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CollegeHumor Graduates
As I mentioned last week, I've been writing an essay about online and mobile TV for the print TIME magazine, and somewhere in there I reiterate the point I've made here before about Saturday Night Live: that it's essentially become an online-video platform, since having other people find and embed the best bits eliminates the need to sit through an hour and a half waiting for the funny.
Last night, CollegeHumor.com made the reverse trip, debuting The CollegeHumor Show on MTV. And it truly—perhaps surprisingly, for a viral-video site—is a reverse trip, reimagining the site's humor in a format that works as TV rather than as individual video clips. The show builds a workplace sitcom around the real-life employees of the site. (This being a web-comedy company, of course, there is only one woman.) In the first episode, CollegeHumor loses an employee to an evil rival humor site and has to win him back through a game of beer pong; along the way, there are running gags involving Internet-company perks, an in-office taco truck, and the fact that no one in the office can remember one another's names.
And surprise, surprise—it's funny. Really funny. Much funnier, in fact, than the original CollegeHumor.com short videos that also run during the show. On the one hand, The CollegeHumor Show demonstrates the importance of knowing the medium: doing comedy that specifically works on television as opposed to simply porting over viral videos to a slightly bigger screen. (Just as SNL has gotten a boost from figuring out the elements of its show that can be blown up online.)
On the other hand, the ability of CollegeHumor to cross over this way—and to wave hello to shows like SNL crossing over in the other direction—may just point to a time when there isn't "online TV" and "real TV." Just funny and not funny.
[To answer the obvious question, I'd embed a sample video if our blogging platform made it possible. And yes, I am aware of the irony.]
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Funny: CollegeHumor. Not funny: SNL.
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Funny: Chuck. Not funny: Chuck getting bumped for an Obama speech. Chuck over Heroes? PLEASE? -
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Personally, I didn't find the College Humor show that funny. I do agree with you that it is impressive to cross over from web to TV though.
I do think that it's true that SNL is becoming a strong internet brand, but it's a bit of an oversimplification to say it's turning into an online-video platform. SNL has always been in "clip format" so adapting it to the web isn't really a stretch. Also keep in mind that this has been a learning process for NBC... since they initially pulled "Lazy Sunday" from YouTube, etc. and then tried to charge for it on iTunes.
In my opinion, this is a part of a greater shift in entertainment from channels/windows to brands. NBC doesn't just run 90 minutes of SNL within a programming block -- it's a legitimate standalone brand. Consider that SNL gained its highest ratings in years by using the SNL brand for an election special. Add in the Pepsi-sponsored MacGruber skits and you have another innovative use of the brand. You may very well be right though -- web-only series (or at least an extension of a skit) can't be too far off.
I have been impressed by what they've done to promote The Lonely Island album. I wonder how that relationship works with SNL/NBC since TLI existed before Andy Samberg joined the cast. The unveiling of "Jizz In My Pants" to "I'm On A Boat" to "Boombox" is pure genius.
I'm interested to see more on your piece about online/mobile TV. Definitely enjoy the blog!
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[...] the show Time called, “Surprise—it’s funny. Really [...]
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