Vic Michaelis Talks ‘Very Important People’s’ Timely Cher Feud, Taking on Peacock’s ‘Ponies’ and Dropout’s Campaign to Stream ‘Avengers: Endgame’

“Very Important People” has returned for its third season on Dropout and Vic Michaelis‘ alter ego Host Vic is working overtime to make sure their interview subjects are as interesting as possible. But in typical Vic fashion, the host has zero control over the situation in Season 3, and that has never been truer than in last week’s episode, “Fanoli.”

Featuring comedian Angela Giarratana in the role of the fictionarl iconic-but-now-washed-up singer, the Season 3 episode sees Vic struggle through an interview they hoped would be all about speaking with Fanoli, one of their favorite singers, about Cher, another one of their favorite singers. Unfortunately, the feud between Fanoli and Cher immediately shuts that down.

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According to Michaelis, it’s really just a happy coincidence this episode, which was taped months prior, aired during 2026’s Cheraissance.

“Little could we have known how topically relevant this would be with Cher, obviously, being in Bowen Yang’s last episode of ‘SNL,’ being very in the cultural zeitgeist with the Dax Shepard interview,” Michaelis told Variety. “So it’s kind of a perfect time for a new Cher feud to come about.”

See below for more from Variety‘s interview with Michaelis about Dropout’s “Very Important People” Season 3 and their role on Peacock’s Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson-led spy series “Ponies.”

First, how is your tenure as honorary president of Dropout going?

I feel like I’m making a lot of really important structural changes. There’s been a lot of pushback within the organization, and I’m not letting that stop me from fulfilling my agenda. And I think that’s really important. I’m making sure that we have TV screens in all of the bathrooms, so that way people can watch “Avengers: Endgame,” really know what we’re playing for. Henry the Pig has a really important position in the cabinet. There’s lots of big changes here. We’re spending money left, right and center, but I think it’s going to come back to us tenfold.

With the upcoming release of “Avengers: Doomsday,” do you want to campaign to get that on Dropout as well?

I don’t, because, if anything, I think that that’s going to help our goal of getting “Endgame” on the platform. We’ve got a new “Avengers” coming out. Disney, don’t be greedy. There’s too many “Avengers” on Disney+, let’s unload one for you

I know Host Vic turned it down in the episodes — but will you reconsider making Fanoli’s “I Don’t Want Money, I Don’t Even Like It, I Just Want to Throw It Away” the official “VIP” theme song?

Listen, it’s catchy. And here’s the thing about Host Vic — I want to say a firm no, but if people seem to really like it, then I’m willing to throw away any and every moral high ground I have in order to make people happy. So probably not, but also a definite possibility.

As we now know, Fanoli has a giant feud with Cher and this becomes a major part of his “VIP” interview. Did that start with you? At what point in the improv process was the Cher feud introduced to be such a heavy plot point for Fanoli?

Honestly, I think when it comes to improving stuff like that, I like including things that I know a lot about and so can easily reference. And I was like, Cher it’s one of my favorite people on the planet. That’s somebody that I know. I can pull out any of her discography. I can talk about her life. I’ve read her autobiography twice — the audiobook is her and Stephanie J. Block that switch back and forth as the narrator because she didn’t want to read the whole thing; it’s iconic. I felt like that was something that I could reference a lot, and I did not realize that Angela knew, I think, nothing about Cher, other than maybe her name.

It elicited a pretty emotional reaction in me immediately, because I was so prepped to get into it and talk about it, and Angela immediately going, “No, pass,” I think it broke something in Vic the performer a little bit.

How did you approach your “Ponies” character, Cheryl, and did you see similarities between her and Host Vic?

When you really get to live in a different character in a different time, I just am drawn to characters like this. I think that Cheryl is so reliant on specifically, a lot of the men around her, and her tactics to get what she wants is similar to host Vic, but a little bit different. It’s also just a different audience. So I wasn’t feeling too fearful of people being like, That’s Host Vic!

I am very excited for people to get to see Cheryl. I think Cheryl also skews — I’m saying this because I’ve lived with Host Vic for so long, I have a lot of empathy for them as a character — a little bit meaner towards the people around her. I do think that Cheryl is unbelievably capable and has so much to give. And I think in another time would have been rising the ranks as the CEO of something, or been the head of something, and has all of that power; whereas I don’t think Host Vic has that ability. I think Cheryl is hyper competent, but just because of the time and the world that she’s living in, has an inability to rise above her station and is so reliant on the people around her. That’s such a hard position to be in. And I really feel for that situation.

What can you tease about where Cheryl ends the season vs. where she starts it?

This show is so funny because the way in which it was shot, I know it is a spy thriller, but for me, it was just kind of an intimate family drama. You sometimes have to slowly fall apart to rebuild, that’s my thoughts on Cheryl. Sometimes everything has to unravel in order to start making some yarn for a sweater, and sometimes the sweater is better next time. Sometimes the sweater is a more fun, nice, red sweater. That’s what I want to say.

This interview has been edited and condensed.