Here’s something sort of amazing: Whose Line Is It Anyway? is still on. The televised improv show originally aired on ABC with Drew Carey hosting, but it’s since been revived on The CW with its original cast and Aisha Tyler leading the pack. Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles are still at it, a living embodiment of one of The Onion’s greatest headlines.
Any show that’s been on as long as Whose Line Is It Anyway? is bound to grow a bit stale. There’s nothing wrong with a little tinkering, after all, especially when you’re looking for a way to make it resonate with a modern audience. Comedian and video editor Dominick Nero has an idea: Make it a video game. Kids love video games.
Using Mortal Kombat as his template, Nero swapped out Sub-Zero and Scorpion for Brady, Styles, Mochrie, and Carey (with a cameo from Greg Proops). He nails the blurry pixelation of the SNES and Genesis era, as well as the looping, herky-jerky movements of its players. The menu screen allows players to choose from the show’s signature games—“Scenes From A Hat” and “Irish Drinking Song” among them—but in a devilish twist the comedians don’t improvise at all. Instead, they beat the shit out of each other, perhaps in an acknowledgment that there’s nothing more punishing than bad improv.