Anything can happen with improv—that’s the whole idea. But the GET and Happy Hour Improv are really looking to mix it up this week with a show that jumbles members of both troupes and challenges them with offbeat games—like long-form improv demanding more than a one-joke sketch.

“When everybody thinks improv, they’re thinking of shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway?—short-form games, quick jokes, in and out,” says Jenny Holden, a performer with the GET. “The great thing about long-form is that you get to develop character and you get to develop stories.”

“It’s an unscripted play,” adds Happy Hour’s Anthony Barnaby.

“It’s like driving a car, but only being able to use the rearview mirror,” counters Holden.

“It’s also like seven or eight other similes we could use,” jokes Barnaby, getting laughs from the troupes after a recent show.

Comedy is key for both the GET and Happy Hour, but they have distinct personalities. For the GET, which performs a weekly show of stand-up, sketch comedy and improv at the Onyx Theatre on Friday nights, the eclecticism of form is echoed in the eclecticism of the troupe. “We have so many different points of view, and we all came from such different places,” Holden says. “What I think is funny is different than what [troupemate] Jozalyn Sharp thinks is funny, is different than what Phil Kotler thinks is funny.”

“There’s smart jokes and there’s dick jokes,” Sharp says.

“Absolutely,” confirms Holden. “We love the dick jokes, but we also like the subtlety.”

“Smart dick jokes,” Kotler says.

Born of necessity when Second City improv closed at the Flamingo in 2008, the Happy Hour team has kept refining its approach and showmanship since then, and developed a style defined by rampant energy. “A ton of energy, really fast-moving stuff, with just the right amount of insanity,” Barnaby says.

“The trust we have between the three of us in Happy Hour, having been friends for eight years, allows us to really mess with each other,” says Mark Valentin. And starting this Friday, they’ll be able to mess with members of the GET, too. “Surprises happen for the audience and the performers.”

This time, Holden doesn’t go for subtlety: “All of us as improv performers are buckets of infinite choices. And I can only imagine what we’re gong to find in each other when we play with each other—and that’s not a metaphor for sex, I swear.”

THE GET featuring Happy Hour Improv. August 28, 10 p.m., $10. Onyx Theatre, 702-732-7225.