Second City Sends Pothole Message to Mayor Rahm Emanuel

Second City comedians have a message for Mayor Rahm Emanuel about Chicago's potholes—“Thank you.”

In a recent YouTube video on the city's ever-prominent pothole problems, the comedians act as employees of the car service and tire company Pep Boys, thanking Emanuel for his efforts in keeping potholes on the streets of Chicago.

“We here at Pep Boys know Mayor Rahm Emanuel is doing everything in his power to keep potholes on every residential and commercial street across the city of Chicago,” Lily Sullivan, acting as a Pep Boys employee, says in the skit.

The skit claims “Emanuel knows that potholes create commerce” and excitedly references a spike in the number of pothole complaints, new tires sold, and cars needing tire services.

As of last week, roughly 2,000 pothole damage-to-vehicle claims had been filed with the city clerk’s office, the most the office has seen. Last year there were a total of 743 such claims.

“[Potholes are] the Donald Trump of cement,” Andrew Knox says in the skit. “You’re hired.”

Chicago's brutal, record-setting winter left streets riddled with potholes. Mayor Rahm Emanuel said last month he plans to expand the summer street paving program to resurface a total of 333 miles of arterial and neighborhood streets and alleys in 2014.

The Second City skit isn’t the first comedic take on the city’s pothole problems.

Earlier this year, a local photographer and filmmaker made a horror-movie starring the city’s scariest potholes.

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