Dropout announces PowerPoint party show Smartypants

Comedy streaming service Dropout is back at it with a new series that’s set to capitalize on the PowerPoint party trend that flourished during the pandemic and on TikTok.

Smartypants, hosted by Rekha Shankar, will feature a number of guests from Dropout’s rotating stable of performers, each of whom will present a PowerPoint on a topic — any topic. Examples shown in the trailer include “Do vegetables really exist?”, “Which cryptid is the chillest to blaze with?”, and “The United States government should build me a Gundam.” They’re all topics that fit in well with its high-class, academic setting.

The first season features 10 episodes and will premiere on April 25, with episodes releasing every other week on Thursdays.

Smartypants’ guest list — and members of the “Smartypants Society” — includes faces that will be familiar to fans of the service, including Katie Marovitch, Erika Ishii, Mike Trapp, Paul F. Tompkins, Jacob Wysocki, Demi Adejuyigbe, Vic Michaelis, and many others.

PowerPoint parties have been thriving as a way for people to come together and do some friendly public speaking on sometimes extremely dumb topics that they can turn into easily-presentable slideshows. They were popular during the pandemic since they could be done virtually, but they’ve also gone viral on TikTok. The format has also been used in live comedy shows for podcasters, standup comedians, and others.

The company now known as Dropout has been host to a number of popular web series over the years, starting back in the day when it was known as CollegeHumor. Some favorites include nerdy, traditional game show Um, Actually, chaotic game show Game Changer, and Dungeons & Dragons live play show Dimension 20.