Of Dropout’s many fun new shows in 2024, the premise was the most exciting Smart pants. It takes the concept of the ‘PowerPoint party’, where groups of friends get together to give individual presentations on topics they are obsessed with, and places it within the framework of the ‘Smartypants society’. That means a who’s who of Dropout’s comedic talent delves absurdly deep into topics as varied as Demi Adejuyigbe’s.Which cartoon characters are invited to the barbecue?”; Vic Michaelis’Vegetables do not exist”; and Paul Robalino’s inspired “God’s Mistake: How I Would Make Our Body Better.” It’s a match made in Heaven.
With the holidays approaching, you might want to throw your own PowerPoint party with your friends and loved ones. So Polygon caught up Smart pants host Rekha Shankar to get her tips on throwing the best you can.
Shankar called Robalino’s presentation one of her favorites from the first season (“innovatively stupid”), as well as Tao Yang’s Charcuterie Board Tier List (“stood out because she just took that stupid opinion from your friend and turned it into a formal presentation “), Jacob Wysocki’s “Which cryptid is the chillest to blow with?” (“as subjective as anything can be”), and Zach Reino’s “No Thank You ‘The Ocean'” (“that’s a real opinion that I have, and so I felt so validated to see that there was no comedy in that “).
Shankar is currently working on what she describes as a science fiction comedy Palm Springs meet The farewell“About what if you’re the worst damn Hindu in the world and you have to do all the Hindu things on earth and you’re the only one you have to consult, but you’re actually stupid.” She confirmed it Smart pants season 2 is in production and will be released in 2025. You can catch them more from her performance in LA.
Here are Shankar’s eight golden rules for throwing your own killer PowerPoint party.
“Number one, just cool vibes. I think if you invite all your smartest friends, it won’t necessarily be a fun party. They must also be cold and willing to make fun of themselves and others. Knowing that line of where something is nice and where something is rude or annoying or whatever makes or breaks a PowerPoint party for me. So just chill vibes.
“You just need people who are willing to have fun together. You could have all the other elements, but if you don’t have good chemistry or atmosphere, it’s like any other party where you’re like: Oh, this is a new friend, or God, a friend’s new boyfriend. And then everyone has a terrible time talking to the friend’s friend. He’s super weird. You’re like, Why is my boyfriend dating him? And if you have to hear a presentation from that guy, absolutely not. Maybe you can pre-screen your presentations if one of your friend’s boyfriends comes over, just to check, since we don’t know him. We don’t know Greg.”
2. Invite the right number of friends…
“A good place for me is eight to ten people. You have plenty of people to laugh at, but you’re not watching a hundred thousand PowerPoints at a party where all you have to do is chat and eat snacks. You get plenty of fun jokes, questions and answers, and yada-yada objections to your terrible opinion without it becoming overwhelming.
3. …but not the pedants
“I think pedants should be banned from PowerPoint parties. They kill the atmosphere. Yes. Congratulations. You’re smart. That’s not why we’re here. We’re actually here because we enjoy being stupid.
“You want to feel like you could be stupid. Let’s say your entire presentation is poorly researched and based on something that isn’t even true and someone picks a hole in it. You want everyone to double down and say, “Yes!” and not have the feeling, Oh, I’m an idiot. You want to keep that spirit of being stupid alive at a PowerPoint party.
“There is a difference between poking holes in an argument in a nice way and in a rude way. But you said eggs would be good for any meal, so what about this? That’s just when you try to be a little shit, right? Petty shit is not welcome at a PowerPoint party, and that is crucial for maintaining the atmosphere you create.”
4. Comfort and food are necessary
“The environment should have a lot of snacks. People should never go hungry. And I also think you should have comfortable chairs. You have to let people sink in. There must be room to walk around. If you’re the host and you want to crack jokes and make jokes, there has to be room. That’s difficult in an apartment situation, but I think we can do it.”
5. There is no wrong choice for a topic, as long as you care about it
“I think the main similarity between all good subjects is your passion for the subject. I’ll give a few examples. So Grant O’Brien did one in roller coasters. Now Grant is a great comedy writer. That was an extremely serious presentation about roller coasters. But what made him tick is that Grant isn’t ironically aloof. He conveys his complete knowledge and passion for roller coasters all the time, and that makes you interested. That he presents it as a wonderful, affordable place for families to have fun, like an amusement park – that’s surprisingly quite moving. And you laugh a little at the fact that he created something so moving.
“And then you can go the other way: what’s a nice version of you, done in a very clever way? Tao had his very controversial charcuterie presentation. That’s probably something Tao would have sat in a bar and maybe said something like, “I wish there was more meat and less everything else on this platter.” That’s ripe for one Smart pants presentation.
“And the conviction he had for it. I’ll never forget when I said, ‘I’m a vegetarian. What would you suggest mine says?’ and he said, ‘Impossible burgers.’ I’m like, You are sick. That in itself made it very funny. Lean into the stupidity. Don’t be afraid to be stupid if you are.
“You can delve into the scientific core of what such a subjective, stupid opinion of yours is. But again, he came in with passion, ready to fight for those stupid opinions. So I think passion is the most important ingredient.
“There is almost no wrong subject, just a wrong atmosphere. I guess you could ignore all the other rules and say: I’m going to give a super intellectual presentation about alloysas long as the atmosphere is chill and you’re just having fun. For example, why did you choose this topic? That’s always great. It’s something like: I don’t know, I always thought, what the hell is this? It confused me. I didn’t get it in chemistry class and now I’m an adult. I should know this. That’s funny. And then you talk about it and then I’m sure there’s a part where you started reading and you didn’t understand it and you think: I didn’t understand this part – too confusing, I didn’t put it in the PowerPoint. Very funny. Just follow that.”
6. Lean on your absurd shots as scientifically as you can
“Insert your subjective opinion into this stuff. It’s very funny. Mike Trapp actually had an interesting balance where he said, “What’s the best birthday?” But then he backed it up with a lot of data. Any scientist would pick a million holes in that, but that’s not why we’re here. So he had a nice mix of fake science and pure opinion. He had a line there where he said, “Some of you may ask: What about birthdays from early May to late May? Well, I don’t feel like it.’ Perfect. Be honest. Add those opinions, add the things you didn’t feel like researching, add the things that distracted you from your original statement and made you research more. That’s all great for a PowerPoint party. I think part of what’s funny is that we go down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia articles that we do in private but see someone else do it.
“It’s almost like your friends are taking you to task for an opinion you expressed at a birthday party a year ago. Why do you think? The phantom menace is the best Star Wars? Tell me. Be very official about it. Find every hole I can poke in your argument and tell me scientifically why you’re right.’
7. Involve the audience
“Every call and response, all the funny questions you can ask the audience, maybe even fake questions like, ‘Oh, broccoli is a vegetable, right?’ Yes, no.’ That’s really nice. Asking people first what their opinion is about something so that you can say something about it is a lot of fun. And then Anna Garcia had her theater list where she found a way to evoke the feeling of a theater child live in the room. Raph was not cast. And it’s very funny to evoke that in a group of thirty-somethings.
“So you could do something like that What is the best Star Wars movie? and rank them all. And I won’t tell you until the very last minute that all these opinions were taken from the internet. My favorite will always be The phantom menacebecause I haven’t seen anything of Star Wars except The phantom menace. And guess what, when I saw it I thought: This is funand you have nothing to compare it to. That’s a child. I am a child. Wow, what a stunner. And if I had to argue, I’d say, ‘Listen, you guys are completely jaded. You’ve read the ending before, so you don’t like the beginning. I’m fresh, I’m new, you’re all tired. I’m wired. Get started with it. Isn’t it magical and beautiful how an 8-year-old immigrant child thought: That’s the one for me?’ And you can’t argue with that. That’s rude.”
8. External PowerPoint partygoers: use the medium
“First make sure that those sub-screens are all enabled. Secondly, you have sound effects, you can share audio clips, you can share video clips online. A little easier than downloading one and embedding it in a PowerPoint. Use the chat function. Let people go in the chat. You can mute everyone if you give everyone permissions. Sounds like a very fun feature to have. For this episode, Pete, you have the mute right. You can mute whoever you want. You can mute the presenter if he says something you hate, and asks questions and answers you don’t like. I find that very funny. If it’s all fun, I think you can just do some really funny video elements and just live props, whatever’s in your room. ‘Look here Phantom threat DVD. Look how well worn it is. This is a repeatable, fun candy movie. Star Wars. ”
Smart pants season 1 is streaming on Dropout.