CollegeHumor is a comedy website based in Los Angeles and owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp 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. It was created by Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen. In early 2009, CollegeHumor's editorial staff wrote and starred in their own TV show, The CollegeHumor Show, on MTV. CollegeHumor is operated by Electus Digital, which operates Dorkly.com and Watchloud.com in addition to CollegeHumor.
CHMedia is also a partner of the website BustedTees, an online clothing website.
Many of its staff also operate the sister website Dorkly, centering on video games and video game parodies in the vein of CollegeHumor.
History
The site was created in December 1999 by Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen, with help from web developer Jakob Lodwick. Abramson and Van Veen were high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland. The site traffic averages approximately 10 million monthly unique visitors, according to Quantcast direct measurement.
Abramson said in an interview, "[We wanted to start] an advertisement-based business 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.
CollegeHumor, along with its parent company, Connected Ventures, was acquired by Barry Diller's IAC in August 2006.
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, 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 with other nominees and winners since.
In 2014, the two parts of their short "Furry Force" won the Ursa Major Award for Best Dramatic Series or Short Work.
In 2014, CollegeHumor was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at number 76.
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 such. These videos are released one month prior to being posted on YouTube.
The CollegeHumor YouTube channel has reached over 5 billion views, and over 11.4 million subscribers (as of December 2016).
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.
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 Steve Hofstetter, Christian Finnegan, Brooks Wheelan, Paul Scheer, Amir Blumenfeld, Alex Figueroa, Justin Johnson, and Judah Friedlander. Andrew Bridgman curates the articles and edits the website's front page.
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 seriesâ€"notably "Hardly Working", "Jake and Amir", and "Nerd Alert"â€"which are shot in the CH office and star the CH staff members themselves.
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 over 11 million subscribers, with over 27,765 new subscribers joining each week.
List of series
CH original sketches, animations, and music
- One-off comedy sketches, cartoons and music videos written and produced by the in-house staff. Written by Patrick Cassels, Emily Axford, Adam Conover, Mike Trapp and Brian Murphy (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, often filmed in their 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 former CH writers, Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, who often act out the odd couple act. The show depicts Jake as a regular guy constantly annoyed by Amir's idiotic antics, while Amir sincerely just wants to be good friends with Jake.
- Jake and Amir was one of the most popular shows on College Humor. Along with taking home a Webby Award, the show possesses a large fanbase. The show's final episode aired in April 2015.
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. This series ended when Sarah Schneider left College Humor in November 2011.
TV RPG
- An animated parody of popular TV series using the likeness of retro-style 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 relatability (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 used as a running gag.
- Perhaps one of the most sought-after shows from CollegeHumor, many commenters have been clamoring for more POV shows ever since it went on hiatus in November 2011. The series returned in August 2012.
The Six
- A set of videos starring Josh Ruben, each of which feature six outrageous scenarios in certain situations, such as getting out of the friend zone or having "monsters" for roommates. The videos are narrated in second-person, using Ruben as an analogy for the viewer.
Every 7 Seconds
- Making fun of the theory that men will think about sex every seven seconds, a man is put in a variety of scenarios where things become progressively awkward due to the fact he really does think about sex every seven seconds.
Prank War
- A series that documents the escalating pranks that are played between former CH staffers Streeter Seidell and Amir Blumenfeld. Prank War gained national notoriety after Amir staged a fake public marriage proposal from Streeter to his girlfriend Sharon at a New York Yankees game. The incident was known as “The Yankee Prankee" and was later featured on VH1's "40 Greatest Pranks Part 2". 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 9Â pm and 9Â am. While doing so, they communicate with fans via Twitter and UStream.
Dire Consequences
- A Series involving Kevin Corrigan and Brian Murphy, who each bet each other to do a wacky action, such as wearing progressively smaller clothes as a day goes by, or playing paintball solo against the United States Delta Force. The person who does these things is usually chosen at the beginning of the episode.
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 bodyguard.
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.
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.
Dinosaur Office
- A stop-motion series released via Nintendo Video on the Nintendo 3DS/2DS. The stop-motion shorts focus on Craig the Triceratops and Todd the Apatosaurus as they work at DinoSoft Limited with co-workers Sheila the Stegosaurus, Richard the Diplodocus, various interns, and their boss Terry the Tyrannosaurus. The dinosaurs face typical office problems such as rushing to meet deadlines and trying to decide what to have for lunch while also facing less typical problems such as asteroid warnings on the news, volcano drills, and corporate takeovers.
BearShark
- A traditionally animated series that features a bear and a shark teaming up to eat a man named Steve, and always succeeding (though Steve always comes back), only for them to slowly develop a friendship with him. This series received its own video game in 2013 on the Nintendo eShop.
Badman
- A series that parodies the Christopher Nolan Batman films. The shorts involve Batman (played by Pete Holmes), whoâ€"unlike in the movies and comicsâ€"is portrayed as oblivious and incompetent, much to the annoyance of friends and foes alike.
Precious Plum
- A series starring Josh Ruben and Very Mary-Kate star Elaine Carroll and written by Carroll and CollegeHumor's president of original content, Sam Reich. It is a parody of Honey Boo Boo. It has replaced Very Mary-Kate in the Thursday release slot of Collegehumor, and Sam Reich has announced that there will be two more episodes over the next two weeks, and more will be made imminently.
The Adventures of Kim Jong Un
- A cartoon series which is a parody of the Supreme Leader of North Korea and the propaganda of that country. Kim Jong-un is shown to possess various abilities and powers, which he uses to battle enemies of the state, plotting to harm True Korea. His adversaries are generally depicted as weak and foolish individuals. Typically the ending of each episode features a scene in which Kim Jong-un's recently deceased father returns from the dead in some way and violently fights with his son. His enemies are mostly shown as democratic leaders like Obama. He rides on a unicorn that flies on a flying carpet.
If Google was a guy
- Actor Brian Huskey personifies the search engine Google, who deals with a variety of people who come into his office and tells him what to search. He reacts to the search depending on the person searching and the actual question. Cameos of other website personas include WebMD and Bing.
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. In 2011, they featured Bad Dads, a series of five, three-minute shorts starring Michael Cera and Will Hines. The series was written, directed, and produced by Derek Westerman.
- Also previously produced by College Humor were Bleep Bloop and Nerd Alert. Bleep Bloop was a video-game-based talk show hosted by Jeff Rubin and Patrick Cassels, featuring various guests. Many comedians were featured on the show. Some of the most memorable were Pete Holmes, Jamie Lee, Christian Finnegan, and pro skater Billy Rohan. Nerd alert was a similar show performed in the style of a talk show hosted by Jeff Rubin and Brian Murphy (who is the editor of dorkly.com). They discuss all variety of nerdy matters and end with a surprise guest.
The CollegeHumor Show
On December 17, 2008, CollegeHumor.com announced The CollegeHumor Show, a scripted comedy that premiered on MTV on February 8, 2009. The half-hour comedy was written by and starred nine CollegeHumor 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. ISBNÂ 0-525-94939-9.Â
- The Writers of CollegeHumor.com (2007-03-27). Faking It: How to Seem like a Better Person without Actually Improving Yourself. Dutton Adult. ISBNÂ 0-525-94991-7.Â
- The Writers of CollegeHumor.com (2011-08-15). CollegeHumor. The Website. The Book. Da Capo Press. ISBNÂ 0-306-82026-9.Â
References
External links
- Official website
- CollegeHumor's channel on YouTube
- CHTV: CollegeHumor Original Videos at MySpace
