Arriving with as much hype as a summer blockbuster YouTube launched their Comedy Week with The Big Live Comedy Show on Sunday May 19 . The first of its kind seven day event will have brand new videos from some of the biggest names in online and stand-up comedy.

From London buses to TV commercials no expense has been spared promoting this online extravaganza and there’s a lot riding on this being a success as I’m sure this is being set up with the intention of becoming a annual fixture. That said, if it is a disaster and goes up in smoke its not like Google don’t have money to burn. Executive producer of the epic comedy night Justin Gayner describes this as “the biggest single comedy event in history”, so with expectations sky high the real question becomes did the live show make good on that promise?

The short answer is no, despite the wealth of talent including Sarah Silverman, Toby Turner, Andy Samberg, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn shamelessly plugging their new movie, the Onion, The Fine Brothers, Tim and Eric, Epic Meal Time and Epic Rap Battles of History and SMOOSH it was for the most part a mismatched collection of funny moments spread over a very long period of time.

For me Sarah Silverman provided one of the low points by adopting her trademark shock tactics to little effect as she tested the limits of what she could get away with on the internet by stabbing Seth Rogen. Overall the whole bum numbing 3 and a half hours felt like a poor mans hybrid of Comic Relief (minus the charity aspect) and Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.

Although boasting impressive views there’s already been a wealth of backlash from viewers who were less than impressed, some comments are too rude to print but here is a taste of the negativity;

“This was pretty boring, even though a lot of the talent was good, too much swearing.”

“There were too many YouTubers in too short time”

“And this is what happens when people from the Internet try to be funny live.”

“And yet again youtube fails at a live show. You would think that with all of the talent on YouTube they would do better but that’s what you get when they only invite YouTubers who are apart of the larger production company’s. It’s just going to be Hollywood all over again.”

The final comment raises a valid point, as much as YouTube has included a wealth of talent there’s no real surprises in the roll call of contributors. Like many live events it was easily an hour too long, in places quite disorganised, and whilst I’m no prude I have to agree with the too much swearing comment which was seldom used in a big or clever way.

Flying the British flag of comedy there’s a great exclusive video from Peep Show’s David Mitchell in a special edition of his Soapbox series, and the first episode of Learn Guitar with David Brent which have both just been released.

We’ll have to wait and see what the week ahead has in store to decide if this has been a success but this launch live show wasn’t quite up to weight of its own hype. The week ahead is filled with potential and it all starts with tonight’s line-up, The Lonely Island’s Diaper Money, Rhett & Link’s YouTube Challenge, Sarah Silverman’s Perfect Night, Above Average unveil “YouTube Through History” and Comedy Gives Back Channel Presents “International Stand-Up”.

Currently almost 800,000 people have watched a portion or all of the Big Live Comedy Show, from a numbers point of view the signs are there that this has been a successful launch regardless of the backlash.