moments, from Lane Kiffin’s enormous contract to the mud-slinging U.S. Senate race.

“We got multiple skits on that,” said Louisiana Capital Correspondents Association President Charles Lussier, referring to the Senate race. “We’re doing a thing with Bill Cassidy and Julia Letlow and their sudden interaction. They got a song together.”

The show will also reference classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Hunger Games,” adding its own political twist to the original storylines.

“We have a whole thing about all the other people who are in the race who’ve gotten other jobs,” Lussier said. “They’re going to the Wizard of Oz to see if they can win the Senate race.”

With the political firehose Louisiana has to offer, writers of the show had a difficult time fitting in all the highlights from the year.

“The last year in Louisiana politics has been really interesting, and I think really funny, so there was so much material that we actually had to cut stuff out of the show,” said Piper Hutchinson, a reporter for the Louisiana Illuminator and vice president of the Capital Correspondents Association.

The shows in the past were not shy about who they made jokes about. One of the shows featured a skit in which former Gov. Bobby Jindal helped his wife give birth to their baby, based on Jindal’s claim about how their baby was born.

“He was coaching her, basically the midwife,” Lussier said

He added that the actor for Jindal would shout “Piyush! Piyush!” because that was Jindal’s real name and it sounded similar to ‘push.’

“And it got a pretty, pretty large laugh,” Lussier added.

Another show had a skit in which former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger taught former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco how to be tough and strong, given that she was the state’s first woman governor.

Despite often being the punchline, some Louisiana politicians look forward to the show each year, purchasing tickets and donating money to the association.

“Louisiana politics is so unique, and this is another unique part of it,” Hutchinson said. “They come out, they watch themselves get made fun of because, you know, they like participating in it, too, and they like contributing to our cause.”

A lot of work goes into putting the performance together. Many journalists multitask during rehearsals, working on stories between rehearsing their lines.

“It’s a huge commitment,” board member Darin Mann said. He adds that he and many other journalists and former journalists continue to do the show because it’s fun and enjoyable.

The show also works to support future journalists. The association uses the proceeds from ticket sales to help fund the Ed Anderson Memorial Scholarship, which supports journalism students from Louisiana State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Southern University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

The live performance will take place on Friday, March 27, at 7:45 p.m. in the American Legion Hall in Baton Rouge. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are $30 and are selling out quickly. Donations to the scholarship are accepted as well. Visit GridironShowBR.org for more information.