In the pandemic, Benito Skinner became internet famous for his camply unhinged impressions of celebrities, reality stars and LA types: his roster includes a devil-worshipping Kris Jenner, Billie Eilish at the beach and a twitching, gurgling Timothée Chalamet. By then, the comedian had been uploading videos for years. A clip from 2019 titled Live Footage of Me in the Closet sees Skinner comb his fringe forward, don an Abercrombie tee and travel back to the late 00s to resurrect his teenage self, a boy denying his love for Gossip Girl while repeatedly insisting he’s “not gay” until the screen erupts into a manic collage of Lady Gaga dance routines, Google results for “daniel radcliffe equus naked” and the iTunes page for Glee: The Music, Volume 1.
Six years on, Skinner is reprising the role. Overcompensating, an eight-part Prime Video comedy drama, begins with a similarly unconvincing claim. “Hey, what’s up everybody. I’m Benny, I love pussy,” our hero tells his reflection, an assertion undermined by flashbacks of furtive childhood rewinds of George of the Jungle, plus more recent footage of him leaning back in disgust from his beautiful prom date. The show goes on to fictionalise Skinner’s first year at university, a time spent desperately trying to convince himself and others that he was totally not gay.
