Smartypants is a comedy show on independent streaming service Dropout. Hosted by Rekha Shankar, the show consists of a series of comedians giving semi-comedic, semi-educational presentations on a topic of their choosing to the titular Smartypants Society. (Actual educational content may vary)
Each episode has 3-4 presentations, each of which is followed up by a Q&A section.
Smartypants includes examples of:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Paul Robalino's reasoning for his proposed body modifications are mostly absurd and comedic, such as a transparent torso for the purpose of comparing with friends. However, there are occasional legitimate reasons as to why they would be beneficial, such as said transparent torso making medical diagnoses much easier.
- Assurance Backfire: Paul Robalino's reassurance for his proposed ideas tend to have this effect.Pallavi: If [the spworm] is flopping, do you have to kill it?Paul: It would die in a matter of... minutes.Pallavi: Minutes is a long time!
- Bait-and-Switch: Siobhan's presentation starts out by talking about why every high schooler should be required to smoke one cigarette, then makes a hard yet surprisingly effective turn into explaining this is how propaganda works.
- Body Horror: Paul Robalino's presentation, including transparent abdomens, spworms, fleshy mitten hands, and human pregnancies lasting 19-27 months.
- Brain Bleach: Paul shows his argument on how useful it'd be for one to be able to turn off their ears, by showcasing his idea of a giant sperm (or spworm), which he reveals was not an actual argument and is intentionally gross in order to demonstrate how helpful it would be to turn off one's ears.
- Brick Joke:
- In the Game Changer episode "The Newlyweb Game" it was revealed that Katie Marovitch had searched "how to cook hardboiled egg" online. Her presentation on Smartypants is all about eggs, including ones she had boiled for the audience.
- In Demi's Season 2 presentation, he opens by saying his presentation was originally going to be about which cartoon characters he could beat in a fight, then changed his mind and presented on an unrelated topic. Slides related to this original topic pop up every few minutes, claiming he accidentally left them in.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
- Discussed in David Kerns' presentation, positing a uniform color code based on people's jobs. Exaggerated in that there are so many colors, some of which are different shades of the same basic color, that it becomes hard to identify.
- Also discussed in a Smartyshorts segment, asking what color each school subject should be. That said, the group never conclusively comes up with answers.
- Comedic Work, Serious Scene: Max Burkholder's presentation, "Child Labor is Cool!", is unique for being a serious, stark look at the working conditions for child actors in the entertainment industry. The audience seems genuinely appalled at some of the things Max describes, like the fact that only 10% of the money made by a child actor must be put away for them in their adulthood. While there are jokes, they lean heavily into
crossing the line twice about why child labor is a good thing. - Couch Gag: At the start of each episode, Rekha leads the Smartypants Society in repeating their "sacred motto", which changes each episode.
- Dance of Romance: Ross Bryant's presentation on the "Swing Revival Revival" includes him defending swing dancing - and partner dancing as a whole - as a romantic act.
- Detonation Moon: Raphael Chestang's presentation is him detailing exactly why this is a good idea.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Paul F. Tompkins' presentation on Groundhog Day comes to the conclusion that the piano instructor was the one who responsible for the time loop.
- Eldritch Ocean Abyss: The main thrust of Zach Reino's presentation "No Thank You, The Ocean."
- Failed a Spot Check: Ryan Creamer apparently failed to notice one of the schools he asked for an honorary degree from was Spelman College, a historically black, all women's college. The audience members have lots of fun asking how he could've not noticed while visiting their website*.
- Forbidden Fruit: Paul Robalino's season 2 presentation, “Mankind's Mistakes,” suggests making sex illegal on the grounds that it'll make it hotter when couples know it's something they're not allowed to do. Inverted later in the same presentation when he also suggests making racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry illegal...and then adds that we're just gonna have to trust that works.
- General Ripper: Raph plays this character in his presentation on why the US should blow up the moon.
- Glasses Pull: At one point, Demi pulls off his glasses while asking a question of Paul, only to reveal he's wearing a second pair underneath.
- Humongous Mecha: Erika Ishii's presentation: "The United States Government Should Build Me a Gundam."
- Hypocritical Humor: Lily Du's presentation, "Women Should Have Second Families," is filled with comedic ammo against men who cheat on their wives, while also advocating for the audience's support to help her (and, eventually, other women) cheat on and gaslight her husband.
- I Am Spartacus: Ross' question "in the current digital landscape, are we all theater kids?" prompts him and several of the other attendees to stand and declare "I am a theater kid!" in this manner. Sara rejects this, despite having done theatre tech and speech and debate in school.
- It's All About Me: Anna Garcia's presentation "Should We Forgive Theater Kids" makes a point of highlighting certain egotistical behaviors that many involved in theatre exhibit. Sara's refusal of the label prompts Ross to point out that she's making it all about her.
- Little Miss Almighty: The topic of Cynthia Kao's presentation, "God Is A Woman", citing both historical precedent and the fact that most people pray to god for similar reasons that they ask for help from their mom.
- Manipulative Editing: During Demi's presentation, Grant is given notecards to read off of, one of which has him say that, having heard Demi's argument that Spider-Man should show solidarity with the Black community by using the n-word, Grant will now proceed to say the slur as well. Cut to a few seconds later, with Demi reacting in faux outrage and urging the editors to cut that moment out.
- No Endor Holocaust: Discussed in Raph's presentation, in which the possibility of the blast from blowing up the moon affecting Earth is quickly swept under the rug.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Inverted at the start of each episode, which contains a disclaimer that the facts stated may be partially to entirely inaccurate.
- N-Word Privileges: Demi Adejuyigbe's Season 1 presentation asserts that Peter Parker should start saying the n-word in order to provide representation to Black people of his universe on the basis that people will assume he's Black just by him using it. Exaggerated further when he asserts that Spider-Man has the responsibility to use every racial slur.
- Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: Discussed in Alexis's presentation on "White Lady Emails," where she discusses how to send an email requesting someone makes amends for a wrongdoing without being one of these. She says there's a sliding scale of white women, with a stereotypical "Karen" being at the far end. At the other far end sits "Audrina," who is patient, polite, understanding, and doesn't take her frustration out on whichever low-level employee is available, instead directing her energies towards people who are on the upside of the power dynamic and are actually responsible for whatever issue is bothering her. As Alexis puts it, both Karen and Audrina want something, but Audrina is far more likely to get it by virtue of not losing her temper or blowing things out of proportion.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: In Ryan's presentation on getting an Honorary Degree, he mentions that one of the problems he faces is the fact that his eulogy would include the word "Pornhub" note .
- Paper-Thin Disguise: One of Ryan's tactics while asking schools for honorary degrees is to impersonate Abraham Lincoln, just by putting on a silly old-timey accent and claiming to be him, before asking the schools to consider "[his] good friend Ryan Creamer" for an honorary degree.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Lorena Russi's topic, about how likely her parents are to see this show, includes a note that her mom recently sent her a nude photo of herself clearly meant for someone else, which Lorena claims as the most traumatic thing she's ever experienced.
- Perennially Overshadowed Birthday: Discussed in Mike Trapp's "When is the Happiest Birthday?", where he rules out large chunks of the year based on days being in too close proximity to other holidays.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Demi Adejuyigbe posits Bart Simpson as a positive example of this, citing that him rapping and being an anti-authoritarian symbol in the extremely conservative climate of the 80s where rap music was stigmatized as music for thugs makes him a true ally who's earned himself an invitation to the cookout.
- Recursive Canon: Proposed in Demi's pitch for a reboot of Big, with the primary hook being that the original movie exists in the reboot's canon and the main character is aware he's in a "Big scenario".
- Significant Anagram: The main subjects of Chris Grace's diverting presentations have significant anagrams - "AK Hash Ranker" and "Ah! Karen Shark" share the exact same letters, while you can also get both of those titles from "Cruikhank Frags Henka", because the anagrams lead to the culprit Chris is looking for, Rekha Shankar, with the third title being an anagram of "Rekha Fucking Shankar", and predictably in the revealing slide "Rekha Shankar" is said twice and "Rekha Fucking Shankar" is said once, the same amounts as the titles they're anagrammed from.
- Sophisticated as Hell: A lot of the humor comes from comedians giving seemingly articulate lectures on various inane and ridiculous subjects filled with some very questionable logic.
- Squick: Invoked by Paul's idea of a giant sperm (or spworm), which he reveals was intentionally gross in order to demonstrate how helpful it would be to turn off one's ears.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: While asking for honorary degrees, Ryan specifically makes sure to ask them not to search his name online, since he's made multiple videos on adult video websites. (Albeit ones that are intentionally subversive and portray no adult content.)
- Working-Class Hero: Demi claims that Garfield's hatred of Mondays is because he's an anticapitalist who understands how labor affects marginalized communities. He also states that Garfield's love of lasagna is because it's the closest thing he and Jon would get to Soul Food.