It was the battle of the belly laughs-and Saint Louis University did not come out on top.

Rooftop Comedy’s 1st Annual National College Comedy Competition took place on Tuesday, April 1, at Funny Bone Comedy Club (614 Westport Plaza). After cracking jokes at the first round of comedy held on March 3 at the Billiken Club, SLU’s brightest comedians took the stage against the University of Missouri’s most talented funnymen and women.

“We were definitely not horrible,” said junior Kevin Dwyer, who competed for SLU alongside freshmen J.D. McCrary and Neil DuRoss and sophomore Manuel Paniagua. “I think we did really well for having so [many] people who have never done this before . I really think that everyone at SLU who participated had some real guts.

“In comparison to [the comedians from] Mizzou, [Mizzou] had more [people], but I think out of their eight people, there were maybe three that were really, really funny.”

Mizzou junior Chris Nester, won the competition, with Mizzou sophomore Ryan Beck coming in as the runner-up.

“I was actually a little upset [with the results],” Dwyer said. “Not because I thought I should have won, but because I actually thought there were other kids [who] were funnier than them . I felt that the judging was based mostly on the two judges [who] were there, and not as much on the audience vote.”

The winners will now move into the online voting round, which will determine the four finalists who will compete on May 30 and 31 in Aspen, Colo. Afterward, viewers and a panel of judges will decide who will be crowned the country’s funniest college student.

Videos from each of the performances, including the SLU competitors, will be on rooftopcomedy.com for the next few weeks.