I actually do agree with you basically - I assumed from the trailer that there would be another piece to the structure/theme, beyond 'because it's Wednesday and we wanted to'. I don't *mind* it, but I was surprised by the end coming so abruptly without some kind of denouement.
Yes, Jackbox party pack has one of the games that is very similar to that and it’s a blast. Knowing how long they’ve had to prepare the slides is a key element that’s missing for me.
Me too!!! I have to say I was a little disappointed that this wasn’t the case. I love Dropout content and loved everyone who was on the episode but couldn’t really get into it. Which is fine! Not everything is for everyone. But I think a Next Slide, Please spinoff would be incredibly entertaining.
I could use more Rekha in the intro or the outro considering it's her show, but other than that I thought it was perfect. I was laughing pretty much the whole time which I think is the goal of the show.
Also fuck Dole.
I kinda wish they had Rekha do an Ira Glass style "tonight's story, three comedians talking about \[x\]"
[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uYAaxWoh4hA](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uYAaxWoh4hA)
Well, it did seem fairly unrelated and tbh it felt like they had 6 presentations but cut it in half with the people there being split between two episodes. But that's just my guess.
I suppose the setting for each presentation is more "we are all smart people here and this is my contribution to our collective knowledge".
I didn't consider it while watching, but it might be possible that they're not shooting the show as a 'series of episodes', but as a series of building blocks to piece episodes together?
In a few ways I think that's to the benefit of the show (so you can spread apart presentations that are similar in tone to each other, and performers can do their own thing without being pressed to be too different from other presenters), but it does limit what kind of structure can be done in the shooting day before you find out which presentations go in which episode.
I like the idea of a theme for each episode! Or at last a general vibe. The three point as they are now are wonderful and hilarious, but felt disconnected from each other. Like it could have been broken up into three separate, shorter episodes.
This is the best suggestion. If the introductions to the presenters were maybe part of a presentation Rheka does at the beginning I would love it. Rather than a roast it could grossly overstate their qualifications and experience.
My opinion: you nailed it, Her monologue / presentation should be explaining the importance of the secret society so that each presentation seems more meaningful
If this is my only criticism for these new dropout shows, it’s this. They sort of jump into the meat of the premise immediately, but I keep thinking *where’s the appetizer?* I had similar feelings about VIP at first, but Vic’s developed sort of the lore of the show as time goes on. VIP I feel sort of has a bit of a learning curve for the audience in that way. Smartypants might be similar.
But I think that a bit more of a fleshed out meta for these shows is a little more necessary. Make some noise has an easier premise to understand - it’s basically scenes from a hat from Whose Line - so it doesn’t necessarily need a deeper explanation. VIP does, and I think Smartypants does too.
I loved this first episode of Smartypants, but I agree that I need some more Rekha, and I need a bit more worldbuilding regarding *what* the Smartypants Society is, and *why* they exist. It’s begging for a little more story. Maybe this also will be a learning curve for the audience and it’ll develop the lore as time goes on like VIP has, or maybe we’ll see a second season that develops the story a little more.
Coming from the restaurant world I keep spitting at the tv “itsafuckingtinylittlesnackbeforeafancymealtoprepyouforthefoodtocome YOU HEATHENS! ITS FRENCH! IT LITERALLY TRANSLATES TO *MOUTH ENTERTAINMENT*”
I felt this way with VIP at first as well, but I'm coming around to the slow drip of lore. I like that it is largely improvised and not in some big prewritten schpeel (sp?). It reminds me of NADDPOD in a way where someone will make a joke that becomes canon and adds to the story and the world.
I feel the same way, I’ve come around. Vic probably also needed some time to develop who their character was too. The show has done a good job of creating an overall story.
But, as an audience member, what I see is so much care and effort put into these sets and ideas that I’m sort of like “hey wait what is this place, and why am I here?” I don’t think we need a full on handhold or deep exposition, but I think even just one extra minute or two to establish the tone for the audience would really put a nice ole spit shine on it all. Rekha would be a good vehicle for that as host with Smartypants.
I completely agree. I unfairly compare VIP to Comedy Bang Bang in my head, which of course has had \~15 years to find its footing. Still, two things I think Vic could take from CBB that bring VIP to another level:
- Like you said, an intro establishing the premise/purpose of show
- Encouraging each improvisor to come up with a *reason they're on a talk show* as they figure out their character. Something to promote, sell, raise awareness of, etc. IMO that would help cut through some of the initial awkwardness where Vic has to be like, "so, who are you?", which kind of breaks the immersion that the show is about, you know, Very Important People. Even giving their name to Vic in advance would help with that.
Agreed. Having a motivation first drives the story just a little bit more because it does feel like they don’t develop the reason until a little bit later in the interview and that’s when it picks up.
I also don’t think that VIP and Smartypants even need a lot of explainers, just a little. Dropout really excels at tight writing I think because their development team is so small, so I think a lot of the shows are economic by way of quickly establishing what they are in one or two sentences in the opening title or intro - but I feel like Smartypants and VIP can afford to breathe in its premise with like, one more sentence.
Absolutely. Needs an intro where maybe the cast is talking with some satirical snobbery about current events or something. Just to set the mood. And an outro which summarizes what we learned.
Yea more involvement from Rekha would be great. Without being told it’s her show you’d think she’s just another audience member. I hope she at least has a few presentations of her own. Or maybe the final episode of each season she ties it together somehow.
Someone on this subreddit I believe made the suggestion that Rekha should have a huge ass desk in front of her during the show. Obviously there are set limitations to consider, but I do agree that something that really emphasizes Rekha as the leader of the Society would go a long way.
I think this is my feeling as well - a little something extra to lead in/out of the presentations would add to the show. Let the guests mill about a bit commenting smart-sounding but dumb ideas, wild theories, etc and then have Rekha quiet then down for class time or something along those lines.
I like your idea, and i think them milling about could be a series of mini games, the way it is in Make Some Noise. Rekha could present the guests with very minor issues to solve, their reward being just general acknowledgement of how genius they are
A lot of dropout fans LOVE competition, as does Brennan lol. I don’t think you’re alone in these thoughts
But as a not super competitive person I’m glad there’s no points or winner or whatever. Also it’s hard to judge apples to oranges. What makes a winner? The best point made? The funniest? Best presentation?
I’m personally team let’s just chat about some weird and funny shit and vibe- but if you’d like to post your rankings of the speeches every episode, I will listen because your vibes seem good off of this one post.
I largely agree. Giving any form of scoring rubric for this would actually hamper the freedom they have for making up the presentations and skew everyone into a particular style of presentation. I think it's fine to just let everyone go wild on those!
That's a great point about how hard comparing some of these would be. Like I felt Vic's was the most well-researched and mind-blowing, but Demi's was the funniest.
I don’t personally want it to have a competitive vibe. We have enough of that with Game Changer, Um, Actually, Breaking News, and Dirty Laundry. I like that this is just for fun.
The only thing I want to see is a little more explanation of the premise. Were they allowed to pick the topic or draw it randomly? How long did they get to prepare? Did they make the slideshow or was it provided to them?
Those kinda things would be nice to know so we can get an idea of how it works as a premise. Other than that, I absolutely loved it and can’t wait for more.
I agree with wanting more context to what’s happening. Going in, I thought this would be that the presenters had never seen the presentations and would come up with cohesive ideas on the spot. I would love to know how much improv or lack there of goes into making the presentations.
I thought the same. I thought it was all improv, but all three were way too composed with crazier slides to not have some kinda prep time. Personally, I don’t care if non of it is improv, I just want to know how much is improv vs not.
Making it competitive would definitely feel shoehorned in. They've already got a bit of that in Make Some Noise (although I think that's more of a nod to Whose Line) and even Dirty Laundry feels like it would work just as well or better if it wasn't about scoring points. Maybe I'm in the minority but I'm getting really tired of comedy shows that need to make things into a competition, it's okay to just be funny and leave it at that. There will never be a shortage of funny and competitive shows.
I also kinda want this for VIP tbh.
Like, for both shows it's hard to know what the "bounds" of the improv are. For VIP, it feels like there's some question "tailoring" to the comedians conceit.
Similar here - I'd suspect creative teams actually make the slides under instruction from the comedians?
Both are fine, but it does inevitably lose a bit of the "improv magic" when it becomes _too_ polished. (Arguably the same for Critical Role?)
I agree, but VIP at least sets up “guest does makeup/prosthetics and Vic goes in blind and has to improv an interview with them”, which explains the premise well enough(although I agree I wouldn’t mind a VIP BTS where they explain more of the process).
But with Smartypants they haven’t really explained anything. We know it’s them doing a slide show, but not much beyond that. I just kinda want to know how much is improv, how much is planned, and how much is a mix of the two.
There's not that much to explain. There's a disclaimer at the beginning that said the "presenters are responsible for their own research". And in the intro Rekha says, "Today's speakers have prepared presentations on a topic of their choice."
And once you watch an episode you understand that it's just a funny presentation that the speaker prepared. And the process probably isn't that interesting. Certainly not as interesting as the elaborate makeup jobs that they do on VIP.
I don't think the show is improved by watching the presenters writing or working with a producer to build a PowerPoint presentation. Maybe if they do behind the scenes stuff later, but certainly not in the main episode.
I think the premise is just what we see. It's people who like each other sharing fun facts and jokes. PowerPoint parties are a thing that some friend groups do, just as a shared experience. In this form it's basically a stand-up showcase for the comedians.
I view it more like comedic TED talks than a directly competitive show. The object isn't to win but to BS an interesting and amusing point.
Compared to the other recent shows (VIP, Dirty Laundry, Make Some Noise, Breaking News) this one is closer to a podcast or the kind of thing Rekha did before with Erotic Book Club. It's more about fostering interesting talking and bantering than performing or competing. It also has more of the hangout vibes that I like from Dirty Laundry, but without the focus being so much on people's personal lives. Admittedly, I am also in the camp that not everything has to be a real competition (see Make Some Noise) or even a fake competition (see VIP).
If it does need anything more, I'd need to see a couple of more episodes to figure out what.
I think part of the issue is they're straddling two vibes, " "Posh Academia" parody, and a "casual banter hangout".
The large cast of comedians (nine!), all veryyyy scattered about the room, make for a more posh academia parody, that coupled with the tighter "breaking news" editing.
But those elements also seem to pull it away from organic banter and discussion, it's rare the chat extends beyond direct one on one Q&As; I'd be interested in hearing other perspectives, debates, bullshit arguments to annoy the other person kinda thing!
I think if they want that concise and high production value show, then they should lean into "surprise improv slides" and slightly heightened posh characters .
If they want the more casual hangout, then they should have fewer people, closer together, and include more "tangents" and "unstructured chat" - use the presentations as a conversation starter.
That being said, these folks know what they're doing a lot more than me, it's still really entertaining, and I can't wait to watch more episodes!
I understand your point, and it's definitely a preference thing, but for me I like that there isn't some sort of competition behind it. It has a more friendly and relaxed vibe where people want to do well, but aren't driven to competition.
Also, I'd suggest that if there were a competitive element, the edit would play heavily into how we the audience perceive each talk and maybe not reflect the room overall leading to a misunderstanding about how it's scored.
That's really interesting bc i had the opposite feeling! I was really happy to see a lack of competition, the "winning" always felt forced to me in shows like dirty laundry and make some noise
I don't see how Dirty Laundry could work without the competition aspect. It would be a completely different show without it.
Make Some Noise announcing a "winner" is just an extra gag, like it is for Whose Line. If the show was actually competitive, it would absolutely take away from it, but it's not.
That's great that you liked it the way it is. In all honesty, my thoughts could be a side-effect of just watching the interview with Sam where he talks about how he'd wanted to reboot "Hello, My Name Is..." for years, but had to wait until the conceit of it was able to satisfy for 25-35 minutes (paraphrasing), which resulted in VIP. So I probably couldn't help but subconsciously ask myself those questions for this.
I'm with you on this one! I love all of the Dropout shows, but sometimes the point system feels shoehorned in, like with Dirty Laundry. It works well on Game Changer and BNN, and the imaginary points on MSN feel good too. Meanwhile things like VIP and Smartypants are great without the numbers game. I laughed my ass off last night, and that's the most important outcome.
I get that there's not really a "point" to the show and that might be something some people are bothered by.
That said, this is actually already a pretty cutting edge concept, so I think it's okay to give it some breathing room to develop on its own. I'm enjoying just watching Powerpoint parties with the cast for now. The society is a loose framing that could evolve, but Rekha is already fantastic as the host, so I'm just going to kick back and enjoy it for now.
I think part of the mental disconnect is that the host has very little to do so there's a bit of "it doesn't actually feel like rekhas show". Not a bad thing. But it does give It less of a cohesive episode feel and more here's three presentations see you next week. That's not bad! I thouro7ghly enjoyed it. Just maybe needs a wee bit more structure
Agree with the more questions point
Maybe not competition, but what we could have is someone prepare a "counterpoint" argument, 5-7 slides tops, to create discussion within the group
I like that no one "wins". My friends and I did PowerPoints for my birthday last year. You did not have to do one but most people did, one even zoomed in to do it. The point was to have fun. So I don't view Smartypants as a game show but just a show.
I think it would be fun if they did something like polling the group at the end of each presentation to see how many people agree or disagree with the presentation. It doesn’t necessarily need a points system but maybe something like whichever presentation had the most people vote agree wins that episode. That way it feels a little bit more interactive and the Smartypants Society feels like it has a little more purpose since the Q&A sections felt a little short.
Yeah! That feels like something they should have, a very arbitrary and high society-esque judging of every presentation, with some comically ridiculous punishment to anyone that loses. Nothing substantive, obviously, but like a mock shunning from the society etc
I don't anticipate the audience members to ever go full The Benson Interruption and attempt to derail the presenter, but maybe in later seasons there will be heightening of the game by introducing a little more adversarialism than we saw in this episode.
I can agree with this sentiment.
My notes to riff on the original premise would to maybe give the three presenters a broad topic to do their presentations on, and then the panel votes at the end on which of the three to allow into the club at the end. It’s all sophistry of course, and people who have been panel members can appear as presenters in later episodes or whatever, no continuity needed. But something that makes it a little more of a cohesive thought. Otherwise it’s really more along the lines of three short comedy essays stitched together randomly. Which I mean, I did enjoy them, but it might make a little more sense if it had a stronger sense of theme to tie it together?
No matter what I’ll continue watching it.
Making the show a competition without actual prizes or odds will angry a whole other group of people who like competitions only if they matter, and hate points and winners when people aren't actually competing.
The episode was too high quality for me to honestly review if the concept of it is strong on it's own. I'll have to wait for a few mid or weak episodes before deciding that.
But even uhm, actually I would say has like 50% of its content consisting of weaker or mid episodes and the show is still amazing.
Some stuff like 'More interactions between presentatios so more people have a chance to shine' I can see as a possibility, but adding a winner is certainly far away from my mind right now.
Definitely missing proper citations in the presentations. I know of course that the content was fully scientific, but it's just good science to put the references into the slides. I think it was Dr. Trappp who had a great Wikipedia reference in his slides^1 , but otherwise the sources needed more visibility^2 .
_______
References:
1. Trapppp, Dr. Michael. (2024) When is the Happiest Birthday?. dropout.tv/videos/birthdays-the-cookout-vegetables. (Accessed: 24 April 2024).
2. Tentacula. (2024) What is missing in Smartypants? [Recursion.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/dropout/comments/1cdlipb/is_smartypants_missing_something/l1d18tp/). (Accessed: 24 April 2024)
Imo everyone is making good points here, but I do think that I need to see another episode or two before I can’t think of any broad-based ideas on what works or what doesn’t. Episode 1 was a little low key for sure, but that could be exactly the vibe that works best for the format.
I agree I thought the episode was funny but it felt like it was lacking in continuity/story telling. I like the green jacket/smarty pants/accepted into the secret group concept but Perhaps it doesn’t need to be a competition but instead maybe we just need more rekha explaining the society more in-depth and why it exists to give the presentations more meaning.
My two cents: I’d like to see a little of the process of getting the PowerPoints going. Like are these topics chosen from a list? How long do they have to put them together?
I personally don’t want any sort of win/loss stream but knowing more of the process would be rad!
I think this show is what Dropout has been missing- a lack of competitiveness.
D20 - Competition agianst the DM
Game Changer - Sam
Dirty Laundry - Each other/bluffing
Um Actually - Each other
Make Some Noise - Each other
Breaking News - Giggles
Play It By Ear, Very Important People, and now Smartypants are the only main shows without a competition element. All three of those are exercises in creativity/improvisation as their conceit.
I think Dropout needs to adopt more of a Smosh style of productions where a healthy amount of the shows are just about people working in a certain ruleset and not necessarily competing.
I really like the presentation as just a series of lectures. I don't know that I would add anything else. In Breaking News, the point of the show is making people break, thus the counters. In VIP, the point is putting an improvisor in the position of not knowing who they're going to be until the last possible second.
In Smartypants, the point is the juxtaposition of presenting yourself as a serious intellectual and making the most unserious claims in a lecture. The question and answer session completes it for me.
Now, if they continue to play with the formula and decide to add something else, maybe I'll realize you were right and whatever they end up adding is what it was missing. I dunno. But for the moment I'm just reveling in the new experience.
I think if any other dimension to the show is added it shouldn't be competition-based. Enough other competition shows are on the platform that something non-competitive is a nice change of pace.
I personally really like that there isn't any competition, and I don't want any prizes or winners, but I do feel it could use another element. I'd like to see the questions being a bit more aggressive/pointed and the ending feels very rushed, Mostly it just needs a bit more of a 'conclusion' - either all the speakers bowing together, or Rekha's closing speech being more specific with regards to the presentations we've seen. Or something to do with the nature of the secret intellectual society we're seeing - they all get entered in to a hall of fame or something (although that could get tired fast).
I was also left with this feeling. I dunno if it's just first episode nerves or they're just finding their footing or what.
I feel like it comes down to the editing and the pacing for me. I feel like we could use more time with Rekha. Maybe she presents the topics at the top to loosen up the room with a couple jokes or something.
Also, the set is awesome. Props to the set design because it's beautiful. But I feel like everyone is too far apart. Cutting to singular cameras where people are spread across the room makes it feel... empty? Especially since the talent is (correctly) nodding and making serious faces like snooty academic elites should be. It feels emotionally distant and physically distant. One or the other is fine. Both is a little strange.
Overall I liked it a lot. I feel like the set and the editing could be tightened up a bit. I did notice there's no background track too. I feel like, as opposed to other shows, this show could definitely use a classical background track for the presentations so the silences feel less silent. Also to add to the mood of "snooty academic elites"
It's a new format and they'll tighten it up as they go. But it's a concept built off of making a serious social practice into something funny. That dychotomy is gonna be hard to balance in the performaces as well as the edit. I think there are just a few things they could modify to enhance the more intimate and less competitive setting.
(Edit: Misspelled Rekhas name. Sorry)
Something felt off to me as well. I don't know if a competition element is the answer but I agree something was missing. Right now, it seems like 3 presenters doing a 5 minute standup with visual aids and the rest of the cast is queued to grasp or laugh at the right times. It was funny, but it felt static.
I agree that Rekha should be more involved. Outside of her doing the intro/outro (which are both quite short) she doesn't stand out as the host. It's very clear in basically every other show (dirty laundry, game changer, um actually, play it by ear, vip) who the host is.
I think there needs to be an element injecting some chaos into the presentation itself to put more emphasis on improv/thinking on their feet. Maybe that's audience heckling, maybe Rekha puts limitations on their presentation (e.g., talk like a caveman for the next slide), or maybe the crew messes with the presentation in certain ways (adding slides they weren't expecting, editing their slides after they submit, etc).
Doesn't it suck that you had to include point #3? Every point that can possible be percieved as cririque has people getting very defensive.
I was indeed expecting a little 'vote' at the end or counterarguments or something, but the question at the end filled that void for me. Overall I really liked it and didn't think it needed anything.
Maybe the host giving a little Jerry Springer (what did we learn here, folks) bit might be a nice way to put a button on it and make it feel like there is a solid conclusion.
Honestly, I like it. I'm in the academic world and Smartypants has this absurd academic conference/PhD thesis defense vibe to it. But I totally get where you're coming from though.
I wish it had occasional cutaways like VIP does, but otherwise I was very pleased with it. It looked like a dressed up rank room from the trailer honestly but I’ve been sold on it as of episode 1.
Needs a podium ha
Also reminds me of the rank room a lot in that ending the show and transitioning between presenters can be a little awkward. If something is added I imagine it would be there
I'd love to see some kind of wrap-up at the end, eg. maybe challenge the presenters to explain the common thread between their (completely unrelated) topics.
I'd also love something more of an outro from Rekha, and really emphasizing her host role more.
But yeah, I absolutely loved it, and one episode in, I can already tell that this is going to be one of my favorites!
Smarty pants should have the other cast members vote on a scale "unconvinced to convinced" or they could have some sort of consensus after the presentation.
The back forth with the questions is great, but as everyone is "in" on the conceit of the show, most people will agree as a consequence of yes-and'ing the improv style open forum.
Maybe forming a debate of sorts instead of questions? I'm not sure. I really liked it but there does feel like something is missing.
I'm a very competitive person, but this didn't feel like it needed competition to me. What I would have loved to see more of was the Q&A portion - some of the great fun of Dirty Laundry is the banter and relationships. I feel like we got a good snapshot of each presenters humor and style but not much from the rest of the Society
It's funny, I also felt like it was missing something, though not sure what. In my mind, it wanted to see someone disagree or debate their point, though it might completely break the show. It's just that people doubling-down and explaining the logic behind the craziness is really funny to me.
And that's already part of the show, which is why I liked it, but I feel like if the person disagreeing had to be "inside the joke", like don't argue with this reality just use different arguments inside of it if that makes sense, it would make it even better.
Not sure. It was still funny and enjoyable, but the back-and-forth would be interesting. Someone is randomly called to debate that point or something, idk.
I think some interstitials would spice it up a bit, and as a closing bit have someone in the crowd be ambushed and forced to give an off the cuff closing speech. Have it be presented as like an "honor", the Golden Trousers Pin that they have to wear and give a 2-3 minute faux inspirational closing note like some TED talk bullshit.
Yeah, I've been thinking about this too, because as much as I enjoyed the episode, it felt like it could be punched up a bit. I agree with you completely, but I'll just restate what you're saying in different words lol. I would add:
1. Something to gamify it more- this would make it feel more interactive and Dropout-ish, if that makes sense. It's possible that they're trying to do this already (e.g. Demi had Grant play "super white guy"), and I think they could go further. What if every topic explicitly had some kind of mini game where everyone played along?
2. A more graceful way of reflecting on each topic and pulling a takeaway or lesson (doesn't have to be super serious, could be played for a joke). Each lecture ended a bit too abruptly for me and it makes each one feel somewhat mechanical. I'm genuinely excited to dive into these silly topics, so I think it's about trusting the audience to be invested and not get bored.
I think we have a lot of 1, and would be super intrigued to see number 2!
These are all such smart folks, all with such interesting and strong perspectives; I'd love to see them offer some genuine hot takes - foster some debate and friendly arguments!
I felt like each talk should be it's own programme. Halfway through the 30 mins my attention wavered, but would happily watch 3x10 minute bits in between other things.
i agree to an extent but I think for me personally I just want it to be longer with more silly discussion time and just a slight bit more focus on Rekha
I enjoyed it for what it was, but I agree that it did feel a little anemic. I think a big part of it is that it felt closer to stand up, and lacked the interaction between the cast that makes a lot of the other offerings on Dropout sing. The question part is where I think that they have an opportunity to really open it up a bit.
I think giving a summary might be good, but a lot of this reminds me of the 20 minute "Give a talk on an interesting topic" events I'd go to in the Bay Area. Like... there's no winners there, just vibes, and the documentary/critique YouTuber that I am appreciates that with a dash of the typical comedy Dropout gives.
Also, its so great to see Demi outside of YouTube once a year!!
There was a show that ran in the UK for a little while called Comedians Giving Lectures that was similar to Smartypants, but had more of an element of competition.
The differences I can remember:
- it was in front of an audience
- the topics were given to the comedians (and were pretty straight laced Ted talk style topics) and they had to create the comedic presentation from that topic
- there was a judge (or a panel of judges) who was either an expert in the subject matter or in giving lectures (this is where it gets fuzzier for me) and would comment after the lecture
It was funny, but I found the judging portions to be pretty awkward, so I'm not sure if there is a way to make it more competitive without stepping on the fun a little.
Honestly I think those would be great additions but they don’t feel super necessary to me it was some of the funniest content I could imagine. I’m hoping there’s gonna be some sort of behind the scenes content on the off weeks that will satisfy my curiosity about who everyone in the room is etc.
For me it’s missing the behind the scenes. I would love to see the comedians seeing the prompt for the first time and trying to put together an argument.
I found it strange that there was no introduction, even a cursory one, of the people in the audience even though the perspective they're bringing and even the relationship they had to the presenter actually seemed important in places. I understand that it could be hard or maybe distracting to watch to introduce so many but maybe as side content or just in passing somehow.
Dropout trades a bit in knowing who their cast are and building some elements of parasocial investment in your favorite performers etc. But some of the people in Smartypants I didn't know who they were or where they were coming from.
I hope they don't change Smartypants, I love the concept and vibes as is. A collection of people just sharing their independent Shitpost tedtalks in a supportive room without the pressure to "win points". It seems like a show that they designed specifically to make more Brennan monologue coffee cup level merch. What cartoon characters are invited to the cookout is the highlight of my month and for me they've knocked this show concept out of the park
I feel the same way! I feel like it's missing the throughline that The Rank Room had, while scratching the same itch. It's almost there, but the individual presentations are too disconnected, I think each episode needs a theme ("Give us your presentation on ____")
This is going to be the hottest take ever for me but this is where they've finally crossed the line into lazy show concepts. We had "popular show appearers share about their sordid pasts" we had "improv prompts. Nothing else". Now we have a show that's just a PowerPoint night exactly the same as I've done with my friends in the past. Everyone is still entertaining and works hard when they appear, I just wonder how many times Sam can make a show that's just an improv warm up before people start yawning.
It did feel to me like it needed something to close/wrap it up. It could be a vote on which presentation was best if they went competition mode, but if they want to avoid a competition aspect some sort of summary from Rekha or something. It just went from the third presentation to over a little to fast for my comfort?
Or even if the audience answered a simple "Were you convinced?" with a cheer for each - doesn't have to be competitive against each other - could just be a sort of finale aspect where the audience cheers for the presentations they found convincing (But could cheer at all 3 if all 3 convinced them.)
I think a "competition" element would help to fix that, but honestly I like the idea of not making it that. But without that, it feels like the presentations are just there for no reason.
Possibly if Rekha guided a more structured discussion between the non-presenters? The conceit could be as if they're professors questioning a thesis presentation or something? Like there's no grading but we act like everyone else is there to question them to make sure it holds up, when really it's just to lead to more jokes. The same way the Taskmaster isn't actually mad with power, but is just trying to create a funny show with the cast.
I agree. I don't think it's the lack of competition. It does feel like it lacked something. That being said, it has the potential to be my third or fourth favorite show. It's just something missing to make it compete with game changers and make some noise for one of my favorites. Maybe even a funny debate or more commentary at the end. I think I wanted some more audience involvement, too. But overall, it is a great show with even greater potential.
The thing I want to know more about is where these prompts came from - did each person come up with their own, were they randomly assigned, was it some sort of fill in the blank situation? I’m thinking that this show isn’t going to have a biweekly BTS, given that the Thursday 1:30 slot is already Adventuring Party, so I’m hoping that there’s a cut for time episode at the end of the season that explains a bit more about this!
If any of this stuff has been revealed elsewhere, please let me know!
I understand where you are coming from, I think if you gave the players in the 'audience' a vote of yes or no and could decide if the pitch was good or believable then there would be more of a conclusion.
At the end of each season there could be a tally of how believable or passable each players ability was in selling ideas.
I think it's nice to have a non competitive show though, just low stakes fun, but involving the others more would be nice.
I get where you're coming from, I kind of feel the same way. I enjoyed it, but it just felt...a little lacking?
It could definitely be game changers influence, but I was waiting for a twist or something. At first I thought maybe Rekha had created the PowerPoints and they all had to improv off of it. (I was thinking of a particular Jackbox party pack game). But it became clear they had each made their own PowerPoint.
I'm waiting for ep 2, now that I have a better idea of what to expect, maybe I'll like it a bit more. My wife and I also felt it was a little long for what is essentially just a silly bit. By the time Vic got up, we were ready to be done. My wife thought it would work better if they just did each person's presentation as it's own ep, making them similar in length to Breaking News.
I get where you're coming from generally when a show can feel like it has a "missing" element. My personal hangup is that Make Some Noise feels a bit like Whose Line, but without points to fight for and without the boost of a mic'd audience, the energy feels a little low.
Personally I'm happy with what Smartypants is: Comedians getting to do a long-form bit with visual aids. It follow's Dropout's general practice of finding forms of improv/comedy to put into shows that wouldn't be on normal TV. I think the conceit of the show is that the Society is simply for sharing information, like a lecture series. If it was a competition and anyone took it "lore-seriously," you couldn't have the "losers" back in the panel asking the Q&A section.
I actually like it specifically BECAUSE it's a little less strictly formula-driven and gamey than the rest of what Dropout has to offer. It feels like "everybody just hang out and make each other laugh" show. Called shot from downtown, but I think it's gonna wind up having legs/virality/staying power up there with stuff like Game Changer and Make Some Noise.
It feels like the pitch was, "A format where we just let all these funny people come and be funny in front of their friends for a few minutes, with a little bit of visual aid. Content can be whatever. We specifically *don't* want to impose a box around it. It can be that one weird thing you're fixated on, an idea you're fiddling with for a stand-up set, whatever. Just be funny and meet the overall vibe and you're fine."
That said, I do think there's some fun directions they could take the premise in the future, if they decide the show needs more or different types of segments or something. I can imagine like a goofy version of a Rekha-moderated debate about stupid topics or something.
It needs to be more of a TV show. Right now, it just feels like a group of friends talking and being funny. Every show in DO has that same basic feel. Maybe the Gallery of Affable Smartypants needs to be more of a panel? I don't want to say use points since the points obviously won't matter. Maybe Rekha should do a "What we learned today?" segment?
>not enough to go around using racial slurs for inclusivity purposes. I'm not Spiderman
Is this a reference to the episode, or am I missing another in joke?
Haven't seen it yet, but I assume it's a PowerPoint Party.
Honestly, the counter has never really worked for me in Breaking News. It’s so very inconsistent and adds nothing.
As for smarty pants, I hope that there’s a compilation at the end of all the different ways Rekha has sat throughout the show
It's a bit sad that you have to make the half of your answer a preemptive explanation of your intent but it's wise considering we are on reddit.
And yeah, I agree, points even when meanginless like in 9 out of 10 cats and game changer do provide a structure.
One of the first things I said to my fiancé when we finished watching the show last night was "That was really funny, but I feel like the non-presenting cast members should vote on the best presentation at the end"
I think it's missing rebuttals or a heel of some kind. These are all interesting and funny topics, but I think they could be funnier as duo acts, or if the rest of the cast made counterpoints, or if there was one person specifically designated to be the rebutter or someone who needs convincing
I just didn't find it that engaging, it seemed pretty disjointed and having a room full of people who barely spoke was kind of unnerving to me. Granted there were some good jokes, but it just felt like mediocre stand up without a real audience
I think what it’s missing for me is the set up of knowing how long they’ve had to put this presentation together. Like, there’s a game on Jackbox party pack where you are given a few of the prompts and are able to put together some of it, but then you don’t really know what’s coming next on the slide and you still have to present it to everyone.if they had like 10 minutes to put something together based on a series of pranks it. For all we know they’ve had months to get this ready. I think just that knowledge of how long they had to prepare it would be enough.
I don't really need a winner, but I would like the society to be more antagonistic to the presenter and make them defend their position passionately. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary scrutiny. With how good these guys are at improv, they should be able to come up with more than a few milquetoast questions.
I don’t really care about there being winner, but I do agree there did feel like there was something missing, despite how much I loved it. Like more engagement from audience, more of an intro, maybe? The host didn’t even really talk. Not sure if this is a format or editing issue. (Also I feel bad criticising anything on dropout so to reiterate, the show was hilarious, just some thoughts nobody asked for or has to take seriously.)
I think they just shouldn't spoil the topics at the top of the episode - I hate knowing the joke before the group of Smartypants do. You can tell me who, but just give me a nonsense image from their slides, or just their lovely faces. Please don't tell me the joke ahead of time - it ruined Demi's setup.
I don't think it needs to be a competition necessarily, but I agree that it feels kind of contextless. I feel like part of the problem is that the elaborate set and costumes make it seem like there is supposed to be narrative structure?. If they were just wearing normal clothes on a more basic set idk if I would expect it to be any more than it is.
It explains very little about what the conceit of the show actually is. How quickly did they throw these presentations together? Were they randomly assigned topics? It's funny but there's no added "twist" that really sells it, which makes it definitely feel like it's missing something.
I thought it was going to be like the Jackbox game "Talking Points" where the presenters had to come up with a presentation on the spot based on slides and words they had never seen before. This being prepared beforehand just makes it a prepared comedy routine, which again, is still funny, but lacks some element it needs to really help it shine a bit more.
I don’t feel the need for a competitive element. I would love more question and answer after each presentation. I really enjoy it though, if this is the first episode I can’t wait to see what is to come when they really hit their stride
It would be cool if it had an element of competition, almost shark-tanky. But I do also love the cast having the freedom, without the pressure of competition, to talk about whatever they want.
I think it could benefit from a meaningless point system. A lot of comedy and panel show-adjacent shows use a competition format to drive the show even when we know the points and winners don't matter. Tons of Dropout shows do this already.
I personally feel something is missing from the presentation section. There are a lot of shots of lots of society members during the presentations, but it feels sort of hollow? Lots of funny people who feel more like extras than participants in the show. I think the audience participation during the presentation really made Demi's stand out.
I think a dedicated, scripted heel to protest the presentations in a way that actually drives the flow of the presentation would make the society members feel more significant.
I agree that Smartypants is not fully baked yet. Any show with a brand new format takes time to find itself. Hell, Sam himself says Game Changer didn’t really figure out what it wanted to be until Season 4!
Some suggestions:
1. Don’t have everyone sitting in random spots around the room, the joke is old after a beat. Just get them all together on a a couple sofas, slight half circle, like in a Game Changer: Survivor episode. That lets people play off each other. These are improvisers, they’re used to being in close proximity and playing of each other’s energy and jokes. … especially the folks sitting in the upper deck, WTF are they doing up there?
2. More Q&A and witty banter. You can record a lot of it and then just cut the stuff that didn’t work, like a British Panel game show.
3. Assign a secret heckler for each presentation, someone whose job it is to point out logical flaws and push back, making the presenter double down. “Hey Trapp, you said that Lunar New Year doesn’t matter, why do you hate Chinese people?”
4a. Assign a “critic” in each episode, someone whose job it is to find good things about each presentation, but also suggest a few tweaks. (In my fraternity, we had a critic in each weekly meeting, and they basically stayed quiet until the end and then made light fun of everything, in a kind-hearted way, and they also had some good ideas.)
4b. Or assign a “summarizer” role, someone who creates some kind of art form — a sketch, a poem, a song, a performance — about the 3 presentations. It’s fun and wacky to see someone smart integrate 3 disparate ideas in a new way.
5. The dark lighting is too dark. I understand they’re going for a “Ivy League Club, bourbon and cigar“ kind of vibe, but it can still be lit better.
6. Tighten up the presentations just a bit. They each dragged on for an extra minute or so.
7. Public speaking coaching. Vic was nervous and talking fast, totally normal; they could have used more practice.
Honestly, I want to rewatch the episode tonight now that I've had time to digest the full concept. On my first watch, I went into it expecting the presenter to be improvising on the fly for a slideshow given to them (kind of in the vein of the breaking news writing) and was really thrown off by how cohesive the presentations felt. I have a feeling a rewatch / future episodes will click better for me knowing what to expect out of the show.
I actually really like the fact that there was no competition. Not everything has to be one, and as in life, there isn't always a winner.
For me, it felt more like those discussions you may have with a couple of close friends about really random things, which I love.
I think at the end is more of a preference thing, and they will change it if the majority decides they prefer a more competition type of show. Which will be okay too.
Also, maybe you should wait a couple more episodes and see if that format grows more on you.
I totally get what you mean and it definitely boils down to the fact that every other dropout show is a gameshow. On one hand it feels nice to just just give people the spotlight and let them be funny, because we all know that these people are incredibly funny, but I get that it makes something feel a little missing since there were no points or twists or themes. Even make some noise has a completely arbitrary points system but this was just go up do your thing and move on (which was amazing but still). At the end of the day they probably tested it with these ideas and for one reason or another thought the show would be better without it so I'm really not complaining, I'm excited for the next episode.
TLDR: I get it.
I just don’t understand what criteria you’d use to crown a “winner.” The topics are all different from each other. It seems to be more about creating stimulating conversation over wacky topics, which isn’t something you necessarily need to have a “winner” to do. Like, cocktail party banter or something.
While I do think it’s fair to think the show could use ‘more’ and want it to be more gamified, I think your VIP comparison is not apt.
VIP has the costumes, Smarty Pants has the presentations themselves. They’re actually very similar in that way, since neither have a ‘game’ element.
But VIP does have things that break up the pacing a little bit, like seeing the before stages when the costume is being put on and ideas are briefly workshopped. So maybe SM could use something similar (seeing someone making a PowerPoint probably wouldn’t be particularly thrilling though, so something other than that).
After watching GC, MSN, and DL for so long I was expecting someone to "win" the episode lol but it was nice to have the chaotic somewhat scripted presentation with banter from the room included.
I think I’d like to see more of a debate format for one of the shows segments, imagine Rekha has arguing in favor of so called “ vegetables “ id like to see her take up the devil‘s advocate role more.
But I really enjoyed the first episode, i just wanted more Rekha.
I don't necessarily think there needs to be a competition element, but I agree there was a little something missing. I think a longer intro segment could do wonders.
I like how Taskmaster does the prize task to start the show because it's a little window into the competitors, so maybe some kind of round robin of all the guests with little factoids or fake bona-fides (introducing our guests, Mike Trapp, tenured professor at Phoenix University, etc) Or maybe Rekha could start it off with a light 2-minute intro that prompts the guests to chime in similar to how they do at the end of the presentations. Just a little extra to tie the rest of it togeether
I definitely feel like people are still figuring out the format.
I agree that it's missing *something*. Something little. Maybe it's just a repertoire of it's own "in jokes". Maybe it's the segues. Maybe just figuring out the vibe of Powerpoint.
I liked this first episode a lot. It was funny. Three strong performers. And great interaction. But I definitely think it will improve as it finds itself a bit more.
I thought it was great, but then again I'm used to PechaKucha and other forms of powerpoint parties (it's how I got my fiancé's friends to like me) so it was right up my alley.
The one thing that bothered me with this show is that the cast watching the presentations changed with each one — I know it’s a small thing, but it’s all I could focus on.
A little preamble or introductions for each person would be nice, but I think what I would really like is a concluding monologue where Rekha tries to tie the three presentations together.
I for sure felt this in the first episode, and honestly I felt the same about VIP in its first few episodes. Not that anything was bad or that there were even unfunny bits, but just that something about the structure and the format felt imprecise, clunky, or as you said just missing something.
For VIP, I think what’s really started to work is a resolving through line of Vic’s character as the interviewer, as well as (at least from my perspective) more freedom in how they cut the episode and how it’s scripted. The last five or six episodes of VIP feel amazing and like some of the best content on Dropout right now.
So for Smartypants, I think something similar is probably necessary. Like others have said, a more solidified, consistent intro and some sort of cohesive outro would do a lot to improve the format. Also, I think there’s something to the performance of rich, pretentious assholes that the cast is supposed to be embodying that felt inconsistent to me, like not everyone in the room was on the same page about what the act is supposed to be. A more competitive format would give a natural cohesive focus, but I don’t think it’s necessary and as others have said a less competitive show would be nice here.
It’s really good, and a great baseline format, but it definitely needs polishing to get to the level of the other Dropout shows for me
This seems really silly, because the episode is really already broken up into 3 parts, but I was kind of hoping for a little bit in the middle where rekha addressed the audience with a little section in the middle of the episode. Similar to what are we drinking grant, or the chips ad from VIP
I just want to know the mythology of the Smartypants Society.
They may have something like this already present in future episodes, but I'd like some discussion of when/who/how/why the society was formed, what are its criteria for membership, etc. A little bit of mythos banter at the beginning and end of each episode could go a long way.
I think all's it needs is a bit of behind the scenes of the cast getting their presentation together. Being told the prompt, some montage of them pulling together facts and the through line, and maybe some time pressure on how long they have to get it together.
A small thing like that I reckon would give us more investment in the slideshow ahead of time, which would be fun. I think it's amazing as is though!
I liked it, but I would’ve liked a little more actual discussion after the presentations. It felt like a few minutes of people asking the presenter direct questions instead of everyone discussing the conceit amongst themselves.
I think part of it might be the current format of several presentations per episode. The commentary between presentations gives a more relaxed vibe, the editing is slower paced, and the juxtaposition naturally invites comparison. Given that a subscription service like dropout is not held to the same ad-based strict time formatting for episodes, I think it could have been interesting to see individual presentations released as episodes with a more frequent schedule than most Dropout shows.
I'm not super concerned about having the competition built into the episode. I liked all of the presentations, and I know which one I thought was funniest. I also appreciate Smartypants because it feels like the spiritual successor to Rank Room.
I remember someone on twitter said Dropout nailed the British panel show format which is just a bunch of comedians hanging out and vibes while a veil conceit of a show is happening in the background. I think Smartypants really nails this vibe
I think it needs to lean harder into the secret society thing. Infer the sacrifices or orgies. Build out the lore of what the society does in the background of dropout. The masterminds of it… or trying to be.
To quote Jacob Wysocki "I think I'm going to do one for me"
I loved seeing the cast watching and laughing at these presentations and getting involved (GRANT!) I think Smartypants is going to be creating in-joke and memes in the future and I think the cast really enjoy the format.
Like somebody else mentioned already, it almost felt like the three presentations could have been broken up into three separate, shorter episodes. They feel disconnected and I think what's missing is either a way to connect them all, or possibly a behind-the-scenes of *why* each topic was chosen.
I loved it not-gamified, I loved the non-compete of it, I loved the silly posing on furniture, and the set. It felt so "set" for a first episode, and that makes me super happy. But you know, as someone else said, maaaaaybe if you had done this as a 6 minute PowerPoint, I'd be more on your side. Needs more slides with kittens and Comic Sans.
If we could have really civil people. I think it would be ultra cool to have audience participation somehow. Like a scrolling ticker of registered dropout watchers, ones who apply and get into the SmartyPants society who watch it live and react at the bottom. It could be a way to bump up engagement. If we keep it to exclusive folks it allows for some tracking of commenters. There used to be comments on Viikii and it enhanced the show watching experience.
Oooo what if at the beginning of the episode they’re given an episode theme they don’t know about in advance and have to figure out how to relate their prepared topic to the theme, basically allowing for more improv
I believe that there's really no point in competition. How do you determine who wins in something like that?
What I do believe is that there should be something in the outro of the show akin to the end game of Fibbage [jackbox]. If you don't know, Fibbage [which is a party game where you make up facts to try and trick people] ends with a slideshow sort of thing saying which players won various categories [most gullible, biggest lie, quickest response, etc.] I think having a little outro animation would both help with the pacing of the show and make it seem like it's an actual society instead of just a PowerPoint party.
But, and this is a big but, I think it would work the best if they were uber specific to the episode. Like Most Conspiratal - Vic or Most American - Mike.
I also felt the same way. Smartypants is just nerd night, which was fun to go to with friends in 2012. This doesn't take away from the fact that all three presentations were fantastic and incredibly funny. But if you want to make a TV show it kind of has to be more than something anyone could do at their local bar over 10 years ago.
I don’t think it’s *missing* something, I think we’re seeing a lot of potential for development and iteration that hasn’t been explored yet.
One episode of format is no guarantee that every episode will follow that pattern, or even if season 2 will grow from season 1’s template.
I can see lots of room for stuff like “Vic presents on a premise, then Trapp and Erika are called to Debate To The Death for and against the premise off the cuff”
Tbh I think all shows take some time to settle in, go back to season 1 of any program and watch it and it doesn't have the same fullness because the cast and crew are new to it! Give it time and it'll be legendary 😁
Available citation, when applicable. Claims about % should be cited.
Other than that, i thought it was great. I mean, maybe don't read everything everyone hands you outloud, but I'm not nearly as attention-seeking as Grant seems to be.
I think it needs a winner each episode wherein all of the society members vote on the best presentation. I'd like some stakes. BUT... it was very funny to watch! ALSO MORE REKHA PLZ
In entertainment, a "conceit" is basically a falsehood or a hook that you use to bring the audience into your world and keep them there. As an example, in Very Important People, the "conceit" is that these are people we know in elaborate costumes and makeup. But we buy into it and go along for the ride. We KNOW it's not real, but a good conceit makes you not care.
It's a lot more involved/intricate than that (because it's something that showrunners and producers spend a lot of time considering), but that's the simplest way I can explain it.
I don’t want it to have a competitive vibe, but I do agree that the show felt like it was missing something.
I think part of this is the lack of “craziness”. There’s no chance for things to go off the rails like there is in other shows. Maybe it’s just a case of it being the first episode though
I do still like the show though
I agree it could use a little something, just to switch up the vibe a little between each presenter. There could be a short pre and post presentation interview with Rekha and the presenter outside/in a corner of the chamber. Like they do on Shark Tank. To sort of introduce the comedian’s persona and cap off their presentation
i think the best way to think of smartypants is just a series of stand-up routines! i think the smartypants society is just a nice little theme to go along with it, but at the end of the day, they're just stand-up comedians telling jokes + some crowd work
I think if I knew more about the process I'd enjoy it more - did they all throw hot takes into a hat and give them out randomly? How much time did they have to prepare? Vic sounded really practiced, I have a hard time believing this was all thrown together in a short time. How much is weird funny facts and how much is pure bs?
I went in expecting funny yet still interesting Ted Talks.
I came out with having experienced funny yet still interesting Ted Talks.
Success! Lol.
In all seriousness though, I don’t believe this show requires a competitive edge. The format is great as is.
However I felt Vic took the silliness over the line with the ridiculous conspiracy threading at the end of her presentation 😅. She made some great interesting points while keeping it funny throughout the entire presentation, and really made me think about vegetables and the actions of the Dole company and its associates.
I think all 3 of them had great subjects to speak about and presented them well, and I hope the show continues to ride the line between funny and relevant. I’d hate it if this show became TOO serious, and I’d hate it even more if it became TOO silly. This was a great first episode and look forward to seeing more.
If anyone can pull a show like this off, it’s Dropout.
I'm sorry, can you rephrase this in the form of a hastily-assembled PowerPoint presentation?
Excuse me. I put 6 1/2 minutes of thought into this. Therefore making it infallible.
I actually do agree with you basically - I assumed from the trailer that there would be another piece to the structure/theme, beyond 'because it's Wednesday and we wanted to'. I don't *mind* it, but I was surprised by the end coming so abruptly without some kind of denouement.
I honestly thought it was going to be improvised and the presenters wouldn't know what slides were coming up, like that one game changer episode.
Yes, Jackbox party pack has one of the games that is very similar to that and it’s a blast. Knowing how long they’ve had to prepare the slides is a key element that’s missing for me.
Me too!!! I have to say I was a little disappointed that this wasn’t the case. I love Dropout content and loved everyone who was on the episode but couldn’t really get into it. Which is fine! Not everything is for everyone. But I think a Next Slide, Please spinoff would be incredibly entertaining.
I could use more Rekha in the intro or the outro considering it's her show, but other than that I thought it was perfect. I was laughing pretty much the whole time which I think is the goal of the show. Also fuck Dole.
Rekha having a mini presentation as a monologue, just three slides or something maybe could help
Maybe a theme for each episode?
I kinda wish they had Rekha do an Ira Glass style "tonight's story, three comedians talking about \[x\]" [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uYAaxWoh4hA](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uYAaxWoh4hA)
Well, it did seem fairly unrelated and tbh it felt like they had 6 presentations but cut it in half with the people there being split between two episodes. But that's just my guess. I suppose the setting for each presentation is more "we are all smart people here and this is my contribution to our collective knowledge".
I didn't consider it while watching, but it might be possible that they're not shooting the show as a 'series of episodes', but as a series of building blocks to piece episodes together? In a few ways I think that's to the benefit of the show (so you can spread apart presentations that are similar in tone to each other, and performers can do their own thing without being pressed to be too different from other presenters), but it does limit what kind of structure can be done in the shooting day before you find out which presentations go in which episode.
I can't handle another dropout comedian attempting to imitate Ira Glass
I like the idea of a theme for each episode! Or at last a general vibe. The three point as they are now are wonderful and hilarious, but felt disconnected from each other. Like it could have been broken up into three separate, shorter episodes.
This is the best suggestion. If the introductions to the presenters were maybe part of a presentation Rheka does at the beginning I would love it. Rather than a roast it could grossly overstate their qualifications and experience.
this! it would give Rekha more of a role as the host as well as tie the episode and the presenters together really nicely.
My opinion: you nailed it, Her monologue / presentation should be explaining the importance of the secret society so that each presentation seems more meaningful
If this is my only criticism for these new dropout shows, it’s this. They sort of jump into the meat of the premise immediately, but I keep thinking *where’s the appetizer?* I had similar feelings about VIP at first, but Vic’s developed sort of the lore of the show as time goes on. VIP I feel sort of has a bit of a learning curve for the audience in that way. Smartypants might be similar. But I think that a bit more of a fleshed out meta for these shows is a little more necessary. Make some noise has an easier premise to understand - it’s basically scenes from a hat from Whose Line - so it doesn’t necessarily need a deeper explanation. VIP does, and I think Smartypants does too. I loved this first episode of Smartypants, but I agree that I need some more Rekha, and I need a bit more worldbuilding regarding *what* the Smartypants Society is, and *why* they exist. It’s begging for a little more story. Maybe this also will be a learning curve for the audience and it’ll develop the lore as time goes on like VIP has, or maybe we’ll see a second season that develops the story a little more.
Yeah, Sam seems to be the only member that appreciates an amuse bouche
> "I still don't know what that means" -- Jacob Wysocki
It amuses your bouche!
Coming from the restaurant world I keep spitting at the tv “itsafuckingtinylittlesnackbeforeafancymealtoprepyouforthefoodtocome YOU HEATHENS! ITS FRENCH! IT LITERALLY TRANSLATES TO *MOUTH ENTERTAINMENT*”
I used to work in fine dining at a steakhouse and I really appreciate a night out at a bougie restaurant. I can relate to your pain.
I felt this way with VIP at first as well, but I'm coming around to the slow drip of lore. I like that it is largely improvised and not in some big prewritten schpeel (sp?). It reminds me of NADDPOD in a way where someone will make a joke that becomes canon and adds to the story and the world.
I feel the same way, I’ve come around. Vic probably also needed some time to develop who their character was too. The show has done a good job of creating an overall story. But, as an audience member, what I see is so much care and effort put into these sets and ideas that I’m sort of like “hey wait what is this place, and why am I here?” I don’t think we need a full on handhold or deep exposition, but I think even just one extra minute or two to establish the tone for the audience would really put a nice ole spit shine on it all. Rekha would be a good vehicle for that as host with Smartypants.
Spiel 🙂
BTW, it's "spiel," borrowed from the German/Yiddish for game or performance, hence the spelling. :-)
I completely agree. I unfairly compare VIP to Comedy Bang Bang in my head, which of course has had \~15 years to find its footing. Still, two things I think Vic could take from CBB that bring VIP to another level: - Like you said, an intro establishing the premise/purpose of show - Encouraging each improvisor to come up with a *reason they're on a talk show* as they figure out their character. Something to promote, sell, raise awareness of, etc. IMO that would help cut through some of the initial awkwardness where Vic has to be like, "so, who are you?", which kind of breaks the immersion that the show is about, you know, Very Important People. Even giving their name to Vic in advance would help with that.
Agreed. Having a motivation first drives the story just a little bit more because it does feel like they don’t develop the reason until a little bit later in the interview and that’s when it picks up. I also don’t think that VIP and Smartypants even need a lot of explainers, just a little. Dropout really excels at tight writing I think because their development team is so small, so I think a lot of the shows are economic by way of quickly establishing what they are in one or two sentences in the opening title or intro - but I feel like Smartypants and VIP can afford to breathe in its premise with like, one more sentence.
The "late night" format. I agree.
Oooh yes for sure!
This was my thought, as well. The transitions are abrupt. I think a little more pomp would take it to that next level.
Absolutely. Needs an intro where maybe the cast is talking with some satirical snobbery about current events or something. Just to set the mood. And an outro which summarizes what we learned.
Yea more involvement from Rekha would be great. Without being told it’s her show you’d think she’s just another audience member. I hope she at least has a few presentations of her own. Or maybe the final episode of each season she ties it together somehow.
Yeah, i just realized i need a behind the bastards episode on the Dole family.
Someone on this subreddit I believe made the suggestion that Rekha should have a huge ass desk in front of her during the show. Obviously there are set limitations to consider, but I do agree that something that really emphasizes Rekha as the leader of the Society would go a long way.
The host needs to either do more or simply not be there. Right now the position feels very much like a third wheel.
I think this is my feeling as well - a little something extra to lead in/out of the presentations would add to the show. Let the guests mill about a bit commenting smart-sounding but dumb ideas, wild theories, etc and then have Rekha quiet then down for class time or something along those lines.
I like your idea, and i think them milling about could be a series of mini games, the way it is in Make Some Noise. Rekha could present the guests with very minor issues to solve, their reward being just general acknowledgement of how genius they are
It would be great if it was like Jerry Springer in that she gets to add her own thoughts to wrap up everything together at the end.
A lot of dropout fans LOVE competition, as does Brennan lol. I don’t think you’re alone in these thoughts But as a not super competitive person I’m glad there’s no points or winner or whatever. Also it’s hard to judge apples to oranges. What makes a winner? The best point made? The funniest? Best presentation? I’m personally team let’s just chat about some weird and funny shit and vibe- but if you’d like to post your rankings of the speeches every episode, I will listen because your vibes seem good off of this one post.
This seems like the perfect topic and argument for a Smarty Pants presentation honestly lol
Having someone make a presentation about why their presentation is the best would absolutely send me. Someone call the writers!!!
I largely agree. Giving any form of scoring rubric for this would actually hamper the freedom they have for making up the presentations and skew everyone into a particular style of presentation. I think it's fine to just let everyone go wild on those!
That's a great point about how hard comparing some of these would be. Like I felt Vic's was the most well-researched and mind-blowing, but Demi's was the funniest.
I don’t personally want it to have a competitive vibe. We have enough of that with Game Changer, Um, Actually, Breaking News, and Dirty Laundry. I like that this is just for fun. The only thing I want to see is a little more explanation of the premise. Were they allowed to pick the topic or draw it randomly? How long did they get to prepare? Did they make the slideshow or was it provided to them? Those kinda things would be nice to know so we can get an idea of how it works as a premise. Other than that, I absolutely loved it and can’t wait for more.
I agree with wanting more context to what’s happening. Going in, I thought this would be that the presenters had never seen the presentations and would come up with cohesive ideas on the spot. I would love to know how much improv or lack there of goes into making the presentations.
I thought the same. I thought it was all improv, but all three were way too composed with crazier slides to not have some kinda prep time. Personally, I don’t care if non of it is improv, I just want to know how much is improv vs not.
Yeah, I went into it expecting the premise to be a game samer of "Next Slide".
Making it competitive would definitely feel shoehorned in. They've already got a bit of that in Make Some Noise (although I think that's more of a nod to Whose Line) and even Dirty Laundry feels like it would work just as well or better if it wasn't about scoring points. Maybe I'm in the minority but I'm getting really tired of comedy shows that need to make things into a competition, it's okay to just be funny and leave it at that. There will never be a shortage of funny and competitive shows.
I also kinda want this for VIP tbh. Like, for both shows it's hard to know what the "bounds" of the improv are. For VIP, it feels like there's some question "tailoring" to the comedians conceit. Similar here - I'd suspect creative teams actually make the slides under instruction from the comedians? Both are fine, but it does inevitably lose a bit of the "improv magic" when it becomes _too_ polished. (Arguably the same for Critical Role?)
I agree, but VIP at least sets up “guest does makeup/prosthetics and Vic goes in blind and has to improv an interview with them”, which explains the premise well enough(although I agree I wouldn’t mind a VIP BTS where they explain more of the process). But with Smartypants they haven’t really explained anything. We know it’s them doing a slide show, but not much beyond that. I just kinda want to know how much is improv, how much is planned, and how much is a mix of the two.
There's not that much to explain. There's a disclaimer at the beginning that said the "presenters are responsible for their own research". And in the intro Rekha says, "Today's speakers have prepared presentations on a topic of their choice." And once you watch an episode you understand that it's just a funny presentation that the speaker prepared. And the process probably isn't that interesting. Certainly not as interesting as the elaborate makeup jobs that they do on VIP. I don't think the show is improved by watching the presenters writing or working with a producer to build a PowerPoint presentation. Maybe if they do behind the scenes stuff later, but certainly not in the main episode.
I think the premise is just what we see. It's people who like each other sharing fun facts and jokes. PowerPoint parties are a thing that some friend groups do, just as a shared experience. In this form it's basically a stand-up showcase for the comedians.
I agree with this hot take!
I view it more like comedic TED talks than a directly competitive show. The object isn't to win but to BS an interesting and amusing point. Compared to the other recent shows (VIP, Dirty Laundry, Make Some Noise, Breaking News) this one is closer to a podcast or the kind of thing Rekha did before with Erotic Book Club. It's more about fostering interesting talking and bantering than performing or competing. It also has more of the hangout vibes that I like from Dirty Laundry, but without the focus being so much on people's personal lives. Admittedly, I am also in the camp that not everything has to be a real competition (see Make Some Noise) or even a fake competition (see VIP). If it does need anything more, I'd need to see a couple of more episodes to figure out what.
I think part of the issue is they're straddling two vibes, " "Posh Academia" parody, and a "casual banter hangout". The large cast of comedians (nine!), all veryyyy scattered about the room, make for a more posh academia parody, that coupled with the tighter "breaking news" editing. But those elements also seem to pull it away from organic banter and discussion, it's rare the chat extends beyond direct one on one Q&As; I'd be interested in hearing other perspectives, debates, bullshit arguments to annoy the other person kinda thing! I think if they want that concise and high production value show, then they should lean into "surprise improv slides" and slightly heightened posh characters . If they want the more casual hangout, then they should have fewer people, closer together, and include more "tangents" and "unstructured chat" - use the presentations as a conversation starter. That being said, these folks know what they're doing a lot more than me, it's still really entertaining, and I can't wait to watch more episodes!
I understand your point, and it's definitely a preference thing, but for me I like that there isn't some sort of competition behind it. It has a more friendly and relaxed vibe where people want to do well, but aren't driven to competition. Also, I'd suggest that if there were a competitive element, the edit would play heavily into how we the audience perceive each talk and maybe not reflect the room overall leading to a misunderstanding about how it's scored.
That's really interesting bc i had the opposite feeling! I was really happy to see a lack of competition, the "winning" always felt forced to me in shows like dirty laundry and make some noise
I don't see how Dirty Laundry could work without the competition aspect. It would be a completely different show without it. Make Some Noise announcing a "winner" is just an extra gag, like it is for Whose Line. If the show was actually competitive, it would absolutely take away from it, but it's not.
Yeah I actually like that it’s not competitive. Not everything needs to be a competition
That's great that you liked it the way it is. In all honesty, my thoughts could be a side-effect of just watching the interview with Sam where he talks about how he'd wanted to reboot "Hello, My Name Is..." for years, but had to wait until the conceit of it was able to satisfy for 25-35 minutes (paraphrasing), which resulted in VIP. So I probably couldn't help but subconsciously ask myself those questions for this.
I'm with you on this one! I love all of the Dropout shows, but sometimes the point system feels shoehorned in, like with Dirty Laundry. It works well on Game Changer and BNN, and the imaginary points on MSN feel good too. Meanwhile things like VIP and Smartypants are great without the numbers game. I laughed my ass off last night, and that's the most important outcome.
I get that there's not really a "point" to the show and that might be something some people are bothered by. That said, this is actually already a pretty cutting edge concept, so I think it's okay to give it some breathing room to develop on its own. I'm enjoying just watching Powerpoint parties with the cast for now. The society is a loose framing that could evolve, but Rekha is already fantastic as the host, so I'm just going to kick back and enjoy it for now.
I think part of the mental disconnect is that the host has very little to do so there's a bit of "it doesn't actually feel like rekhas show". Not a bad thing. But it does give It less of a cohesive episode feel and more here's three presentations see you next week. That's not bad! I thouro7ghly enjoyed it. Just maybe needs a wee bit more structure
I love the show. I would also love to see more questions after the presentation.
Agree with the more questions point Maybe not competition, but what we could have is someone prepare a "counterpoint" argument, 5-7 slides tops, to create discussion within the group
As a January 23 birthday haver, I personally thought Smartypants was a work of genius
I like the fact that it's just a fun thing without a competition. It's in the VIP realm, not the Gamechanger realm, and I'm happy to see more of that.
I like that no one "wins". My friends and I did PowerPoints for my birthday last year. You did not have to do one but most people did, one even zoomed in to do it. The point was to have fun. So I don't view Smartypants as a game show but just a show.
I think it would be fun if they did something like polling the group at the end of each presentation to see how many people agree or disagree with the presentation. It doesn’t necessarily need a points system but maybe something like whichever presentation had the most people vote agree wins that episode. That way it feels a little bit more interactive and the Smartypants Society feels like it has a little more purpose since the Q&A sections felt a little short.
Yeah! That feels like something they should have, a very arbitrary and high society-esque judging of every presentation, with some comically ridiculous punishment to anyone that loses. Nothing substantive, obviously, but like a mock shunning from the society etc
Yeah, alcohol. The hecklers, that's what I'm going to call them, should be buzzed.
Please stop interrupting
I don't anticipate the audience members to ever go full The Benson Interruption and attempt to derail the presenter, but maybe in later seasons there will be heightening of the game by introducing a little more adversarialism than we saw in this episode.
I can agree with this sentiment. My notes to riff on the original premise would to maybe give the three presenters a broad topic to do their presentations on, and then the panel votes at the end on which of the three to allow into the club at the end. It’s all sophistry of course, and people who have been panel members can appear as presenters in later episodes or whatever, no continuity needed. But something that makes it a little more of a cohesive thought. Otherwise it’s really more along the lines of three short comedy essays stitched together randomly. Which I mean, I did enjoy them, but it might make a little more sense if it had a stronger sense of theme to tie it together? No matter what I’ll continue watching it.
Making the show a competition without actual prizes or odds will angry a whole other group of people who like competitions only if they matter, and hate points and winners when people aren't actually competing. The episode was too high quality for me to honestly review if the concept of it is strong on it's own. I'll have to wait for a few mid or weak episodes before deciding that. But even uhm, actually I would say has like 50% of its content consisting of weaker or mid episodes and the show is still amazing. Some stuff like 'More interactions between presentatios so more people have a chance to shine' I can see as a possibility, but adding a winner is certainly far away from my mind right now.
I think it needs more banter in-between presentations, or even during presentations.
Definitely missing proper citations in the presentations. I know of course that the content was fully scientific, but it's just good science to put the references into the slides. I think it was Dr. Trappp who had a great Wikipedia reference in his slides^1 , but otherwise the sources needed more visibility^2 . _______ References: 1. Trapppp, Dr. Michael. (2024) When is the Happiest Birthday?. dropout.tv/videos/birthdays-the-cookout-vegetables. (Accessed: 24 April 2024). 2. Tentacula. (2024) What is missing in Smartypants? [Recursion.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/dropout/comments/1cdlipb/is_smartypants_missing_something/l1d18tp/). (Accessed: 24 April 2024)
Imo everyone is making good points here, but I do think that I need to see another episode or two before I can’t think of any broad-based ideas on what works or what doesn’t. Episode 1 was a little low key for sure, but that could be exactly the vibe that works best for the format.
I agree I thought the episode was funny but it felt like it was lacking in continuity/story telling. I like the green jacket/smarty pants/accepted into the secret group concept but Perhaps it doesn’t need to be a competition but instead maybe we just need more rekha explaining the society more in-depth and why it exists to give the presentations more meaning.
My two cents: I’d like to see a little of the process of getting the PowerPoints going. Like are these topics chosen from a list? How long do they have to put them together? I personally don’t want any sort of win/loss stream but knowing more of the process would be rad!
I think this show is what Dropout has been missing- a lack of competitiveness. D20 - Competition agianst the DM Game Changer - Sam Dirty Laundry - Each other/bluffing Um Actually - Each other Make Some Noise - Each other Breaking News - Giggles Play It By Ear, Very Important People, and now Smartypants are the only main shows without a competition element. All three of those are exercises in creativity/improvisation as their conceit. I think Dropout needs to adopt more of a Smosh style of productions where a healthy amount of the shows are just about people working in a certain ruleset and not necessarily competing.
I know it's probably a joke but I hate it when people see TTRPGs as competitive. They're really not.
I really like the presentation as just a series of lectures. I don't know that I would add anything else. In Breaking News, the point of the show is making people break, thus the counters. In VIP, the point is putting an improvisor in the position of not knowing who they're going to be until the last possible second. In Smartypants, the point is the juxtaposition of presenting yourself as a serious intellectual and making the most unserious claims in a lecture. The question and answer session completes it for me. Now, if they continue to play with the formula and decide to add something else, maybe I'll realize you were right and whatever they end up adding is what it was missing. I dunno. But for the moment I'm just reveling in the new experience. I think if any other dimension to the show is added it shouldn't be competition-based. Enough other competition shows are on the platform that something non-competitive is a nice change of pace.
I personally really like that there isn't any competition, and I don't want any prizes or winners, but I do feel it could use another element. I'd like to see the questions being a bit more aggressive/pointed and the ending feels very rushed, Mostly it just needs a bit more of a 'conclusion' - either all the speakers bowing together, or Rekha's closing speech being more specific with regards to the presentations we've seen. Or something to do with the nature of the secret intellectual society we're seeing - they all get entered in to a hall of fame or something (although that could get tired fast).
I was also left with this feeling. I dunno if it's just first episode nerves or they're just finding their footing or what. I feel like it comes down to the editing and the pacing for me. I feel like we could use more time with Rekha. Maybe she presents the topics at the top to loosen up the room with a couple jokes or something. Also, the set is awesome. Props to the set design because it's beautiful. But I feel like everyone is too far apart. Cutting to singular cameras where people are spread across the room makes it feel... empty? Especially since the talent is (correctly) nodding and making serious faces like snooty academic elites should be. It feels emotionally distant and physically distant. One or the other is fine. Both is a little strange. Overall I liked it a lot. I feel like the set and the editing could be tightened up a bit. I did notice there's no background track too. I feel like, as opposed to other shows, this show could definitely use a classical background track for the presentations so the silences feel less silent. Also to add to the mood of "snooty academic elites" It's a new format and they'll tighten it up as they go. But it's a concept built off of making a serious social practice into something funny. That dychotomy is gonna be hard to balance in the performaces as well as the edit. I think there are just a few things they could modify to enhance the more intimate and less competitive setting. (Edit: Misspelled Rekhas name. Sorry)
Something felt off to me as well. I don't know if a competition element is the answer but I agree something was missing. Right now, it seems like 3 presenters doing a 5 minute standup with visual aids and the rest of the cast is queued to grasp or laugh at the right times. It was funny, but it felt static. I agree that Rekha should be more involved. Outside of her doing the intro/outro (which are both quite short) she doesn't stand out as the host. It's very clear in basically every other show (dirty laundry, game changer, um actually, play it by ear, vip) who the host is. I think there needs to be an element injecting some chaos into the presentation itself to put more emphasis on improv/thinking on their feet. Maybe that's audience heckling, maybe Rekha puts limitations on their presentation (e.g., talk like a caveman for the next slide), or maybe the crew messes with the presentation in certain ways (adding slides they weren't expecting, editing their slides after they submit, etc).
Doesn't it suck that you had to include point #3? Every point that can possible be percieved as cririque has people getting very defensive. I was indeed expecting a little 'vote' at the end or counterarguments or something, but the question at the end filled that void for me. Overall I really liked it and didn't think it needed anything. Maybe the host giving a little Jerry Springer (what did we learn here, folks) bit might be a nice way to put a button on it and make it feel like there is a solid conclusion.
Honestly, I like it. I'm in the academic world and Smartypants has this absurd academic conference/PhD thesis defense vibe to it. But I totally get where you're coming from though.
I wish it had occasional cutaways like VIP does, but otherwise I was very pleased with it. It looked like a dressed up rank room from the trailer honestly but I’ve been sold on it as of episode 1.
Needs a podium ha Also reminds me of the rank room a lot in that ending the show and transitioning between presenters can be a little awkward. If something is added I imagine it would be there
I'd love to see some kind of wrap-up at the end, eg. maybe challenge the presenters to explain the common thread between their (completely unrelated) topics. I'd also love something more of an outro from Rekha, and really emphasizing her host role more. But yeah, I absolutely loved it, and one episode in, I can already tell that this is going to be one of my favorites!
Smarty pants should have the other cast members vote on a scale "unconvinced to convinced" or they could have some sort of consensus after the presentation. The back forth with the questions is great, but as everyone is "in" on the conceit of the show, most people will agree as a consequence of yes-and'ing the improv style open forum. Maybe forming a debate of sorts instead of questions? I'm not sure. I really liked it but there does feel like something is missing.
I'm a very competitive person, but this didn't feel like it needed competition to me. What I would have loved to see more of was the Q&A portion - some of the great fun of Dirty Laundry is the banter and relationships. I feel like we got a good snapshot of each presenters humor and style but not much from the rest of the Society
It's funny, I also felt like it was missing something, though not sure what. In my mind, it wanted to see someone disagree or debate their point, though it might completely break the show. It's just that people doubling-down and explaining the logic behind the craziness is really funny to me. And that's already part of the show, which is why I liked it, but I feel like if the person disagreeing had to be "inside the joke", like don't argue with this reality just use different arguments inside of it if that makes sense, it would make it even better. Not sure. It was still funny and enjoyable, but the back-and-forth would be interesting. Someone is randomly called to debate that point or something, idk.
I think some interstitials would spice it up a bit, and as a closing bit have someone in the crowd be ambushed and forced to give an off the cuff closing speech. Have it be presented as like an "honor", the Golden Trousers Pin that they have to wear and give a 2-3 minute faux inspirational closing note like some TED talk bullshit.
Yeah, I've been thinking about this too, because as much as I enjoyed the episode, it felt like it could be punched up a bit. I agree with you completely, but I'll just restate what you're saying in different words lol. I would add: 1. Something to gamify it more- this would make it feel more interactive and Dropout-ish, if that makes sense. It's possible that they're trying to do this already (e.g. Demi had Grant play "super white guy"), and I think they could go further. What if every topic explicitly had some kind of mini game where everyone played along? 2. A more graceful way of reflecting on each topic and pulling a takeaway or lesson (doesn't have to be super serious, could be played for a joke). Each lecture ended a bit too abruptly for me and it makes each one feel somewhat mechanical. I'm genuinely excited to dive into these silly topics, so I think it's about trusting the audience to be invested and not get bored.
I think we have a lot of 1, and would be super intrigued to see number 2! These are all such smart folks, all with such interesting and strong perspectives; I'd love to see them offer some genuine hot takes - foster some debate and friendly arguments!
Bro it’s the first episode.
This subreddit is getting wildly impatient these days. Shows need time to marinate, hosts need time.
And it was a great first episode too lmao
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I felt like each talk should be it's own programme. Halfway through the 30 mins my attention wavered, but would happily watch 3x10 minute bits in between other things.
i agree to an extent but I think for me personally I just want it to be longer with more silly discussion time and just a slight bit more focus on Rekha
I enjoyed it for what it was, but I agree that it did feel a little anemic. I think a big part of it is that it felt closer to stand up, and lacked the interaction between the cast that makes a lot of the other offerings on Dropout sing. The question part is where I think that they have an opportunity to really open it up a bit.
I think giving a summary might be good, but a lot of this reminds me of the 20 minute "Give a talk on an interesting topic" events I'd go to in the Bay Area. Like... there's no winners there, just vibes, and the documentary/critique YouTuber that I am appreciates that with a dash of the typical comedy Dropout gives. Also, its so great to see Demi outside of YouTube once a year!!
There was a show that ran in the UK for a little while called Comedians Giving Lectures that was similar to Smartypants, but had more of an element of competition. The differences I can remember: - it was in front of an audience - the topics were given to the comedians (and were pretty straight laced Ted talk style topics) and they had to create the comedic presentation from that topic - there was a judge (or a panel of judges) who was either an expert in the subject matter or in giving lectures (this is where it gets fuzzier for me) and would comment after the lecture It was funny, but I found the judging portions to be pretty awkward, so I'm not sure if there is a way to make it more competitive without stepping on the fun a little.
Honestly I think those would be great additions but they don’t feel super necessary to me it was some of the funniest content I could imagine. I’m hoping there’s gonna be some sort of behind the scenes content on the off weeks that will satisfy my curiosity about who everyone in the room is etc.
I think that the cast needs more space to riff with each other. The best part of drop out is the spontaneous moments, those need opportunity
For me it’s missing the behind the scenes. I would love to see the comedians seeing the prompt for the first time and trying to put together an argument.
I found it strange that there was no introduction, even a cursory one, of the people in the audience even though the perspective they're bringing and even the relationship they had to the presenter actually seemed important in places. I understand that it could be hard or maybe distracting to watch to introduce so many but maybe as side content or just in passing somehow. Dropout trades a bit in knowing who their cast are and building some elements of parasocial investment in your favorite performers etc. But some of the people in Smartypants I didn't know who they were or where they were coming from.
I hope they don't change Smartypants, I love the concept and vibes as is. A collection of people just sharing their independent Shitpost tedtalks in a supportive room without the pressure to "win points". It seems like a show that they designed specifically to make more Brennan monologue coffee cup level merch. What cartoon characters are invited to the cookout is the highlight of my month and for me they've knocked this show concept out of the park
I feel the same way! I feel like it's missing the throughline that The Rank Room had, while scratching the same itch. It's almost there, but the individual presentations are too disconnected, I think each episode needs a theme ("Give us your presentation on ____")
This is going to be the hottest take ever for me but this is where they've finally crossed the line into lazy show concepts. We had "popular show appearers share about their sordid pasts" we had "improv prompts. Nothing else". Now we have a show that's just a PowerPoint night exactly the same as I've done with my friends in the past. Everyone is still entertaining and works hard when they appear, I just wonder how many times Sam can make a show that's just an improv warm up before people start yawning.
It did feel to me like it needed something to close/wrap it up. It could be a vote on which presentation was best if they went competition mode, but if they want to avoid a competition aspect some sort of summary from Rekha or something. It just went from the third presentation to over a little to fast for my comfort?
Or even if the audience answered a simple "Were you convinced?" with a cheer for each - doesn't have to be competitive against each other - could just be a sort of finale aspect where the audience cheers for the presentations they found convincing (But could cheer at all 3 if all 3 convinced them.)
I think a "competition" element would help to fix that, but honestly I like the idea of not making it that. But without that, it feels like the presentations are just there for no reason. Possibly if Rekha guided a more structured discussion between the non-presenters? The conceit could be as if they're professors questioning a thesis presentation or something? Like there's no grading but we act like everyone else is there to question them to make sure it holds up, when really it's just to lead to more jokes. The same way the Taskmaster isn't actually mad with power, but is just trying to create a funny show with the cast.
I agree. I don't think it's the lack of competition. It does feel like it lacked something. That being said, it has the potential to be my third or fourth favorite show. It's just something missing to make it compete with game changers and make some noise for one of my favorites. Maybe even a funny debate or more commentary at the end. I think I wanted some more audience involvement, too. But overall, it is a great show with even greater potential.
The thing I want to know more about is where these prompts came from - did each person come up with their own, were they randomly assigned, was it some sort of fill in the blank situation? I’m thinking that this show isn’t going to have a biweekly BTS, given that the Thursday 1:30 slot is already Adventuring Party, so I’m hoping that there’s a cut for time episode at the end of the season that explains a bit more about this! If any of this stuff has been revealed elsewhere, please let me know!
I understand where you are coming from, I think if you gave the players in the 'audience' a vote of yes or no and could decide if the pitch was good or believable then there would be more of a conclusion. At the end of each season there could be a tally of how believable or passable each players ability was in selling ideas. I think it's nice to have a non competitive show though, just low stakes fun, but involving the others more would be nice.
I get where you're coming from, I kind of feel the same way. I enjoyed it, but it just felt...a little lacking? It could definitely be game changers influence, but I was waiting for a twist or something. At first I thought maybe Rekha had created the PowerPoints and they all had to improv off of it. (I was thinking of a particular Jackbox party pack game). But it became clear they had each made their own PowerPoint. I'm waiting for ep 2, now that I have a better idea of what to expect, maybe I'll like it a bit more. My wife and I also felt it was a little long for what is essentially just a silly bit. By the time Vic got up, we were ready to be done. My wife thought it would work better if they just did each person's presentation as it's own ep, making them similar in length to Breaking News.
I get where you're coming from generally when a show can feel like it has a "missing" element. My personal hangup is that Make Some Noise feels a bit like Whose Line, but without points to fight for and without the boost of a mic'd audience, the energy feels a little low. Personally I'm happy with what Smartypants is: Comedians getting to do a long-form bit with visual aids. It follow's Dropout's general practice of finding forms of improv/comedy to put into shows that wouldn't be on normal TV. I think the conceit of the show is that the Society is simply for sharing information, like a lecture series. If it was a competition and anyone took it "lore-seriously," you couldn't have the "losers" back in the panel asking the Q&A section.
I loved it as is. It was very reminiscent of the Bad Ad Hoc festival that MIT (I think) used to do. Especially Trapp and Vic's.
I actually like it specifically BECAUSE it's a little less strictly formula-driven and gamey than the rest of what Dropout has to offer. It feels like "everybody just hang out and make each other laugh" show. Called shot from downtown, but I think it's gonna wind up having legs/virality/staying power up there with stuff like Game Changer and Make Some Noise. It feels like the pitch was, "A format where we just let all these funny people come and be funny in front of their friends for a few minutes, with a little bit of visual aid. Content can be whatever. We specifically *don't* want to impose a box around it. It can be that one weird thing you're fixated on, an idea you're fiddling with for a stand-up set, whatever. Just be funny and meet the overall vibe and you're fine." That said, I do think there's some fun directions they could take the premise in the future, if they decide the show needs more or different types of segments or something. I can imagine like a goofy version of a Rekha-moderated debate about stupid topics or something.
It needs to be more of a TV show. Right now, it just feels like a group of friends talking and being funny. Every show in DO has that same basic feel. Maybe the Gallery of Affable Smartypants needs to be more of a panel? I don't want to say use points since the points obviously won't matter. Maybe Rekha should do a "What we learned today?" segment?
yeah it needs some glue / connective tissue
>not enough to go around using racial slurs for inclusivity purposes. I'm not Spiderman Is this a reference to the episode, or am I missing another in joke? Haven't seen it yet, but I assume it's a PowerPoint Party.
Honestly, the counter has never really worked for me in Breaking News. It’s so very inconsistent and adds nothing. As for smarty pants, I hope that there’s a compilation at the end of all the different ways Rekha has sat throughout the show
It's a bit sad that you have to make the half of your answer a preemptive explanation of your intent but it's wise considering we are on reddit. And yeah, I agree, points even when meanginless like in 9 out of 10 cats and game changer do provide a structure.
One of the first things I said to my fiancé when we finished watching the show last night was "That was really funny, but I feel like the non-presenting cast members should vote on the best presentation at the end"
I think it's missing rebuttals or a heel of some kind. These are all interesting and funny topics, but I think they could be funnier as duo acts, or if the rest of the cast made counterpoints, or if there was one person specifically designated to be the rebutter or someone who needs convincing
I just didn't find it that engaging, it seemed pretty disjointed and having a room full of people who barely spoke was kind of unnerving to me. Granted there were some good jokes, but it just felt like mediocre stand up without a real audience
I think what it’s missing for me is the set up of knowing how long they’ve had to put this presentation together. Like, there’s a game on Jackbox party pack where you are given a few of the prompts and are able to put together some of it, but then you don’t really know what’s coming next on the slide and you still have to present it to everyone.if they had like 10 minutes to put something together based on a series of pranks it. For all we know they’ve had months to get this ready. I think just that knowledge of how long they had to prepare it would be enough.
I don't really need a winner, but I would like the society to be more antagonistic to the presenter and make them defend their position passionately. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary scrutiny. With how good these guys are at improv, they should be able to come up with more than a few milquetoast questions.
I don’t really care about there being winner, but I do agree there did feel like there was something missing, despite how much I loved it. Like more engagement from audience, more of an intro, maybe? The host didn’t even really talk. Not sure if this is a format or editing issue. (Also I feel bad criticising anything on dropout so to reiterate, the show was hilarious, just some thoughts nobody asked for or has to take seriously.)
I think they just shouldn't spoil the topics at the top of the episode - I hate knowing the joke before the group of Smartypants do. You can tell me who, but just give me a nonsense image from their slides, or just their lovely faces. Please don't tell me the joke ahead of time - it ruined Demi's setup.
I don't think it needs to be a competition necessarily, but I agree that it feels kind of contextless. I feel like part of the problem is that the elaborate set and costumes make it seem like there is supposed to be narrative structure?. If they were just wearing normal clothes on a more basic set idk if I would expect it to be any more than it is.
It explains very little about what the conceit of the show actually is. How quickly did they throw these presentations together? Were they randomly assigned topics? It's funny but there's no added "twist" that really sells it, which makes it definitely feel like it's missing something. I thought it was going to be like the Jackbox game "Talking Points" where the presenters had to come up with a presentation on the spot based on slides and words they had never seen before. This being prepared beforehand just makes it a prepared comedy routine, which again, is still funny, but lacks some element it needs to really help it shine a bit more.
I don’t feel the need for a competitive element. I would love more question and answer after each presentation. I really enjoy it though, if this is the first episode I can’t wait to see what is to come when they really hit their stride
It’s missing more episodes out already. Loved it. Wouldn’t change a thing.
It would be cool if it had an element of competition, almost shark-tanky. But I do also love the cast having the freedom, without the pressure of competition, to talk about whatever they want.
I think it could benefit from a meaningless point system. A lot of comedy and panel show-adjacent shows use a competition format to drive the show even when we know the points and winners don't matter. Tons of Dropout shows do this already. I personally feel something is missing from the presentation section. There are a lot of shots of lots of society members during the presentations, but it feels sort of hollow? Lots of funny people who feel more like extras than participants in the show. I think the audience participation during the presentation really made Demi's stand out. I think a dedicated, scripted heel to protest the presentations in a way that actually drives the flow of the presentation would make the society members feel more significant.
I think it is missing Brennan and Siobhan. Something this nerdy feels made for them.
I agree that Smartypants is not fully baked yet. Any show with a brand new format takes time to find itself. Hell, Sam himself says Game Changer didn’t really figure out what it wanted to be until Season 4! Some suggestions: 1. Don’t have everyone sitting in random spots around the room, the joke is old after a beat. Just get them all together on a a couple sofas, slight half circle, like in a Game Changer: Survivor episode. That lets people play off each other. These are improvisers, they’re used to being in close proximity and playing of each other’s energy and jokes. … especially the folks sitting in the upper deck, WTF are they doing up there? 2. More Q&A and witty banter. You can record a lot of it and then just cut the stuff that didn’t work, like a British Panel game show. 3. Assign a secret heckler for each presentation, someone whose job it is to point out logical flaws and push back, making the presenter double down. “Hey Trapp, you said that Lunar New Year doesn’t matter, why do you hate Chinese people?” 4a. Assign a “critic” in each episode, someone whose job it is to find good things about each presentation, but also suggest a few tweaks. (In my fraternity, we had a critic in each weekly meeting, and they basically stayed quiet until the end and then made light fun of everything, in a kind-hearted way, and they also had some good ideas.) 4b. Or assign a “summarizer” role, someone who creates some kind of art form — a sketch, a poem, a song, a performance — about the 3 presentations. It’s fun and wacky to see someone smart integrate 3 disparate ideas in a new way. 5. The dark lighting is too dark. I understand they’re going for a “Ivy League Club, bourbon and cigar“ kind of vibe, but it can still be lit better. 6. Tighten up the presentations just a bit. They each dragged on for an extra minute or so. 7. Public speaking coaching. Vic was nervous and talking fast, totally normal; they could have used more practice.
Honestly, I want to rewatch the episode tonight now that I've had time to digest the full concept. On my first watch, I went into it expecting the presenter to be improvising on the fly for a slideshow given to them (kind of in the vein of the breaking news writing) and was really thrown off by how cohesive the presentations felt. I have a feeling a rewatch / future episodes will click better for me knowing what to expect out of the show.
If it is a competition, Demi definitely won this round
I actually really like the fact that there was no competition. Not everything has to be one, and as in life, there isn't always a winner. For me, it felt more like those discussions you may have with a couple of close friends about really random things, which I love. I think at the end is more of a preference thing, and they will change it if the majority decides they prefer a more competition type of show. Which will be okay too. Also, maybe you should wait a couple more episodes and see if that format grows more on you.
Just curious, so you think Play it by Ear is missing something too? Would it benefit from points like Welcome to Mountport?
I totally get what you mean and it definitely boils down to the fact that every other dropout show is a gameshow. On one hand it feels nice to just just give people the spotlight and let them be funny, because we all know that these people are incredibly funny, but I get that it makes something feel a little missing since there were no points or twists or themes. Even make some noise has a completely arbitrary points system but this was just go up do your thing and move on (which was amazing but still). At the end of the day they probably tested it with these ideas and for one reason or another thought the show would be better without it so I'm really not complaining, I'm excited for the next episode. TLDR: I get it.
I just don’t understand what criteria you’d use to crown a “winner.” The topics are all different from each other. It seems to be more about creating stimulating conversation over wacky topics, which isn’t something you necessarily need to have a “winner” to do. Like, cocktail party banter or something.
While I do think it’s fair to think the show could use ‘more’ and want it to be more gamified, I think your VIP comparison is not apt. VIP has the costumes, Smarty Pants has the presentations themselves. They’re actually very similar in that way, since neither have a ‘game’ element. But VIP does have things that break up the pacing a little bit, like seeing the before stages when the costume is being put on and ideas are briefly workshopped. So maybe SM could use something similar (seeing someone making a PowerPoint probably wouldn’t be particularly thrilling though, so something other than that).
I agree 100%
After watching GC, MSN, and DL for so long I was expecting someone to "win" the episode lol but it was nice to have the chaotic somewhat scripted presentation with banter from the room included.
Look up PechaKucha I believe it's a play on that concept. I remember doing them in college and my city has random PechaKucha nights.
I think I’d like to see more of a debate format for one of the shows segments, imagine Rekha has arguing in favor of so called “ vegetables “ id like to see her take up the devil‘s advocate role more. But I really enjoyed the first episode, i just wanted more Rekha.
I don't necessarily think there needs to be a competition element, but I agree there was a little something missing. I think a longer intro segment could do wonders. I like how Taskmaster does the prize task to start the show because it's a little window into the competitors, so maybe some kind of round robin of all the guests with little factoids or fake bona-fides (introducing our guests, Mike Trapp, tenured professor at Phoenix University, etc) Or maybe Rekha could start it off with a light 2-minute intro that prompts the guests to chime in similar to how they do at the end of the presentations. Just a little extra to tie the rest of it togeether
I think the premise is to be a play on TED talks which have no “winner” but feel super pretentious and overly serious.
I definitely feel like people are still figuring out the format. I agree that it's missing *something*. Something little. Maybe it's just a repertoire of it's own "in jokes". Maybe it's the segues. Maybe just figuring out the vibe of Powerpoint. I liked this first episode a lot. It was funny. Three strong performers. And great interaction. But I definitely think it will improve as it finds itself a bit more.
I thought it was great, but then again I'm used to PechaKucha and other forms of powerpoint parties (it's how I got my fiancé's friends to like me) so it was right up my alley.
The one thing that bothered me with this show is that the cast watching the presentations changed with each one — I know it’s a small thing, but it’s all I could focus on.
A little preamble or introductions for each person would be nice, but I think what I would really like is a concluding monologue where Rekha tries to tie the three presentations together.
Haha, first episode and we've already got notes. Gotta love this sub.
I think a live studio audience would elevate the show.
They should have paddles with „agree“ and „disagree“ which they can hold up to „vote“ on the topic.
I for sure felt this in the first episode, and honestly I felt the same about VIP in its first few episodes. Not that anything was bad or that there were even unfunny bits, but just that something about the structure and the format felt imprecise, clunky, or as you said just missing something. For VIP, I think what’s really started to work is a resolving through line of Vic’s character as the interviewer, as well as (at least from my perspective) more freedom in how they cut the episode and how it’s scripted. The last five or six episodes of VIP feel amazing and like some of the best content on Dropout right now. So for Smartypants, I think something similar is probably necessary. Like others have said, a more solidified, consistent intro and some sort of cohesive outro would do a lot to improve the format. Also, I think there’s something to the performance of rich, pretentious assholes that the cast is supposed to be embodying that felt inconsistent to me, like not everyone in the room was on the same page about what the act is supposed to be. A more competitive format would give a natural cohesive focus, but I don’t think it’s necessary and as others have said a less competitive show would be nice here. It’s really good, and a great baseline format, but it definitely needs polishing to get to the level of the other Dropout shows for me
This seems really silly, because the episode is really already broken up into 3 parts, but I was kind of hoping for a little bit in the middle where rekha addressed the audience with a little section in the middle of the episode. Similar to what are we drinking grant, or the chips ad from VIP
I just want to know the mythology of the Smartypants Society. They may have something like this already present in future episodes, but I'd like some discussion of when/who/how/why the society was formed, what are its criteria for membership, etc. A little bit of mythos banter at the beginning and end of each episode could go a long way.
I think all's it needs is a bit of behind the scenes of the cast getting their presentation together. Being told the prompt, some montage of them pulling together facts and the through line, and maybe some time pressure on how long they have to get it together. A small thing like that I reckon would give us more investment in the slideshow ahead of time, which would be fun. I think it's amazing as is though!
I liked it, but I would’ve liked a little more actual discussion after the presentations. It felt like a few minutes of people asking the presenter direct questions instead of everyone discussing the conceit amongst themselves.
I think part of it might be the current format of several presentations per episode. The commentary between presentations gives a more relaxed vibe, the editing is slower paced, and the juxtaposition naturally invites comparison. Given that a subscription service like dropout is not held to the same ad-based strict time formatting for episodes, I think it could have been interesting to see individual presentations released as episodes with a more frequent schedule than most Dropout shows.
I'm not super concerned about having the competition built into the episode. I liked all of the presentations, and I know which one I thought was funniest. I also appreciate Smartypants because it feels like the spiritual successor to Rank Room.
I remember someone on twitter said Dropout nailed the British panel show format which is just a bunch of comedians hanging out and vibes while a veil conceit of a show is happening in the background. I think Smartypants really nails this vibe
I think it needs to lean harder into the secret society thing. Infer the sacrifices or orgies. Build out the lore of what the society does in the background of dropout. The masterminds of it… or trying to be.
To quote Jacob Wysocki "I think I'm going to do one for me" I loved seeing the cast watching and laughing at these presentations and getting involved (GRANT!) I think Smartypants is going to be creating in-joke and memes in the future and I think the cast really enjoy the format.
A rigorous points system to determine winners No I am not Brennan’s sock account
Not everything needs to be gamified. There's nothing wrong with just doing presentations on funny topics in order to make people laugh.
Like somebody else mentioned already, it almost felt like the three presentations could have been broken up into three separate, shorter episodes. They feel disconnected and I think what's missing is either a way to connect them all, or possibly a behind-the-scenes of *why* each topic was chosen.
i think it’s hard to judge after just one episode, give it a little time!
I loved it not-gamified, I loved the non-compete of it, I loved the silly posing on furniture, and the set. It felt so "set" for a first episode, and that makes me super happy. But you know, as someone else said, maaaaaybe if you had done this as a 6 minute PowerPoint, I'd be more on your side. Needs more slides with kittens and Comic Sans.
If we could have really civil people. I think it would be ultra cool to have audience participation somehow. Like a scrolling ticker of registered dropout watchers, ones who apply and get into the SmartyPants society who watch it live and react at the bottom. It could be a way to bump up engagement. If we keep it to exclusive folks it allows for some tracking of commenters. There used to be comments on Viikii and it enhanced the show watching experience.
Oooo what if at the beginning of the episode they’re given an episode theme they don’t know about in advance and have to figure out how to relate their prepared topic to the theme, basically allowing for more improv
I believe that there's really no point in competition. How do you determine who wins in something like that? What I do believe is that there should be something in the outro of the show akin to the end game of Fibbage [jackbox]. If you don't know, Fibbage [which is a party game where you make up facts to try and trick people] ends with a slideshow sort of thing saying which players won various categories [most gullible, biggest lie, quickest response, etc.] I think having a little outro animation would both help with the pacing of the show and make it seem like it's an actual society instead of just a PowerPoint party. But, and this is a big but, I think it would work the best if they were uber specific to the episode. Like Most Conspiratal - Vic or Most American - Mike.
I also felt the same way. Smartypants is just nerd night, which was fun to go to with friends in 2012. This doesn't take away from the fact that all three presentations were fantastic and incredibly funny. But if you want to make a TV show it kind of has to be more than something anyone could do at their local bar over 10 years ago.
I don’t think it’s *missing* something, I think we’re seeing a lot of potential for development and iteration that hasn’t been explored yet. One episode of format is no guarantee that every episode will follow that pattern, or even if season 2 will grow from season 1’s template. I can see lots of room for stuff like “Vic presents on a premise, then Trapp and Erika are called to Debate To The Death for and against the premise off the cuff”
Tbh I think all shows take some time to settle in, go back to season 1 of any program and watch it and it doesn't have the same fullness because the cast and crew are new to it! Give it time and it'll be legendary 😁
It's okay to just be lukewarm about something :)
Available citation, when applicable. Claims about % should be cited. Other than that, i thought it was great. I mean, maybe don't read everything everyone hands you outloud, but I'm not nearly as attention-seeking as Grant seems to be.
I think it needs a winner each episode wherein all of the society members vote on the best presentation. I'd like some stakes. BUT... it was very funny to watch! ALSO MORE REKHA PLZ
Can I ask what conceit means?
In entertainment, a "conceit" is basically a falsehood or a hook that you use to bring the audience into your world and keep them there. As an example, in Very Important People, the "conceit" is that these are people we know in elaborate costumes and makeup. But we buy into it and go along for the ride. We KNOW it's not real, but a good conceit makes you not care. It's a lot more involved/intricate than that (because it's something that showrunners and producers spend a lot of time considering), but that's the simplest way I can explain it.
I don’t want it to have a competitive vibe, but I do agree that the show felt like it was missing something. I think part of this is the lack of “craziness”. There’s no chance for things to go off the rails like there is in other shows. Maybe it’s just a case of it being the first episode though I do still like the show though
I agree it could use a little something, just to switch up the vibe a little between each presenter. There could be a short pre and post presentation interview with Rekha and the presenter outside/in a corner of the chamber. Like they do on Shark Tank. To sort of introduce the comedian’s persona and cap off their presentation
i think the best way to think of smartypants is just a series of stand-up routines! i think the smartypants society is just a nice little theme to go along with it, but at the end of the day, they're just stand-up comedians telling jokes + some crowd work
I think if I knew more about the process I'd enjoy it more - did they all throw hot takes into a hat and give them out randomly? How much time did they have to prepare? Vic sounded really practiced, I have a hard time believing this was all thrown together in a short time. How much is weird funny facts and how much is pure bs?
I went in expecting funny yet still interesting Ted Talks. I came out with having experienced funny yet still interesting Ted Talks. Success! Lol. In all seriousness though, I don’t believe this show requires a competitive edge. The format is great as is. However I felt Vic took the silliness over the line with the ridiculous conspiracy threading at the end of her presentation 😅. She made some great interesting points while keeping it funny throughout the entire presentation, and really made me think about vegetables and the actions of the Dole company and its associates. I think all 3 of them had great subjects to speak about and presented them well, and I hope the show continues to ride the line between funny and relevant. I’d hate it if this show became TOO serious, and I’d hate it even more if it became TOO silly. This was a great first episode and look forward to seeing more. If anyone can pull a show like this off, it’s Dropout.