A tall man, carrying a cane and wearing a striped scarf, called yesterday's event to order with the words: "Ladies and gentlemen and telepathic iguanas of all ages ... "

As he spoke, the audience of about 40 people quieted down, and watched the Harry Potter and Monty Python spoofs -- Penn State's version of Red Nose Day, the international day of humor.

The Three Broomsticks, which is Penn State's Harry Potter Club, The Penn State Monty Python Society and The Penn State Belly Dancing Club presented the event.

This is the fourth annual Red Nose Day at Penn State, which was held in 102 Forum.

"There's a bigger turnout then last year," said Kyle Verrinder (junior-mechanical engineering), who performed as Harry Potter character Ron Weasley.

Red Nose Day is a charity fundraising event that acts as a "semi-holiday" organized by Comic Relief UK throughout United Kingdom. The Three Broomsticks takes an interest in Red Nose Day because J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, is a supporter of this organization, according to a flier at the event. A flier handed out at the event said the money raised will go to Centre Region charities

The various jokes entertained Jennifer Kessner (freshman-English).

"It's real funny," Kessner said, during the event's intermission. "I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter, so when I saw the ad for Red Nose Day, I almost peed my pants."

About 20 skits entertained the crowd. Penn State's Belly Dancing Club performed dances, one of which was an adaptation of YouTube.com's popular Harry Potter puppet video, "The Mysterious Ticking Noise."

"Hog's Head," a skit prepared by The Three Broomsticks, generated laughter from the crowd. This skit joked about the relationships of Harry and Ginny Weasley and Ron and Hermione Granger.

When The Monty Python Society couldn't perform their skit, "Snape's Striptease at Ginny Weasley's Baby Shower," because of technical difficulties, the crowd "aw"-ed in disappointment.

The spoof, "Death of Caesar: Celebrity Edition," drew laughter from the audience as masked students, performing as Spartan King Leonidas from 300 and Penn State President Graham Spanier, challenged a student, who wore a Chuck Norris mask.

The show ended with "Wizard Swears" which led the crowd in a cheer as Professor Dumbledore taught Harry, Ron and Hermione ancient wizard curse words.

Danielle Nitopi (sophomore-information sciences and technology), president of The Monty Python Society and one of the event's three directors, said, "It was awesome, everything came together. I'm at a loss of words, but I'm proud of everyone."