Dropout Regular Jeremy Culhane Gets Game-Changing Gig in ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast
Saturday Night Live just revealed that they are adding actor, writer and comedian Jeremy Culhane to the featured cast ahead of the upcoming Season 51. Now who is going to host Game Changer while Sam is stuck being sexy?
As Lorne Michaels and Saturday Night Live continue to adapt to an endlessly shifting comedy landscape, it’s becoming clear that someone at 30 Rockefeller Plaza has a Dropout subscription. Back in 2018, the production company and comedy website formerly known as CollegeHumor rebranded and launched the streaming service Dropout, offering original shows centered around improvisation and highlighting the off-the-cuff comedy talents of their rotating casts of elite guest performers. Today, Dropout and its shows are the nucleus of a veritable online humor empire, and the entire Dropout community is now celebrating the ascension of Culhane from panel-show darling to SNL cast member as he joins former CollegeHumor star and current SNL head writer Streeter Seidell at the 30 Rock offices.
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Unfortunately for Dropout subscribers, this probably means that Culhane, who co-hosts the improvised comedy podcast Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists and who also regularly collaborates on sketches for the comedy collective Smosh, won’t return to the Game Changer set anytime soon after spending this summer stealing fans’ hearts with a pair of memorable appearances:
Culhane, who had previously appeared on multiple episodes of the Game Changer spin-off show Make Some Noise before graduating to the big stage and winning over the Dropout fandom, will be sorely missed in the online improv community where he was quickly becoming a staple before SNL swooped in to steal all his late nights for seven months out of the year. Over in the Dropout subreddit, Culhane’s fans and Dropout subscribers celebrated the announcement while lamenting that his availability is about to take a hit.
“This is so insane and so well deserved,” one such Culhane-head wrote. “His energy is infectious and he’s one of the Dropout regulars (probably less regular now) that gets me to watch any episode ASAP just because he’s in it. So happy for him to get a bigger audience (hopefully the SNL shakeups don’t mean he’s boarding a sinking ship though).”
Another joked of the time Culhane hijacked Game Changer from host and Dropout CEO Sam Reich, “From host of Game Changer to SNL!”
“Wow that’s huge! Already an SNL fan and a Jeremy fan so that’ll be great,” one more commented.
While Saturday Night Live’s decision to begin courting the burgeoning community for online improv comedy is a milestone occasion for Dropout fans, Culhane’s casting is also a win for SNL traditionalists who miss the time when nearly every comedian on the show had strong improv roots. Even with Michaels’ famous “no improv” rule for show nights, any live show needs performers who understand the value and pressure of spontaneous comedy, and Culhane will bring that energetic, unpredictable, but ultimately focused chaos that any SNL cast sorely needs.
Just don’t ask him to play Christopher Walken.