Let’s be honest: gay people have been overcompensating since the first time someone said, “No homo.” So it only makes sense that Benito Skinner—better known as Benny Drama, the digital chameleon who’s impersonated every Kardashian more times than Kris Jenner has monetized her children—is now turning that emotional gymnastics into a full-fledged comedy series. Overcompensating, now streaming on Prime Video, is Skinner’s next act: a neon-lit, emotionally messy, hilariously horny take on queer self-discovery through the lens of a football jock spiraling at college.
It’s Animal House if Bluto had an existential crisis and also a Depop account.
At the show’s L.A. premiere, Skinner opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about the jump from sketch to screen. “Trying to think of stakes,” he said of the biggest challenge, “but doing Kardashian sketches of episodes was starting to help me with structure, I think in a way. Nothing could prepare me for this but I think I always wanted to do this and I wanted to tell these stories, so I think social media actually did a pretty decent job because I wore so many hats.”
Translation: after years of playing Kris Jenner and Kourtney and Kendall and a fictionalized HR rep named Jenni from Brooklyn, Skinner was ready to play himself. Or at least, a football-playing, secretly-queer version of himself, navigating frat houses and inner turmoil with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a “closeted crisis” in the other.
And yes, that dorm room in the show? It’s not inspired by—it is Skinner’s college dorm room. “So the reference is kind of like my trauma, my life,” he said. “Not that it’s all traumatic, but the disgusting experience I had in college was the reference in a lot of ways.”
Trauma, but make it production design.
Joining the chaos is Skinner’s real-life bestie and fellow comic Mary Beth Barone, who plays his on-screen sister. “I think American Pie was definitely an influence, we wanted it to feel like gay American Pie,” she said. If that sentence doesn’t make your gay heart flutter like a glittery butterfly clip in 2004, what are we even doing here?
Barone also invoked Legally Blonde, a touchstone for any self-respecting femme gay or ally. “I think shows or even movies like Legally Blonde where you kind of discredit the bimbo but she has a lot of heart and depth, we wanted to play into that a little bit too.”
The Elle Woods agenda lives on.
And then there’s Charli XCX, pop anarchist and patron saint of hot club rats, who plays herself in the show—and executive produced the music. “Charli was such a professional. We had one day to shoot with her and I was lucky enough to be in scenes with her, so I was just excited as a fan to hang out with her,” said Barone. “She showed up, she knew her lines. She was a perfect scene partner, no notes.”
Skinner echoed the adoration, in a tone that only someone who’s watched Vroom Vroom on loop at 2 a.m. could manage: “She did that in between Sweat tour stops. She came, screamed at us for one day; she’s incredible, I’m so lucky and she was so down to I think be in on the joke and have a cathartic experience with the joke. It was so much fun. I had no idea she was going to go that hard though… she got something out of her system.”
Honestly? That’s the gay dream: scream, slay, exorcise a few demons, roll credits.
With a supporting cast that includes Adam DiMarco (The White Lotus’ certified twink-in-distress), Wally Baram, Rish Shah, Kaia Gerber, Connie Britton, and Kyle MacLachlan, Overcompensating feels like the millennial-meets-Gen Z queer fever dream no one dared to pitch until now.
It’s not just a show—it’s a healing process with a laugh track. Or as Skinner himself might say: it’s time to stop overcompensating and start oversharing.
Watch Overcompensating now on Prime Video.
And yes, it’s okay to cry while laughing. We’ve earned it.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Really funny, cant wait until season 2!