Posted in: Dropout, Interview, TV | Tagged: dirty laundry, Grant O'Brien, Lily Du

Interview: Lily Du & Grant O'Brien Talk Dirty Laundry Season 5

Lily Du and Grant O'Brien from Dropout spill as much tea as they could about the fifth season of Dirty Laundry before we drink it in

One of the first shows to debut on Dropout when it first became independent and moved on from College Humor was Dirty Laundry. A risque show about friends guessing who had which wild story with host Lily Du, while getting drunk from whatever co-host Grant O'Brien concocted at the bar. The show has grown from being a fun idea heading into the pandemic to one of the biggest staples of their comedy lineup of programming every year. The show has entered Season 5 with two episodes already mixed and ready for consumption. But ahead of the premiere, we got to chat with both hosts about their work on show and thoughts on making it through five seasons on the subscription service.

BC: How's 2025 been so far for you guys?

GOB: I've been, what's fun for me lately is I've been getting back into like full script writing, which I didn't realize how much I missed from the old College Humor days. Getting to write alone doesn't sound like such a treat, because I could do it any time, but I love having little assignments that I have to just do in my apartment. That's been fun.

LD: I think I've been trying to stay sane given the state of the world and the country. I gave birth last year, so I've been raising a baby, which has been wonderful. I've been noting the edits on this current season of Dirty Laundry, so the work hasn't ended for me with filming.

The show's entering its fifth season. How has it been seeing the show grow over the years and reach this kind of milestone from when Dropout first became independent from everything?

GOB: It's wild looking back. It started right after COVID. This was one of the first new Dropout shows, I don't think any of us knew it was gonna catch the way it has. We've learned what makes for a good couch and what makes good energy with people. But what surprised me is just like, "Wow, we still get to do this really fun job."

LD: It's funny because early on after College Humor and Dropout was sold to Sam and then COVID hit immediately after, we were like, "Is this company going to be around?" We make so many jokes in the early seasons of Dirty Laundry where you're like, "He's not going to watch this." Where it's like, "Oh, a secret about your friend? He doesn't have Dropout. Nobody watches this." And we do not make those jokes anymore because we're like- Your neighbor, yeah, he might have Dropout. Your friend who is into nerd culture, yeah, they have Dropout. I think we felt so lucky to get to grow along with the platform and all the way to season five, where we got this fun set refresh, and the show looks so good and so professional.

You talked about figuring out how to cultivate a couch of people. What's the process that goes into that, where you guys sit down and think, okay, who are four people from this particular set of performers or this group or these people that we really want to work with; and how do you figure out that this is the best group that we can put together for this particular episode?

LD: It's definitely more of an art than a science. We work with an incredible casting director, Jazzy Collins, all the producers and people involved in the show. We all put our minds together and we come up with a dream reach cast. Like, what if we had A-list actors on, famous musicians on, what if Olivia Rodrigo was on? Then we actually, the month before, get into the actual casting of it and we'd come at it from all directions, being like, that's a fun group, what if had a bunch of people from StarKid or Critical Role. Or in addition to something like, Reggie Watts expressed interest in doing stuff with Dropout, let's build with him. So we do individuals, we do Dropout regulars, we have to consider scheduling, availability; it's all kinds of stuff that goes into it.

GOB: That's really what impresses me, is that if the actual spreadsheet of the day. "Well, we have this person from noon to two. So how do we do that?" Building the entire season is so many moving parts that I'm so thrilled I don't have to do.

Going along with that, how do you plan out the the drinks that you're planning to serve everybody in the cocktail for the episode?

GOB: You know, pairing the drink to the episode actually kind of happens day of. The first thing we shoot for the season are the drink segments. So those are wrapped by the time we start filming the couch part of the episode. It's kind of a process of elimination where I'll go meet the cast and I'll tell them we've got these options. You want to go first rather than twelfth because you don't have many options by the end. I'm telling you what you're drinking. But I do like to give people a little bit of flexibility. That said, the people on the couches don't ever really have to drink the drinks. Some of that's just a little treat for Grant.

LD: Sometimes Grant is the only one drinking the Grasshopper, which is a giant milkshake with a little bit of alcohol. And I said, "You know what, that looks good, I'll have it." I took my first sip and I said that's a milkshake.

GOB: That's a milkshake, that is 40,000 calories and a bunch of mint.

What are the particular kinds of stories that have happened over the past four years that stood out to you and have just kind of left an indomitable impression on you moving forward?

LD: This stories I love are not always the most salacious, they're just the most fun, twisty, turny stories. Intro, middle, climax; like Vanessa Guerrero's story about meeting Suge Knight, and then she had a photo with him. If you have a great story and then a piece of media to back it up. Jon Matteson from StarKid has one of those this season. It just takes you on such a fun ride and then hits you with the visual proof, it is so fun. And all my reactions are not played up. That is me reacting. I have so much fun hearing people's wild stories.

GOB:I agree with that. It's less about, "how dirty a fact can it be" and more about, "Oh, and then what happened?" Without spoilers, there's a story from this season that is a story of an audition. I'm covering myself right now as I'm talking about it. I'm going into a defensive crouch. It's such a, not a dirty story, but such a human story.

Very nerve-wrecking in the audition process kind of thing?

GOB: Oh, I can't say anymore, but my goodness, I'm sweating.

LD: Yeah, a story that is like, "Oh my god, that is so what a teenager would do, that it's so what someone would think." It could be any of us, but we're glad it wasn't us.

Speaking of which, the two of you share stories as well But now that we're entering five years, are you starting to run out of your own material to add into the show? Or do you have a bank of material that you're just sitting on.

LD: Well, the bank is kind of at a deficit right now. There's a run on the bank. What I have to do now is, as I remember stories, I keep a notes app that's Dirty Laundry Stories, and I write them down or I forget because it'd be hard just on the spot if I'm like, give me ten really good stories.But like throughout the year, like things remind me of things and I write them down And that.

GOB: Yeah, thinking of it almost like a stand-up routine that I know I'm going to have to do pretty soon is the way to do it. That said, there's an email that goes out from the director, Paul Robalino, and it says, "Hey guys, we're getting going, send me some story ideas." And I thought I had a great story. I was like, "Oh, I haven't used it. This is perfect. There's a beginning, middle, and end. I look like an idiot." I was gonna tell a story about how I peed myself at the Blue Man Group once. They should have an intermission! And I submitted the story, and Paul emailed me back and said, "I can't tell if you're doing a bit or not, but you've literally told that story on the show already." And I've just forgotten. I know!

LD: I, knowing Grant, I replied and I said, "No, here's what happened, Grant thinks he's telling you, it's not a bit, he thinks he is telling you a new secret, he forgot, he told that on camera already."

GOB: Completely, completely had forgotten. It's a great story.

LD: You sent it in after the original email, like you had just come up with something so good.

GOB: Lily, I thought I had because later that week was like, oh, I solved it. This is gonna is gonna make the season. Oh, well, you know what? And I came up with worse stories somehow. One of mine has a video.

Honestly as a viewer and I do have a bunch of media friends and like close personal friends we all watch the show, there are times where we'll text each other in the middle of a viewing party and be like, "Well that sounds like the most Grant shit I could think of," just to quote Zach Oyama.

GOB: Aanytime someone does something awesome, I imagine. Anytime someone does something classy and regular, that's when you say, "Oh, I bet that's Grant!"

Going into Season Five without giving away any spoilers, who are some of your more favorite guests that you had this time around, or episodes that you're particularly looking forward to see like what the audience reaction is to them?

LD: I think we have one episode that brings this crazy sleepover energy that we haven't seen on our couches since maybe Season One. It felt different posting them than it's ever felt. It was so fun. I also got to meet some comedy heroes of mine this season, so it felt very cool to get to host people who I've watched for so long.

GOB: I second that, getting to have like Paul Scheer and Reggie Watts come in is thrilling. I tell you what's another great episode, we had some of the cast of The Try Guys come in, and I'm like, "Man, these are just charming folks." We've got Kwesi James in there. This is a restaurant in a good location. This is just people who are a lot of fun to hang with. Famously so, I suppose. It turns out they're good at hanging professionally. It works.

LD: I know, some people just know the drill. The Watcher crew, too, was also a part of that.

What do you see like going down the road for the show? Do you hope it just goes on as long as it can, or do you kind of both have this idea of, "Well, when it gets to this certain point, maybe we should call it a day"?

GOB: No, I wanna keep doing it, hope it keeps going. I can't believe I still get to do it. This is a, what a great job. What a lovely way to make some money.

LD: They'll pry this show out of my dead, ice-cold grip. I'll be hosting a million more seasons of this show. I love it. I love doing it.

Are there any particular ending thoughts that you want to express about this season or to the fans or anything in general you want get out there?

LD: We've got a brand new look this season. I think it works better than ever, and I'm so excited for people to watch it and not just the episodes of the people that they know and they're fans of. I think you'd be surprised how fun it is to watch an episode with four guests you've never heard of and to hear their stories and the energy they bring.

GOB: Yeah, and I think we only had one bad guest this season, and it was my old roommate, Nick Kocher. I don't think anyone needs to watch that episode, but otherwise I think it's gonna be a really good season.

LD: We only had one bad host this season, and it was Grant O'Brien.

GOB: And you know, hey, that's, fortunately, we've got a couple.

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