We’ve just hit the halfway point of New York Comic Con, and I decided to spend Friday night not waiting in line for a panel or demo, but just hanging out at a nerdy game show. CollegeHumor’s Um, Actually is a glorious celebration of pedantic nerd semantics, a trivia show about correcting the most minor technicalities in meaningless fictional lore. So host Mike Trapp admitted that bringing such a format to a Comic Con audience was dumping blood in the water for sharks.
But it was very funny! Most (but not all) of the questions stumped me and left me laughing in the process. Who knew so many people could tell the difference between specific sci-fi siren noises or anime where guys merge their wives with dogs. And since Um, Actually regularly airs on CollegeHumor Dropout, we’re once again sharing our review of that streaming service.
CollegeHumor, provider of fine internet comedy videos targeted towards kids in higher education, is old enough to be in college itself. When I was in college, film school friends of mine interned there. What I mean is that even with the internet’s ability to make everything feel somehow less legitimate and perpetually juvenile, CollegeHumor is serious institutional funny business.
And so despite the sketch comedy trappings, it was sobering when the company put out this video describing just how devalued internet comedy videos are these days as ad sales on raunchy content dry up, Facebook misrepresents its views numbers, and invasive sponsored commerce content reigns supreme. It’s a problem for the entire media industry. But that video wasn’t just a depressing economics lesson. It was also an announcement of CollegeHumor’s solution: Dropout, an expertly named new streaming TV service for premium online laughs.
For $4 per month after the week free trial, Dropout gives you uncensored ad-free access to CollegeHumor’s treasure trove of videos and sketches the team has built up over the years. The sheer amount of content makes you realize how ripe the company was for a streaming service, even if many videos will still be available for free elsewhere. I would’ve liked to see brilliant Black Mirror spoof Bad Internet here, which is presumably still tied up exclusively with YouTube Red. But you can watch pretty much any other CollegeHumor classic from Jake and Amir to Pete Holmes’s Batman impression to a multi-part parody of The Shining.
Since you are being charged though, Dropout fortunately gives you a selection of exclusive shows to watch as well. The beauty of sketch comedy with limited resources is that strong funny writing is more important than expensive production value. But these Dropout shows do feel more premium and generally feature longer runtime. They look like they make good use of your cash.
There’s an expanded series based on Honey Boo Boo parody Precious Plum. Cartoon Hell takes viewer suggestions for animations and illustrations. And my favorite show Um, Actually is a trivia game show about correcting pedantic nerd minutiae. CollegeHumor alum Adam Conover of Adam Ruins Everything shows up in the first episode.
The videos are the main draw but there are also some cool almost experimental extras hanging around the margins of Dropout. I read some truly bizarre original comics that appealed to me as a Dorkly fan, including a gritty reboot for a cheeseburger-headed fast food crimefighter. His life took a dark turn when his breaded chicken lover was murdered.
There are also little short stories that take the form of text messaging logs, like a chat with a political activism AI bot. And in a cool leveraging of existing proven technology, your subscriptions grants you access to the Dropout private Discord to hang out with creators and the rest of the community.
As far as actually using Dropout goes it’s mostly fine. Browsing through shows is easy enough and I appreciate that you can filter not just by shows and formats but by what actors appear in what sketches. It’s a cool transparent way to put the talent of the performers front and center. But right now you can only watch in a browser. Mobile apps aren’t finished yet. More troubling, trying to scrub through videos or stop auto-play would frequently log me out of the whole service which can get really annoying with the longer videos.
People should be able to make a living being funny on the internet. So if CollegeHumor’s Dropout helps more comedians achieve that, even with its launch technical issues and modest initial original library, then it’s already worth it. Because there’s nothing funny about capitalism ruining comedy for the rest of us.
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So many streaming TV services to choose from. Where do you start?
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Although it no longer has a free option, Hulu is a great streaming TV service that is worth paying for.
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From buying to renting to subscribing to individual channels, Amazon offers a bevy of streaming TV options.
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YouTube Red subscribers can watch original shows from streaming stars, but YouTube TV lets you watch actual live TV.
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You have to buy channels in bulk and still deal with commercials, but with DirecTV Now you get the real live TV experience delivered through streaming.
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If you want to stream shows and documentaries that actually teach you something, go with CuriosityStream.
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AMC Premiere just focuses on current AMC shows, but for Walking Dead super fans that might be enough.
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With Boomerang, tons of retro cartoons, from Looney Tunes to Scooby-Doo, can all come back to you
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FuboTV may be the escape from cable that sports fans are looking for. It’s pricey, but being able to easily stream live sports and more from dozens of channels with only one subscription might very well be worth it.
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Brown Sugar has all of the classic Blaxploitation movies you could want and then some. It’s niche, but it’s one of the most impressive niche libraries we’ve seen.
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For the true cinephile, FilmStruck has a large collection of classic films from all eras and countries, including movies from the Criterion Collection.
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Along with presenting streaming services like Netflix and Sling through one box, Dish AirTV also lets you watch local over-the-air channels with an additional installation.
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Get a streaming media device to enjoy these services on your TV. Our favorite is the Amazon Fire Stick.
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