The class bell rings and a coach jumps onto a stage with a huge backdrop of bookshelves and two doors. “My name is Coach,” he announces, going on to say that this is a crash class in remedial lit, because we dunderheads in the audience have all flunked the regular class and can’t graduate without passing it. The test is in 110 minutes (by coincidence, the running time of the show).

Helping Coach (Reed Martin) are the Professor (Austin Tichenor) and student teacher Matt (Matthew Croke), and they’re about to take us on a roller-coaster ride through 83 of the world’s great books.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company is back in town with the West Coast premiere of their latest show, All the Great Books (abridged), at San Diego Repertory Theatre.

You may have seen The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) or The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged), which have previously been presented in town. If so, you’ll doubtless want to see this incarnation. If you’re not familiar with them, here’s your chance to be introduced to these literary lunatics, these masters of madcap comedy. The shtick here is a combination of slapstick, farce, satire and third-grade humor.

Dickens is an easy target, and the RSC wastes no time. Unoriginally titled Great Expectorations, this section takes on many of Dickens’ works, compressing them by comedic trash compactor, ending up with such things as Oliver (doing the) Twist and the National Enquirer-like revelation that “Scrooge and Jacob Marley were more than

just business partners.”

Then it’s on to Homer’s Idiodyssey, featuring a terrific dancing Trojan horse; Little Women played as a baseball strategy session; Coach calling a foul on Walden for being “intentionally boring,” and rewritten by Hemingway; and Don Quixote in Spanish (translated hilariously by Matt). And the pièce de résistance, dueling interior monologues in Ulysses.

But let’s not forget the history of poetry: “I will not do it in a boat, I will not do it with a

goat;” “Do not go gentle into Gladys Knight;” “Quoth the raven: ‘Baltimore.’”

Some of the jokes are clever, some corny; some of the stage business (like tossing beach balls into the audience) a bit juvenile, but all is delivered with great energy and such a sense of fun that you can’t help laughing.

Audience participation is encouraged and at times required, and in fact these guys are at their best in improv situations. This ensures that the show will be different each night, so go prepared to try to get them off track.

The RSC began in 1981 as a pass-the-hat act performing at Renaissance Faires around the

state. They’ve since gone international; their Shakespeare show and another, The Complete History of America (abridged), are officially the longest-running comedies in London history — they’ve been playing in repertory since 1996.

This year the Bible show joined the rotation, giving them more shows in the West End than Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Before the students in the audience get their diplomas, Matt does one-line summaries of the books not heretofore discussed. Hence:

Alice in Wonderland: Don’t do drugs.

On the Road: Do drugs.

Animal Farm and The Feminine Mystique: Don’t trust the pigs.

And you? Don’t miss this silly show. It’s exactly what we all need right now.

All The Great Books (abridged) plays through Nov. 23, at the Lyceum Theatre, Horton Plaza. Call for tickets at (619) 544-1000.