Sex, relationships, sex and relationships, drugs, sex, relationships. That basically covers the thematic material covered by last Saturday’s show with sketch comedy group Piscapo’s Arm. Despite the aerial showcase happening upstairs, the show in the Cat in the Cream was well attended. Unfortunately, however, this alternative to watching stunning acrobatic feats resembled the first-year orientation show “The OC” gone horrifically wrong.

Before diving into everything that made it painful to sit through, it should be noted that the evening was not entirely dismal; there were, in fact, a few redeeming moments during the show. Take, for example “Connio and Colliette,” a skit satirizing tension between Oberlin’s College and Conservatory using Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as a vehicle. Unlike many of the other sketches, jokes about sex and relationships were only a small part of the skit as a whole, and not an off-putting obsession. The self-referential humor about hipsters and obsessive instrument-practicing all got good laughs, and deservedly so. Kulasio (the satirical Mercutio), played by College sophomore Alex Deeter, died an expertly timed “death” when College first-year Isaac Shub’s “Muddvolio” (Tybalt) broke his violin bow.

There was also some perversely cute wordplay in the skit “Roommate Talk,” during which one roommate, played by Deeter, incorrectly defines “pedophilia” as “the love of feet.” He discusses this with his roommate James, played by College junior AJ Churchill, as they lie in their respective beds, much to the latter’s chagrin. As in “Connio and Colliette,” Deeter delivered the last punch line with excellent timing, asking Churchill whether he would like a foot massage, just after the latter had turned away in bewilderment and disgust.

Nonetheless, an hour’s worth of sex, drug and relationship-related sketch comedy is a bit of an overdose, especially as some of the other skits went too far. In the opening skit, “Thrift,” a couple (Shub and College first-year Anasuya Shekhar) walks into a thrift store, only to discover that the place sells used condoms. Shub almost immediately decides that they are a must-have product, much to Shekhar’s revolt. Oddly enough, this reporter’s first reaction was right along with Shekhar’s: There is a certain point where ridiculousness is beyond funny and is just plain over-the-top, or sometimes even distasteful. “Thrift” was the perfect example of going too far.

Several of the other skits took what may easily have been interesting, even good ideas too far, and often in the wrong direction. Personified cocaine animatedly trying to make “friends”? Worth a few giggles. Personified cocaine convincing a second-grader to be “friends”? Um … uncomfortable.

The troupe’s problem seems not to be in acting talent — it has plenty of that to go around — but in script creativity (the actors wrote the skits themselves) and understanding where to draw the line between comedy and shock value.