A couple of weeks ago I wrote about attending the Dropout Improv show here in Chicago.In that post I promised to highlight exactly why I love this add-on streaming service. Well I'm finally going to start doing that.
My teenage daughter is the one who introduced me to this network and I still thank her to this day for doing so. I don't think I have ever laughed harder or just felt happier after watching any content.
Dropout.tv evolved from a YouTube channel called College Humor. It evolved into an entire streaming network that has continued to grow and add shows over the past 5 years. There are so many shows on the channel that I love that it would be impossible to do this in one post. So let's take this a show at a time.
The first show she showed me was Game Changer. She and I watch Survivor together and she told me this channel did a comedy version of it. A bunch of improv comics and comedy writers playing a Survivor game? I'm in. We watched the episode and I LOVED it. It was hilarious. The group just found a ton of ways to make the game they played in all parts of a TV studio incredibly entertaining. But notice I said "episode". That is because this "game show" changes every week. The contestants are all improv comedians, comic writers, comedy actors with some very special guests mixed in from time to time. The contestants show up to the game having no clue what the rules will be. Sometimes they need to improv musicals, sometimes they need to play Sam Says, sometimes they need to do impressions or Make Some Noise, sometimes they just play human Bingo with some surprises.
I know this may sound confusing but it is amazing! Although there are technically winners of the game, that doesn't even matter. The sole purpose of the games is to provide a platform and a little structure for hilarious people riffing and being... hilarious.
The show is hosted Sam Reich, the guy who runs Dropout.tv. This guys seems like the absolute best boss in the world. Sometimes he finds out that one of his comedians needs something (like their bike was stolen) so he makes the prize for the game a brand new bike and makes sure that contestant "wins" (there are no losers because the main goal is to have fun).
After introducing the usually three contestants by making them do something funny, Sam reminds the audience that "I've been here the whole time". Then he introduces the game and says "“The only way to learn is by playing, the only way to win is by learning, and the only way to begin is by beginning.”" And then it begins. What begins? Whatever the hilarious writers thought would be funny that week. And that is the beauty of the show. It does not have to make sense. It does not have to be very strategic (although sometimes it is). It just needs to be a platform to allow hilarious people to be hilarious. And it always is.
On top of that, the show is just flat out nice. The contestants are usually coworkers at Dropout.tv who seem to genuinely like each other. As a result, there are no mean spirited jokes. There are some R and X rated ones... but never mean ones. Most of the cast seemed to be geeky theater kids who may have been bullied, and they have shown how much they have learned from that by never bullying others. It is an incredibly positive show with contestants usually trying to help each other to be funny.
My favorite contestant by far is Brennan Lee Mulligan. He is comedic genius who is probably the most quick witted person I have seen since Robin Williams. He is instantly able to create amazing stories and characters... which comes in handy for a show I will talk about later: Dimension 20.
Has anyone seen College Humor or Dropout.TV? Anyone remember any of the other comedy troops like the Young Ones?
Oh yeah, college humor was some good stuff. I didn't realize this came from that.
Yeah it was a great evolution for sure.
the young ones , now that is a while back ...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083505/
I watch the show along with their spin off "Make some Noise". Good fun.
I love make some noise. I'm actually going to break down a bunch of the shows. We are huge into Dimension 20 on there. We actually went to the Gauntlet at the Garden in Madison Square Garden. It was incredible!
Is Brendan funny af or what? Do knows something of everything.
I'm actually in awe of how quickly he comes up with stories and characters. He can take a throw away character who was in the background and based on one thing a player says, he instantly creates a lore and personality of the character that becomes one of the best parts of the campaign. There's a drug dealing Werewolf named Jawbone who became my favorite character of all time. And yes, he knows everything. The guy is not only a legit genius, his neurons just seem to fire significantly faster than anyone I've seen. Plus he is just a flat out good dude.
It would be like a parody of Survivor or something adapted to their comedy style. I haven't seen it, but it never hurts to find fun programs to laugh a little and forget about the stress that everyday life causes.
Never bullying is great as long as they don't go too far and fall for the geek fallacies.
#hive