The Cost of Funny

Scribe Media asks: Has the web "democratized" comedy?

"Comedy and Media: Do You Really Think That's Funny?", a panel discussion recently presented by the New York Media Information Exchange Group, considered the argument in an open forum.

"We still haven't graduated from the primal experience online," said Sam Reich, director of original content at College Humor, where he produces, directs, writes and acts in CollegeHumor's original videos. "But people are starting to expect production value online." Reich added that comedy online these days is analagous to the dawn of cable television: crude production values that in time got more and more sophisticated.

Considering that we devote an entire day per week to at least a half dozen brand spanking new videos, we'd have to agree. Comedy has, indeed, been "flatlined" into a medium that has never before been more accessible. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends, of course, on how you look at it (and probably whether or not you make funny videos).

[via Scribe Media]

Comments

[soce]

I don't think videos necessarily need to have high production values. But they should be done creatively and be interesting.

For instance, if you just want to film a video of two people talking to each other (*cough* like the majority of soce comedy videos *cough*), then hopefully the dialogue itself will be interesting, and there will be a variety of cool camera shots and angles, actions, plot twists, weirdness.. ie something that will draw the viewers in and make them want to come back for more.

I've seen lots of web videos with very high production values that are still total crap. Lame jokes and offensive (but not good offensive). The key is to keep it fun, and keep it as short as possible.

[Jack]

The problem inherent with comedy online is all the writing and production values mean nothing if someone releases a cute video of a kitten falling asleep the same day.