How the Web Has ‘Democratized’ the Comedy Business
“Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” Sir Donald Wolfit, British actor and director, was reputed to have said these words on his deathbed. Who knows if dying is easy? But in a digital age comedy is getting easier, what with the countless outlets online for existing comedians to build an audience and aspiring comedians to find one.
“In a weird way, there’s been a democratization of the comedy business” with the ascension of the Web, said Fred Graver, an Emmy-Award winning comedy writer who has written for David Letterman, “Cheers,” and also created “Best Week Ever,” which runs on VH1, and BestWeekEver.com. “There are several comedy clubs in each city and all of those comedy clubs have Web sites [so] there’s been a flattening of the comedy world, but there are a lot more opportunities for [comedians] to be seen.”
Graver spoke recently at a panel discussion titled, “Comedy and Media: Do You Really Think That’s Funny?” The panel, presented by NY:MIEG (New York Media Information Exchange Group), took a (fairly) serious approach to how the Web is affecting the comedy business.
The panel members agreed that because the cost of entry online is pretty low virtually any Tom, Dick or Harry can push their own jokes on the Web and, presto, they are comedians (even though their jokes may be patently unfunny). But that window is starting to close, albeit gradually.
“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.
Comedy Web sites, of course, are not a monolith. CollegeHumor, for example, which skews heavily male, features hot links to “weird stuff” on the Web (a mashup of John McCain as an infant) and “Stupid Questions Hall of Fame.” In contrast, 236.com, a comedic Web site which launched last November and is an offshoot of The Huffington Post, features politically oriented humor. “We assume you already know the news and we can go right for the joke,” said Sarah Bernard, president of 23/6, (236.com), who previously served as general manager of HuffingtonPost.com.
Indeed, regardless of the target audience, comedy Web sites have to go for the jugular quickly. “If you don’t tell a joke in the first 10 seconds of a video you get a 90% dropoff” in viewers, Reich said.
There was also a consensus that a subscription-based model for comedy sites would be difficult to monetize. “Unless you have access to high-quality content, it seems it would be too tough for a subscription model [online],” said Lou Wallach, senior VP of original programming and development at Comedy Central.
After the panel discussion, I chatted with Sarah Bernard, from 23/6, about the growing correlation between the comedy business and the Web.
Enjoy.
Matthew Schwartz is Senior Editor of ScribeMedia.org and host of the WebTV series, From Print to Digital.
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Good article. Interesting correlative between this ancient form of engaging(humor) and the culture of digitilization. If the Web brings out more humor and more jokes are being told, that’s good. If the Web is creating more opportunities to lampoon our brilliant political leaders, that’s even bettter. And that is truly what is meant by “democratization” of comedy. One note: I believe it was Edmund Booth who said, “….dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”