Setting themselves up for a fall the tagline for this week long comedy extravaganza read “This Better Be Funny”, well for the most part it wasn’t and if nothing else this should teach them not to go with a tagline doomed to haunt this event forever more. They delivered two of the three things the title of this event stated, it was on YouTube and it lasted a week but the key component was that elusive comedy which only made fleeting cameos throughout.
Like many other viewers I planned on watching most of the videos under the comedy week banner, after enduring as much of The Big Live Comedy Show as I could take I reevaluated my expectations of the week ahead. I cancelled the standby Ambulance as the odds of my ribs cracking from laughter were now practically zero, unless I fell over injuring myself trying to unplug the broadband.
Easily one of the biggest set backs was the overuse of comedy performers not widely known outside the US, perhaps a more globally focused event could have been adopted to include artists from all over the world. This isn’t to say they shouldn’t have showcased some of the best and brightest stars on YouTube, but an inordinate amount of Live Comedy from unknown (and mostly unfunny) artists and the shoddy style was only too plain to see.
The UK offerings were not in abundance with Ricky Gervais’s revival of David Brent proving the most popular of the slender homegrown offerings, I’m still trying to understand Jamie Oliver’s appearance on the Annoying Orange’s Snack Attack.
The hastily put together daily best of videos did little to endear people to watch but from a views perspective millions tuned in for the various videos, so has it been a bonafide success?
We’ve long established on these pages that being popular doesn’t make something good by default, but I can’t see how the YouTube top dogs could view this as a job well done. The biggest problem with this so called comedy week was everybody tried too hard, some of the individual videos were fun (Key of Awesome, The Gregory Brothers, Epic Rap Battles of History, Above Average) but the bad far out weighed the good.
One of the highlights arrived in the form of Michael Cera’s “Gregory Go Boom”, an enjoyable (if overly quirky) short film from the Arrested Development and JASH star was woefully out of place. If you’re not a fan of Cera this 17 minute film will do nothing to change your perception of him but I quite enjoyed it, if you have time the full film is below for your consideration.
I don’t write this next sentence lightly so hopefully it will indicate how I felt about the event as a whole, Sarah Silverman provided one of the genuine high points of the week and when that happens you really have to question how successful this experiment has been. If it does come back next year I hope they take heed of this bitterly disappointing self indulgent fiasco, there’s still potential in the concept but nobody could call this a success and keep a straight face.
A few diamonds in the rough aside I gave up on this ‘first of its kind event’ and did my best to forget what I had seen, based on the viewer feedback I’m far from the only one who found themselves switching the computer off. Instead of being a glowing commercial for the talent that is housed on YouTube it turned out to be a very public misfire.
What did you think of the first YouTube Comedy Week?