“If You Think It Was Made Up, It Probably Was.” “MP3” Cast Interview Reveals a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Dropout’s Musical Comedy
Dropout’s new show brings music videos back, back again
When the YouTube channel CollegeHumor became the streaming service Dropout, it left sketch comedy behind in favor of improv and game shows. But the platform is returning to its roots this week with the premiere of its new scripted comedy, “MP3.”
“MP3” is a show about a show — specifically, an MTV-era, music-video-compilation variety show. Hosted by former heartthrob Dane Cartel (Jeremy Culhane), “MP3” highlights comedy songs written by Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino and sung by fictional pop stars.
The trailer above gives a pretty good overview of what you can expect. The show premiered today, November 4, at 7 p.m. ET, which means you can go and stream the first episode on Dropout right now. The pilot, “Mid-Size Courtside Beverages,” features songs performed by comedians Jess McKenna, Lily Du, Anna Garcia, Jacob Wysocki, and Lou Wilson.
Culhane is joined by Aparna Nancherla, Skye Townsend, and Paul F. Tompkins, who also play characters on the fictional show’s set. I sat down with the three of them last week to learn more about the process of filming “MP3.”
Keep reading to find out what they had to say!
An interview with Aparna Nancherla, Skye Townsend, and Paul F. Tompkins
Aparna Nancherla is a comedian and voice actor who produced a stand-up special with Dropout called “Hopeful Potato.” In “MP3,” she plays Chia, one of the two new co-hosts brought onto the show to cramp Dane Cartel’s style.
Skye Townsend is an actress, singer, and TV host, and this is her first Dropout project. In “MP3,” she plays Dr. Muse-Tina, Dane’s other wacky co-host.
Paul F. Tompkins is a comedian, actor, and podcaster who’s appeared in many Dropout projects including “Very Important People,” “Crowd Control,” and “Make Some Noise. In “MP3,” he plays Thomas Cartel, Dane’s father and the producer of the fictional variety show.
How does the process of filming “MP3” compare to the process of filming Dropout’s improv shows versus this new scripted one?
Paul F. Tompkins: Oh wow, it’s different in a lot of ways because the other shows, there’s not really an audience, you know? Like, “Make Some Noise” or “Game Changer” are things that are participated in, “Dirty Laundry,” it’s like, sometimes the crew will be laughing, sometimes they don’t laugh, you know, it depends on what the vibe is for that particular show. So to be on a show with even a fake audience there, that is responding and giving audience energy and everything, that absolutely changes the dynamic already.
Even though you have to remember, like, they’re not a real audience. They’re paid to be here. They’re reacting the way they’re told to react. But it’s also the idea of following a story, as opposed to doing short bursts of comedy, that is so much fun. I’ve always been a fan of narrative-improv, narrative-sketch, like things that are funny, that are longer than sketch-length, but they’re not really a sitcom, you know what I mean?
Like, I remember when I was a kid, the earliest example of that was there was an episode of “Monty Python” where they did one story through the whole episode. They never did it again until they started doing the movies, and it was so exciting! For some reason it was so exciting to me as a kid, it was like, “Oh my god, they can do that too!”
So to do something like this, “MP3,” which has a bunch of, you know, sort of sketch-y elements to it, but there is a story that’s unfolding in each episode, was so much fun. Cause you get to do both, you know? You get to be silly, but also you get to be acting certain moments and furthering a narrative is really a blast.
Was any of “MP3” improv or was it all truly scripted?
Aparna Nancherla: Oh my gosh, it was so much improv. They gave us a bare-bones skeleton script and then they were like, “Play! Go off the rails, do whatever you want, we want you to really have ownership over these characters, help build this world with us.” If you think it was made up, it probably was.
Skye Townsend: If it sounded like, “Who approved this?” It was probably improv, yeah. It was pretty much 50/50. We were given guidelines, but then it’d be stuff like, “the two hosts discuss their family history.” And then from that, we went into our stories and then Paul would interrupt and be like, “We’re filming!”
And then we’d get back to it. And so tons of it is improv. Of course, we haven’t seen it yet, so we don’t know what was kept in. But I think to keep the flow of the show, it requires improv because there were these wide-open gaps where we filled in the blanks for these characters. And so it allowed us all to come up with all of these absurd backgrounds, and life history, and family situations, because there was just so much room to improvise. So yeah, a lot of improv.
If you think it was made up, it probably was.
So you had a lot of influence over your characters. Did you have a lot of influence over your costume choices as well?
Tompkins: 100%. They gave us so much room… I don’t know if they said no to anything. It was just like, “If you want this, absolutely.” And that’s such a gift, you know? Because a big part of the fun of creating characters, like if I do a live character on stage, is putting together the costume and the look of what this person would look like in real life, it’s such a fun sort of puzzle that you’re putting together.
And then to have somebody else be in charge of the budget is great. And they’re not saying no? I don’t have to go to Hollywood Toys & Costumes to buy this, they will source this thing for me, and it will be better than the thing I would have bought on my own.
Townsend: Yeah, they asked us to bring in a lot of pieces. They were like, “Do you have anything that would work for the character? Bring it in!” And of course we all did but we weren’t in each other’s fittings, obviously, and so, you know, I would see Paul the next day and I’d be like, “That shirt is hilarious.” And he’s like, “It’s mine!”
Tompkins: My approach was to bring in things that I would wear, but I would not wear them together.
Townsend: Stuff was ours, like my jumper, the blue jumper, my green pants, my green blazer with cutout sides, that was all my stuff. But yeah, it was really fun, I think in creating these characters, we got so much freedom and so when I came in… Paul said earlier, he was like, “You were just trying anything and they said yes to everything!”
It was like neverending, I’m like, “What about bangs? What about braces? What about…” You know, and they approved everything, and so when it all came together, we didn’t know what it was gonna look like until that day. And so it was so much fun as like, the wig got cut, the braces popped in, the brows were gone, I was like “Oh my god, she’s coming to life,” it was like Frankenstein!
So that was really, really fun, and as we started to figure out, like, “That’s your wardrobe, oh those are your glasses, that’s not your natural hair…”
Tompkins: We would ask each other the question over and over, “Is that yours or did wardrobe…?” The answer was always the same, but we kept asking the question.
Townsend: Just all the characters are so different that it just gave us this amazing baseline for improvising. Because it was like, you already know, if they had to react to the same thing they would all react differently, because they’re such fleshed out, unique characters. And so it was so easy to improvise with each other because no one felt similar in any way.
I would see Paul the next day and I'd be like, "That shirt is hilarious." And he's like, "It's mine!"
As someone with a background in music, is it sort of weird interviewing fake musicians? What’s that like, to be a musician entering a “fake” music space?
Townsend: Oh man! It’s super fun. I used to be a red carpet host. Well I’ve had many little lives, you know? You hustle it out until something sticks. And so, when I was a teenager, I was a singer and I worked at a label, and then I was like, “This isn’t for me!” And now I’m a recording artist, and now I’m a host, and so being in this world… It’s so much fun because I think they did such a great job of the music sounding good.
There’s nothing I can’t stand more than bad comedy music where it’s purposefully really bad, and it’s just like, “Just do it well, it’s alright!” And so the fact that they did it well is such a treat because you’re not going to listen to the song and be cringing, melodically you’re enjoying yourself. And that really makes the show so much better.
I had so much fun because I just really love music. I think seeing how well the creators of this show incorporated all of these genres, like it wasn’t even just pop records, or rock, they had emo bands. I mean, they did a really great job of just like, crossing every single genre and making sure that everybody has something that they’ll enjoy on this show. I truly was blown away not only when I heard the concept of the show, but when I saw how it was run, I was like, “They thought through everything.”
Tompkins: Yeah. I gotta stress how amazing Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino are. I mean, they’re amazing artists in themselves, and then they obviously care about this stuff. Music is such a huge part of who they are. And so, going into these different genres and also creating the characters of who would sing these songs… They got the best people to embody these songs and the production on them is so great.
It’s like one of those things where the harder you try to make it feel real, the funnier it’s gonna be. The more you try to make it sound like it’s sincere, the more hilarious it ends up being. And they did such a wonderful job.
Are the songs fully completed before you film the show?
Nancherla: Yeah, yeah. I think we watched all the videos on our own before we shot anything, but it was kind of fun to get to see these studio audiences watch them in real time. And just like, you know, pan out. The songs are earworms. They get in your ear, and they’re, like, genuinely fun songs.
It's like one of those things where the harder you try to make it feel real, the funnier it's gonna be. The more you try to make it sound like it's sincere, the more hilarious it ends up being.
Any favorites among the songs?
Tompkins: Man, it’s so many great people, look out for Lou Wilson and Rashawn Scott. And there’s a boy band that includes Angela Giarratana, and they’re all amazing.
Nancherla: Yeah. They’re all so different, too. They’re all so different, it’s hard to pick a favorite because the genres are all unique.
The “MP3” cast’s favorite music videos
I couldn’t let the interview end without asking the cast for their favorite real-world music videos from the MTV era. Here are some of their picks, embedded here for your listening pleasure!
Paul F. Tompkins: “Around the World” by Daft Punk
Tompkins on “Around the World”: It’s all these characters just going around. I’ve watched that video a million times. Not even high!
Aparna Nancherla: “Shiny Happy People” by R.E.M., “Last Resort” by Papa Roach
Nancherla on “Last Resort”: It’s fun cause it’s these people just like, being angry on camera. They’re all just angry lipsyncing this song. And I dunno, it really did it for my teenage self.
Skye Townsend: “Bootylicious” by Destiny’s Child, “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence
Townsend on “Bring Me To Life”: She was just a gorgeous vampire. Oh, love it. So good!
Where to watch “MP3”
Dropout is a comedy streaming service brought to you by the folks who made CollegeHumor so popular in the Before Times. It’s the exclusive home of “Dimension 20,” “Game Changer,” “Very Important People,” and more.
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