Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Jen Maravegias | Miscellaneous | July 14, 2026
Back in the last century, College Humor emerged from the collection of cat videos we called the internet. It was a site where folks posted funny "make-'em-up" videos to keep The People LOLing. Through a series of financial decisions, mergers, and acquisitions, that site died in 2020. And a new site was born of its ashes, Dropout. (If you want to get into the nitty-gritty, you can read the Wikipedia entry.) At the end of it all, the son of Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor ended up as the owner and lead inmate, running the asylum at Dropout. That is a phrase straight from a MadLib, which means it makes perfect sense in this context. That guy, Sam Reich, is known for wearing snazzy suits and hosting/mc'ing many of Dropout's game shows.
You've probably seen clips of Game Changer, an improvised panel show, on a social media reel somewhere. That's how I became aware of it, and that's how my kid and his friends became aware of it too.
Thanks, Instagram!
It wasn't until we subscribed to the Dropout app that I realized how many shows the enclave of comedians and improvisers Reich has put together are recording every week. It's a nerdy mix of live play shows and long-form improv shows in various formats. The contestants, hosts, and special guests on Dropout's shows all seem to be coming from one big pool of performers who work together IRL. It feels like some kind of nepotism, but it's to the audience's benefit. The only thing more awkward than improv is doing improv with someone you've never worked with before.
On Game Changer, none of the contestants know the rules of the game until Sam Reich explains them. And they change every episode. There's Very Important People, in which contestants get a full costume and VFX makeup treatment to help them create a character who is then interviewed in a daytime talk show format. Make Some Noise is a fairly basic improv game where Reich's prompts lead to creative line readings or short scenes that are awarded arbitrary points. It's all very whimsical.
Our current favorite is Smartypants. The setup is that it's a secret society of very smart people who present to each other on different topics every week. The presentations, with accompanying slide shows and occasional props, are prepared ahead of time. No one in the room knows what the presentations will be about, and the presenters don't know what any of the follow-up questions will be after they've finished. Topics range from ranking the best foods for a charcuterie board, a presentation on the history of Zzyzx, greatest movie presidents, and other absurd conspiracy theories, and proposals.
Last week, Vivian Wilson was a very special guest star and gave a presentation on why we need more gays in the government.
View on Threads
The Dropout show that gives me the most anxiety as a former improviser, though, is Play It By Ear. On this show, contestants create a musical on the spot, based on Sam's prompts of characters, objects, settings, and conflicts. This game is the stuff all of my nightmares are made of.
Yes, I too have dabbled in the art of improv. I took some classes. I was on a team. I made a nuisance of myself at the bar in Second City. And now my kid has found this font of all my joys and anxieties and makes me watch it on television with him! Everyone in these Dropout shows is much more talented at improv than I ever was. So I watch with a sense of maudlin nostalgia and just a little bit of jealousy. Just a little. The contestants are clearly having a lot of fun riffing off of each other and making fun of Sam Reich. And they're clever. So clever. A lot of it is very funny and hardly any of it is cringe. Because it's not live, they can edit out a lot of the boring transitional stuff, and probably even some of the bits that don't work. So it's not as painful as, say, going to your college roommate's improv show, where there are only 10 audience members, and you can hear everyone breathing while they wait for the show to get "funny." Not that that's ever happened to me.
It's nice to have something my kid and I can enjoy watching together. I'm not suggesting Dropout is family-friendly, but it works for us. And I'm happy to share that part of my past with my kid and see him be so entertained by it. I am guilty of having previously encouraged him to take a local kid's improv class. Because improv teaches you to think creatively, be supportive of your teammates, and it gets you out of your head and into the moment. But I would never wish the life of an improviser upon him. It's bad enough that he's a musician.
