production of "A Forum Affair'' is anything to go by.

The whole place was disappearing under a mountain of corn -- corny jokes, that is.

But rather than gagging on the gag-a-minute script the Harvard University cast have a roaring success on their hands.

The humour is completely infectious with so many jokes assaulting the audience that no-one can fail to find one that tickles their toga.

Every name's a pun with Lucinda Lipps, Ramses Pointakross, Nero Sited, Pompey Circumstance and Queen Neferenuff to name but a few.

And the "Romanising'' of modern themes adds to the farce with the high point of the show being a send-up of the great musicals.

Songs from Fiddler On The Roof, 42nd Street and Showboat -- "Old Man Tiber he just keeps `Rome-ing' along -- are parodied in hilarious style. It is really well done.

Of course, the really strange thing about Hasty Pudding is that all the parts are played by men. And the best performances are by the guys who camp it up as women.

J.P. Anderson handles the Valley Girl stereotype perfectly as he plays Lucinda Lipps on the hunt for the right man in Rome.

Adam Feldman plays Caesonia Phase, hilarious as the first hippy -- servant of the Queen of Ancient Greece.

Another female part is played by Andrew Burlinson as a rather confused gorgon looking for a pillow on which to rest her snakes.

The plot concerns a battle for power between the disgusting Crassus Canbee, played by J.C. Wolfgang Murad and Marc Anatomy, with Thomas I. Parks IV beneath the padding.

Murad plays the disgraceful role with such gusto that one tends to believe it may not all be an act.

The action swings from Rome to Egypt to Pompey and back, and then to some faraway planet in the deep Solar System.

The only complaint could be the length of the first half of the show which could have been balanced by transferring at least one scene into the second half. One or two in the audience were getting a little restless.

Otherwise it was a very funny show in the spirit of the British Carry On films and the American National Lampoon comedies.

Producers Lloyd Marcom and Catherine Zipf took the applause before the show.

They should have come out at the end for a greater ovation.

Hasty Pudding comes to Bermuda once a year and if this performance is anything to go by they will again be very welcome next year.

The show continues until Monday at City Hall.

On the strength of the send-up of the musicals alone it is well worth catching -- if any tickets are left.