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As undergraduates gear up for the 141st Harvard-Yale Game Saturday, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology lecturer Andrew J. Berry took the stage at Sanders Theatre Thursday night to deliver a humorous while data-driven argument for why Harvard is better than Yale.

He leveled a barrage of criticisms, pointing to Yale’s relative dearth of alumni who became U.S. presidents (three, to Harvard’s five) and Nobel Prize winners (60, compared to more than 160 from Harvard). Berry, who is well known for teaching large introductory Life Sciences courses, has delivered a similar roast of Yale for several consecutive years — but Thursday’s iteration newly invoked a metric of comparison he called the “Harass-ometer.”

“We’re really good at attracting the attention of Mr. Trumpy-Wumpy and his friends,” Berry said, projecting a slide covered in news headlines regarding the Trump administration’s ongoing battle with Harvard.

Berry pointed out that Yale, by contrast, has not received the same scrutiny.

“Yale is just not worth bothering with,” he quipped.

Berry also lambasted the physical ineptitude of the Yale mascot, a bulldog known as “Handsome Dan,” with a detailed diagram of its biological failings — its cataracts, oversized tongue, and inability to “copulate without human intervention.”

He then displayed an image of a student selling Harvard-Yale merch depicting a cartoon bulldog reclining on a pile of feces.

“Why do we have the Yale bulldog leaning on a turd? Well, the answer is embedded in history,” Berry said — segueing into a reminder to Harvard students to stay away from Yale’s laundry rooms. In 2013, Yale students infamously were caught defecating in washing machines in a scandal deemed “Poopgate” by Yalies.

Student attendees had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the roast.

“Andrew Berry’s roast made me pee my pants,” attendee Fred L. Klein ’28 said jokingly. “It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever watched.”

Thursday’s event, hosted by the Harvard College Events Board, also featured performances from seven student groups leading up to Berry’s roast. Four CEB members served as emcees for the event.

“It brings together so many different student groups from across campus to unite us for the Harvard-Yale game, and I’m glad that we got to put on such a fun and exciting event for the student body,” emcee Dylan G. Rhoton ’28 said.

The night began with a joint performance by the Radcliffe Choral Society, Harvard Glee Club, and Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. The three singing groups serenaded the audience with a set of Harvard fight songs, including “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard,” “R-A-D,” and “Harvardiana.”

After the brief concert, Harvard students flooded the stage to claim free Harvard-Yale merch, followed by an improv performance by Three Letter Acronym. The event also featured performances by The Harvard Undergraduate Drummers and the Harvard Asian American Dance Troupe.

Five comedians from the Harvard College Stand-up Comic Society performed, ridiculing Yale’s student body, campus safety, and mascot. Attendees said the event filled them with school spirit ahead of The Game.

“I’m more hype to beat Yale this weekend,” Klein said.

Several of the student standup and improv performances alluded to recent news about former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers’ friendly relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein. Summers announced Wednesday that he will stop teaching for the rest of the semester while the University investigates his connections to Epstein.

When TLA called on the audience to suggest prompts for an improv sequence, audience members called out “Summers,” though the troupe chose not to base a skit on the term. Luke Metzidakis ’29 also referenced Summers in his stand up comedy set.

“They call him Handsome Dan,” he said of Yale’s mascot. “Look, if you have to clarify that he’s handsome — that’s like if I said, ‘oh yeah, my favorite Harvard professor: totally not creepy and normal Larry Summers.’”

In a statement to The Crimson last week, Summers said his “association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.” In the days after The Crimson first reported on Summers’ romantic pursuit — in consultation with Epstein — of a woman he referred to as a mentee, many undergraduates said they thought he should resign.