Last weekend, the School of Cinematic Arts took a break from housing “The Godfather Part II” (1974) fans in exchange for sitcom superfans.

March 28 marked the start of the University’s seventh iteration, or “volume,” of the USC Comedy Festival, an annual collaboration between SCA and Visions and Voices.

Festivities kicked off Friday night with a discussion surrounding an unavoidable topic for any creative person right now: “Can Comedy Be Automated?” The panel created a dialogue about the presence — or lack thereof — of artificial intelligence within the comedy industry.

Featuring professional perspectives from several areas of the comedy world, including television, stand-up and social media, the panel picked apart how many creative and interpersonal aspects can be regulated with automation in a profession as interpersonal as comedy.

Later that evening, A24 presented writer and director Andrew DeYoung’s latest comedy film, “Friendship,” in a preview screening followed by a Q&A with DeYoung. Featuring comedy titans like “Saturday Night Live” veteran and “I Think You Should Leave” creator Tim Robinson, the film follows the story of a suburban dad becoming obsessed with his neighbor. “Friendship” will come to theaters in early May.

The second day of programming started the morning with the “Punchlines & Power Moves: Women Showrunners in Comedy” panel, featuring women with diverse experiences as comedy television showrunners and varying approaches to gaining and maintaining a toehold in the comedy industry.

Whether it was Katie O’Brien, the creator and executive producer of “The Z-Suite,” or Ilana Peña, the creator and executive producer of “Diary of a Future President,” each of the women on the panel had their own unique and impressive paths to their current positions.

“There were many rooms when I was the only Black person and woman in the room, which was fun, but I don’t run from a challenge, so I’ve always been myself and present in every room,” said Alyson Fouse, the creator and executive producer of “Act Your Age.” “What you’ll feel like, no matter who you are, when you’re sitting in a room, is you’re there alone until you open up. What they hired you for is to be yourself.”

The panel emphasized community empowerment and the importance of holding the door open for those coming up in the comedy world after you.

“Whenever anyone is asking me about [recommending] writers, I just always list women,” said Jacque Edmonds, the executive producer of “Moesha,” “because I don’t know that the guys are doing that.”

Tosin Omolola, a graduate student studying cinematic arts, film and television production, attended not only as a fan of “Moesha,” but also as a woman looking for wisdom from people “trying to aspire to do the same thing” as she is.

“I’ve learned to just keep writing and develop a thick skin,” Omolola said. “I’ve been concerned about doing more comedic things because I tend towards drama, but I think being in this room with [the panel], and knowing how much I love sitcoms, you just keep going and things are always changing, and they’ll eventually change in the direction you might want.”

The “Writing Comedy for Late Night” panel included advice from “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” writers Josh Halloway and Danny Ricker on topics ranging from monologues to social media trends.

“There are so many late night shows and we’re all doing a show every night,” Ricker said. “So hopefully, if we’re doing our jobs right, you won’t see the same joke on [‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’] and [‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’] and Kimmel, because maybe we’ve found our own kind of fun angle that’s more in our wheelhouse.”

Irene Kim, a senior majoring in journalism, valued the panel as someone with dreams of hosting a talk show or podcast as well as building her comedic skills.

“Many times, you don’t get to come on campus and meet the writers and executive producers of Jimmy Kimmel and all these other cool shows,” Kim said. “USC is literally one of the first schools to introduce comedy as an actual thing you can take as a major and experience and learn, so it’s just been a great experience.”

A final panel was the beginning of the festival’s end on Sunday afternoon as “Podcasting and Beyond: The New Comedy Hustle” discussed the trajectory of comedy podcasts featuring comedian Trae Crowder alongside podcasters Al Madrigal and Billy Rosenberg.

“[A podcast] is just becoming television, it’s becoming the shows that used to be on Comedy Central or MTV or VH1 or late night television,” Rosenberg said. “And it’s easy too, because the cost of getting in there is not very much.”

The last of the several screenings included throughout the festival featured the viewing and cast and crew Q&A of “A Nice Indian Boy” featuring School of Dramatic Arts alum Karan Soni.

USC alum Jason Reitman was the headlining guest of the Jack Oakie & Victoria Horne Oakie Masters of Comedy Lecture Series in the closing event of the festival. During the series, Reitman was honored with USC Comedy’s 2025 Oakie Award, marking a full-circle moment for the filmmaker and former student.

“Having gone to USC, and having been a student in, back in the day it was … “Intro to Cinema,” and sitting in the audience filled with students — and now to be up on stage, it’s surreal,” Reitman said. “To this day, when I walk onto this campus, I still feel like a student.”