Running in Heels looks at some of best comedy on offer online. Free comedy? Now that’s laughable….
Comedy isn’t just gross-out movies, festivals and stand ups. If you’re still battling an overdraft and grey weather depression there’s plenty of free comedy online in case you’ve got an extended case of the winter blues…
Funny or Die
Funny or Die is a comedy video site that combines both user-generated content with original exclusive content. You can find anything and everything here but the beauty of the site is that bad comedy doesn’t get to stay. Users get to vote on whether a video is funny or whether it deserves to die, once ‘dead’ the video goes to the site’s crypt to rest for eternity or until it is resurrected, if users consider it worthy of a second chance.
Co-founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay – the comedy geniuses (genii?!) behind Anchorman – and Chris Hency (writer and producer for the brilliant Entourage and – pause for useless celebrity fact – husband of Brooke Shields), the site’s very first video The Landlord featuring McKay’s baby daughter as a beer swilling, foul mouthed landlord harassing Will Ferrell for his rent, has amassed over 69 millions views to date.
Being a celebrity junkie, The Red Carpet Club is my favourite area of the site, with celebrities like Zac Efron, Rachel Bilson and Lindsay Lohan guest-starring in the sites videos. Some of my favourites are:
- Paris gets presidential with Martin Sheen: This video series was a response to an ill advised McCain campaign commercial, and focused on Paris’s campaign to become America’s next fake president demonstrating a more self aware and witty side to the heiress than anyone expected. Paris queries America’s ‘greatest fake president’ about the issues she plans to tackle including the economic crisis – ‘the biggest depression since The Notebook’.
- Lindsay Lohan’s eHarmony profile: Lindsay Lohan looking for someone to spend the rest of her life, or at least the rest of her parole, with.
- Zac Efron’s pool Party: Just because he’s hot and because the video also features Brody Jenner discussing economics (no really).
Youtube it!
Whilist funnyordie finds the best of comedy videos, great comedy can also be found by trawling through youtube. Here are two of my youtube favourites.
Chortle
Chortle is the online guide to comedy in Britain. Their youtube page has some great stand up videos. I’m currently obsessed with David O’Doherty’s Text Song but that’s just one of the many videos waiting to amuse you.
Summer Heights High
Created by and starring by comedian Chris Lilley, Summer Heights High is a mockumentary about life in an Australian public school which deals with typical high school issues. The main characters – Jonah Takalua, Mr. G, and J’aime King – the school boy, the teacher and the exchange student respectively, are all played by Lilley.
Whilst the entire show cannot be watched on youtube legally there are enough teasers to keep you giggling. Within Europe the show has screened on BBC3 but with a mere eight episodes in existence prepare to watch those youtube clips over and over again…
Tweet Comedy Club
One of the more innovative ideas to come out of twitter so far (and certainly more creative than the fake RIP Johnny Depp tag that keeps upsetting me lately), Tweet Comedy Club (@tweetcomedyclub) was conceived by comedian Tiernan Douieb. Described as an online comedy club/experiment, the club had their first gig last June gathering nine comedians together via twitter.
Whilst the gig itself was rife with problems; comedians forgetting to use the hash tag, slow typing and a particularly poor effort by Carl Donnelly who simply provided a link to a youtube video of him performing, it is an idea which has great potential if developed. A repeat performance in front of a both a live and virtual audience at Edinburgh Fringe in August was the last that has been seen of twitter comedy club but follow their twitter for developments as there may be another in the pipeline. It’s not going to put comedy clubs out of business anytime soon but it’s definitely one to watch.
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