The Timekiller: State Of The Web Comedy Union

As the Editor-in-Chief/Publisher/Mastermind/Guru of Whip It Out Comedy, I spend a whole lot of time checking out comedy on the web. And once a month, I examine where web comedy's been and where it's headed. This is that time of the month.

Big News: Quarterlife Tanks

This month was a big step in the wrong direction for anybody that thinks the jump from web series to actual TV series is going to be an easy one, thanks to the colossal failure of the much-hyped NBC series Quarterlife. Despite being created by some legit TV producers, and (allegedly) developing a strong web following, the television debut of the series drew an audience that was slightly bigger than a typical Comedy Store Belly Room crowd on a Tuesday night. To put it in perspective, more people watched a 3-year-old talk about Star Wars than watched Quarterlife. As a result, Quarterlife has been banished to the gay ghetto known as Bravo, where it will likely air a couple more times before being put out of its misery.

Little News: (Half) The Country Is Watching

While the Quarterlife crash and burn is definitely bad news for webheads hoping to make the leap to TV riches, the good news is that the audience for online video is continuing to grow. Apparently, half the population of the United States is now watching videos online, and 80% of those peeps are watching at least a video a month. Unfortunately, 80% of those monthly video watchers still have bad taste and probably aren’t interested in hearing what your favorite beer is (but we are).

Trend I Love: Localize It

One of the things that the web does best is cover niche topics. Sure, comedy is something of a niche, but when you narrow that focus to a specific city’s comedy scene, you’ve got a really strong niche. We’ve long been fans of New York’s Apiary and Chicago’s Bastion, but lately they’ve been joined by local comedy blogs representing several other cities. This is a great thing for comics, comedy fans, and people who believe that the Internet currently doesn’t have enough websites on it.

Trend I Hate: Top 10 Lists

Wanna get yourself a lot of web traffic? Just come up with a list of Top (Insert Number Here) (Insert Subject Here) things and then pass it around to the Gorilla Masks and Diggs of the world. Chances are, you’ll get featured and tons of traffic will come flooding to your website. Now, we like lists as much as the next comedy blogger, and we’ve even used this crass technique on occasion ourselves, but there’s so many lists going around these days that it’s starting to get annoying (yes, we’re looking at you Cracked). Please stop, people. Don’t makes us post a list of our Top 10 Most Annoying Lists. Though that actually sounds like a good idea, now that I think about it...

Welcome To The Neighborhood: AST Video, Comedy.com, ICN, Killing Frogs

The web comedy neighborhood continues to expand by leaps and bounds. This month, we saw the debut of AST Video, a spinoff from the popular comedy-geek message board; the official launch of Comedy.com with its mix of Digg-like features and Yo Mama joke ticker; the Independent Comedy Network, with the belief that series are the secret to web success; and Killing Frogs, a serious comedy blog with a name that seems a little too similar to a comedy blog mainstay.

Video That Deserves More Views: Tighty Whiteys

We’re not just saying this because we’re pals with a couple of the guys featured in the video. This video has really high production quality, it’s catchy, relatable, features semi-nudity, and is about underwear. Seems like it should be a lot more “viral” than it is at the moment.

Video That Got More Views Than It Deserves: Awkward Pictures “I Love You”

With a little help from being featured on the front page of Myspace and Youtube, this video from the guys in Awkward Pictures was everywhere around Valentine’s Day. It collected over 2 million views on Youtube alone. We love the Awkward Pictures’ guys work and have featured several of their vids before, but to be honest? This one ain’t funny.

Just Wondering...

One of the big web comedy mysteries this past month was who Saturday Night Live was going to cast to play Barack Obama when the show returned to the air after the writer’s strike. For a few days, it seemed that every comedy blog was weighing in with their own guesses and suggestions. Of course, Lorne Michaels wound up choosing somebody already on the cast – Fred Armisen – for the role, which was a huge letdown and missed opportunity in my opinion. With all the interest that had surfaced, why not allow the people of the web to vote for who they thought should get the role? At the very least, let them choose a few finalists for the gig? An Obama casting contest would have been great press for SNL, and would have made the revelation of who was playing him a much bigger moment than it turned out to be. Plus, we probably would have ended up with somebody a lot better at playing Obama than Fred Armisen has been.

Josh Spector is the "mastermind" behind Whip It Out Comedy. His column runs every Monday, assuming he remembers to write it. He has recently written about the Oscars as he watched them and what it's like to have 40 jobs. He can be pestered at whipitoutcomedy@yahoo.com.