There are few experiences in life scarier than your first week of college. The awkward icebreakers, the cramped parties, accidentally getting stuck in conversation with Amanda Knox’s cousin. Alright, maybe that last one isn’t so universal, but it’s one of many hilarious nightmares included in viral comedian Benito Skinner’s new show from Amazon Studios and A24: “Overcompensating.” The show follows high school prom king and closet-case Benny (played by writer-creator Skinner) as he starts his freshman year at Yates University, sending him on a journey of self-discovery that includes Lorde, sexy filmbros and a hellish improv troupe. Along with Skinner, the show co-stars Wally Baram as Carmen (a fellow freshman Benny befriends after an attempted hookup goes horribly wrong) and features a stacked supporting cast including names like Adam Dimarco (The White Lotus), Rish Shah (Ms. Marvel), and Charli XCX.
The Quad had the pleasure of joining a panel of other college newspapers in interviewing Skinner over Zoom, where he spoke with us about his experiences making “Overcompensating” and how he walked the line between satire and earnestness as he captured campus life.
Q: How extensive was the planning for the comedic details of the show?
BS: Yeah, I think it was always planned because when I used to write sketches I would write all those little things out, so I thought that those were all supposed to be in script… to almost my detriment because at times I would just kind of add (for example) maybe a girl brought a dog to class that day and then I’d show up and there would be a dog there. And I’m like “why is there a dog in the classroom?” and they’re like “you wrote it in the fucking script. Like, we have to do it. We thought this was like a part of the joke.” And I’m like “Oh my God, no, you don’t have to have the dog. But I feel so lucky because I felt very championed by A24 and Amazon and my showrunner (Scott King) with these jokes. We had so much fun in a background joke that can almost feel forward at a certain point. I love like a little treat in the back for people on a rewatch.
Q: How did you choose what you wanted to satirize? For example, the axe body spray joke?
BS: I just wanted you to smell that scene (where Adam Dimarco’s character covers his body in Axe Body Spray) I think. By the fifth spray, I knew you’d start to smell it. I think that’s the vibe there, where you can really feel Axe Body Spray come through the screen. It’s a 4D experience.
Q: There were a lot of moments in the show where I was laughing out loud, and then there were other moments in the show where I was like “that’s a canon (emotional) event”. How did you go about balancing between the comedy and the more serious aspects of the college experience?
BS: I think that I never shied away from when it felt like it needed to go emotional. I think that that to me felt so, you know, being in college and kind of the end of the party and what it looks like at the end of the night with your friend, whether that be sad or kind of beautiful or one of those moments that you’ll remember forever. I tried to tell it as true to my experience as possible, where a party was really fun and then it became not fun very quickly. I think you can allow for (emotional moments like) that while also Hallie is spreading mono. I think they can all exist at the same time because (college) feels like everyone is living in their own worlds. While someone is out dancing, someone’s getting their heart broken in the bathroom. And that to me feels like life, you know? I think the whole show can feel both sad and funny at the same time.
Q: You obviously show a lot of skin in this show, there’s the hazing scene (in the trailer) that I think we’re all waiting on. What was that experience like for you on set?
BS: We had an incredible intimacy coordinator. She really championed all of us. This was so many of our first time doing this, so it was terrifying at first. You know, the spanking scene that’s coming in the fourth episode, that was one of the last scenes we shot. So by that time, I was just like “Let her rip, Adam (Dimarco).” Like, who cares at this point? I’ve done it all. I think the strangest thing (about on-screen nudity) is it being for comedic purposes. At times it being silent on set and you’re trying to get like laughs for this kind of like… awkward scene, like the intimate scene between Benny and Carmen in the pilot. Shooting that and it’s silent and then all of a sudden we would hear someone cackling at the monitor.
But yeah, I knew that it would serve the story because for Benny in so many of these scenes, it’s like “What’s the scariest possible thing to be in this? And it’s like, OK, for me personally, it would be to be naked in the woods with this guy that I have feelings for. What a nightmare. That’s hell on earth. But then also, maybe it’s like, maybe I’m going to show off for this king. Who knows? I think so many of the characters feel that way. Having conversations with everyone of what sexuality means at that time and what ownership of your body feels like and what you’re trying to perform within that, I think was an interesting conversation for all of us.
Q: Did you observe any difference in “bro culture” as it relates to like queer culture (during your visits to college campuses for research while writing the show) or how it would be different for you coming out now versus how it was for your experience? And did that affect how you wrote the show?
BS: You know, I don’t think so. I think I wanted it to be from my perspective just to make it feel honest, but also feel the whole show could be accessible to anyone But I think as far as my understanding of what it’s like now to be queer in those spaces, I knew that I could tell my story and hopefully there would be some similarities. Even if the reference isn’t the same maybe it wasn’t ‘George of the Jungle’ (referencing Benny’s “gay awakening”) but it was something else. I think allowing (the college experience on-screen) to feel a little nostalgic, like this dream world that we’ve built in a very kind of American Pie, Mean Girls-y way, it could maybe feel like that forever. I think my hope is that it’s easier to be queer now in college, but in the current administration (referencing current president Donald Trump) I can’t imagine that that’s true. (Being young and queer) is always hell.
Q: What do you find funny about the first few days of college?
BS: The thing that I found the funniest is everyone sharing numbers. I remember so many people being like “Give me your phone” and then I would never hear from or see that person again. I would never hear from them. I’m like, “Did you even go here? Where did you go?”
‘Overcompensating’ bottles the awkwardness of the queer college experience in a way that makes it obvious Skinner is taking a more introspective approach with his comedy in this series than we’ve seen from him in the past. Best known for his viral skits where he satirizes everything from the Kardashian dynasty to Lana Del Rey, in ‘Overcompensating’ Skinner is forced to play a role that hits much closer to home, and it pays off in the fast-paced wit displayed by his script. He doesn’t rely on cliches as punchlines in the way so many college-set comedies lazily do, instead he injects his own unmistakably queer sensibility into typical college issues that makes each joke land twice as hard. The show toes the line between the relatable and the absurd just enough to keep its audience from expecting where it’ll go, which not only keeps it consistently funny for its half-an-hour episode runtime, but makes it stick out amongst the sea of other college comedies that can’t match the creativity of its jokes.
“Overcompensating” premieres May 15th on Prime Video.
Elijah Fischer is a third-year English major. AF997636@wcupa.edu.