CollegeHumor

This article is about the comedy website. For the TV series based on the website, see The CollegeHumor Show. For other uses, see College Humor (disambiguation).

CollegeHumor

URL	CollegeHumor.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Entertainment website
Registration	Optional
Owner	IAC/InterActiveCorp
Created by	Josh Abramson, Ricky Van Veen
Launched	1999

CollegeHumor is a comedy website owned by InterActiveCorp and based in New York City. The site features daily original comedy videos and articles created by its in-house writing and production team, in addition to user-submitted videos, pictures, articles and links. In early 2009, CollegeHumor's editorial staff wrote and starred in their own TV show, The CollegeHumor Show, on MTV. CollegeHumor is operated by CHMedia, a New York company that also owns Defunker, BustedTees, Sports Pickle, and Jest (formerly Today's Big Thing (also owned by IAC)).^[1]

Many of its staff also operate the sister website, Dorkly, centering on video games and video game parodies in the vein of College Humor.

History

The site was created in 1999 by Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen and with help from web developer, Jakob Lodwick. Abramson and Van Veen were high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland. Site traffic averages over 7 million monthly unique visitors, according to Quantcast direct measurement.^[2] According to Fox News, "[We wanted to start] an advertisement-based business," Abramson said, "because at the time the advertising market was pretty hot and we’d seen other people develop Web sites that were popular making a lot of money." Their aim was to create a humor site that would appeal to the advertiser-friendly college-aged demographic.^[3] CollegeHumor, along with its parent company, Connected Ventures, was acquired by Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp in August 2006.^{[citation needed]} In recent years, CollegeHumor has become known for its original comedy content. The site has been nominated for the Webby Award in the humor category,^[4] and many of their individual videos have been nominated for and/or won Webby Awards. Recent winners include "Pixar Intro Parody" for Best Animation, "Web Site Story" for Best Individual Short or Episode, and "Jake and Amir" for Best Series. Their shorts "Awkward Rap" and "Hand Vagina" were nominated for the Webby Award for Best Comedy: Individual Short or Episode in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Features

Videos

CollegeHumor produces original comedy videos under the CH Originals (formerly known as CHTV) banner. In addition, the site hosts a large collection of user-submitted viral videos, encompassing home movies, bizarre sports highlights, sketches, and the like. These videos can be viewed 1 month before released in their website.

Pictures

CollegeHumor's Pictures section features user-submitted photographs. Like the site's videos, CollegeHumor's pictures are of a humorous or bizarre nature. CollegeHumor also occasionally holds photo-based contests for its users. CollegeHumor also provides a hottest/cutest college girl contest almost every day throughout the year.

Articles

CollegeHumor posts original writing from its staff and users, including humorous essays, comics, interviews and weekly columns on sports, video games, college life and dating. Contributing writers to the site have included notable comedians Christian Finnegan, David Wain, Paul Scheer, Amir Blumenfeld, Justin Johnson^[5], Judah Friedlander. Streeter Seidell curates the articles and edits the website's front page. ^[6]

CH Originals

CH Originals is CollegeHumor's original comedy video section, featuring sketches and short films written and produced by the CollegeHumor staff. The site releases over ten new videos per week. CH Originals videos include sketch comedy, film and television parodies, animation, and music videos. In addition to stand-alone viral comedy shorts or "one-offs", which are usually shot on location and feature hired actors, CH Originals also produces a number of series—notably "Hardly Working", "Jake and Amir", and "Nerd Alert"—which are shot in the CH office and star the CH staff members themselves.^[7]

CollegeHumor's original videos average 20 million views per month on the site. In addition, their videos are collected on the CollegeHumor YouTube Channel, which currently has 2,013,518 subscribers.^[8]

List of Series

Soap Box CH Original Sketches, Animations, and Music

One-off comedy sketches, cartoons and music videos written and produced by the in-house staff. Written by Dan Gurewitch, Amir Blumenfeld, David Young, Sarah Schneider, Patrick Cassels and Jake Hurwitz (amongst others), these sketches are designed to be more "viral" in nature than the site's other comedy content.

Hardly Working

Sketches written by and starring the CH editorial staff, filmed in their NYC office. These videos usually depict the fictionalized odd activities and events that take place in the office on a daily basis.

Jake and Amir

A series of short sketches about two CH writers, Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, the two often act out the odd couple act. The show depicts Jake as a regular guy constantly annoyed by Amir's idiotic antics; who sincerely just wants to be good friends with Jake.

Jake and Amir is one of the most popular shows on College Humor. Along with taking home a Webby Award, the fanbase of the series is enormous^{[citation needed]}.

Full Benefits

A series of sketches written by and starring Sarah Schneider and David Young about two coworkers and their attempts to keep their relationship hidden. Each episode usually begins with them waking up in the same bed after having one of their numerous one night stands.

Bleep Bloop

A video-game-based talk show hosted by Jeff Rubin and Patrick Cassels, featuring various guests. Many comedians are featured on the show. Some of the most memorable are Pete Holmes, Jamie Lee, Christian Finnegan, and pro skater Billy Rohan.

TV RPG

An animated parody of popular TV series using the likeness of retro-style RPG (role-playing games).

POV

Sketches shot from the point-of-view of the main character, often voiced by Vincent Peone, CollegeHumor's cinematographer. These sketches are known for realism and relatablity (in a humorous manner) and are among CH's most popular videos. In most POV videos the phrase "How is that even possible?" is often said as a running gag.

Perhaps one of the most sought-after shows from CollegeHumor, many commenters clamor for more POV shows.

Prank War

A series that documents the escalating pranks that are played between CH staffers Streeter Seidell and Amir Blumenfeld. Prank War gained national notoriety after Amir staged a public marriage proposal to Streeter's girlfriend on his behalf. The incident was known as “The Yankee Prankee" and was later featured on VH1's "40 Greatest Pranks Part 2".^[9] Seidell and Blumenfeld have appeared twice on Jimmy Kimmel Live to discuss their pranks.

CH Live

Excerpts from stand-up comedy performances from CH's monthly live show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City.

The All-Nighter

An annual event started in 2007 in which the CH staff shoots and posts 12 videos in one night between 9 pm and 9 am. While doing so, they communicate with fans via Twitter and UStream.

IRL Files

Stories about a never-seen narrator who gets involved in wacky situations.

Very Mary-Kate

A series that revolves around the life of Mary-Kate Olsen (played by Elaine Carroll), a rich young woman who is heir to Woody Allen, and her sensible body guard.

Hello, My Name Is...

A series starring Pat Cassels and Josh Ruben. Josh is placed in prosthetic and make-up by their make-up artist Hannah. From the prosthetic, he spontaneously creates a character which Pat then interviews.

Nerd Alert

The newest of the CollegeHumor series, it is performed in the style of a talk show hosted by Jeff Rubin and Brian Murphy (Editor of dorkly.com). They discuss all variety of nerdy matters and end with a surprise guest.

Troopers

A series that parodies of Sci-Fi movies and shows, particularly Star Wars. Shorts mostly focus on a pair of storm trooper like soldiers, Larry and Rich, and the humorous problems that arise from working for an evil interstellar empire aboard a small, moon-sized, planet-destroying space station. Features Aubrey Plaza in a guest role.

Past Series

Previously, CH Originals produced The Michael Showalter Showalter, a Charlie Rose-style comedic interview series hosted by Michael Showalter and featuring guests such as Paul Rudd, Andy Samberg, David Cross, Zach Galifianakis, and Michael Cera. They also gained notoriety for "Street Fighter: The Later Years", which was nominated for "Best Series" by YouTube's Video Awards.^[10]

The CollegeHumor Show

Main article: The CollegeHumor Show

On December 17, 2008, CollegeHumor.com announced The CollegeHumor Show, a scripted comedy that premiered on MTV on February 8, 2009.^[11] The half-hour comedy was written by and starred nine actual CollegeHumor.com editorial staff members (Ricky Van Veen, Jake Hurwitz, Amir Blumenfeld, Dan Gurewitch, Patrick Cassels, Sarah Schneider, Streeter Seidell, Sam Reich and Jeff Rubin), who played fictionalized versions of themselves.

Books

• The Writers of CollegeHumor.com (2006-04-06). The CollegeHumor Guide to College: Selling Kidneys for Beer Money, Sleeping with Your Professors, Majoring in Communications, and Other Really Good Ideas. Dutton Adult. ISBN 0525949399. 
• The Writers of CollegeHumor.com (2007-03-27). Faking It: How to Seem Like a Better Person Without Actually Improving Yourself. Dutton Adult. ISBN 0525949917. 
• The Writers of CollegeHumor.com (2011-08-15). CollegeHumor. The Website. The Book. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306820269. 

References

1. ^ "About Connected Ventures". Connected Ventures LLC. http://www.connectedventures.com/about.php. Retrieved 2008-11-16. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "Quantcast Audience Profile". Quantcast. http://www.quantcast.com/collegehumor.com. 
3. ^ Carothers, Carrie (2006-06-15). "Business at Collegehumor.com Is No Joke". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199656,00.html. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
4. ^ "11th Annual Webby Awards Nominees: 2007". The Webby Awards. http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=11. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
5. ^ "Hurrican Survivor Tips From a Survivor"
6. ^ Seidell, Streeter (2008-04-20). "I Waste People's Time Online. How? Don't Ask Me". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/weekinreview/20seidell.html?_r=3&ref=weekinreview&oref=slogin. 
7. ^ "College Humor's Original CHTV section". collegehumor.com. http://www.collegehumor.com/chtv. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
8. ^ "CollegeHumor's YouTube Channel". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/collegehumor. Retrieved 2011-02-27. 
9. ^ "The Twenty (Intentionally) Funniest Web Videos of 2007". New York Magazine. 2007-11-11. http://nymag.com/movies/features/videos/40663. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
10. ^ "YouTube 2007 Video Awards". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
11. ^ Promo Video Containing date

External links

• CollegeHumor
• CollegeHumor at YouTube
• CHTV: CollegeHumor Original Videos at MySpace

Achievements
Preceded by realannoyingorange	Most Subscribed Channel on YouTube Ranked 10th as of 2010	Succeeded by sxephil
Preceded by realannoyingorange	#8 - Most Subscribed comedians Ranked 8th as of 2010	Succeeded by kevjumba

page: www.reference.com