A break-out attempt
THE warning signs of a medium that may be reaching decrepitude are obvious: say, multiyear plummeting box office receipts, untrammeled product placement, sequel numbers in the double-digit range. The signals that an infant medium has reached its rambunctious adolescence are probably less clear. But one of them surely must be the ability to gather enough practitioners together to stage large-scale competitions. To be specific: large-scale comedy competitions with police and jail themes.
Such a coming of age is being celebrated this month at the site of Web comedy providers JibJab (best known for the Kerry versus Bush "This Land Is Your Land" satire widely circulated in 2004). This summer, JibJab began recruiting sketch comedy troupes from across the country to participate in "The Great Sketch Experiment," a bold challenge to erstwhile comics to create the funniest three- to five-minute prison-themed video ever created, with a $10,000 JibJab development deal on the line for the winner.
This still being the early, if post-infancy, stage of Web entertainment, utilitarian limits drove the artistry -- the prison theme was selected, according to JibJab Chief Executive Gregg Spiridellis, after a police station set became available to them. "Part of the challenge," he explained in an interview at the JibJab HQ in Santa Monica, "is to make the budgetary limitations part of the creative process. The way the 'This Land' video used that herky-jerky animation, we wanted people to use this one set and plan for a quick shoot."
The Jabbers narrowed down the more than 50 scripts they received to six finalists chosen to go before the cameras. And bringing in some Old World savvy to the fledging contestants, JibJab secured the services of legendary comedy director John Landis ("Animal House," "The Blues Brothers") to direct the six films.
In September the finalists, who were from Los Angeles, New York and Seattle, gathered in L.A. for a crammed two days of rehearsing before Landis led a marathon shoot of the films, putting all before the cameras in three days. The resulting sextet explores a range of prison-themed Web humor, including a 1940s-style mock newsreel "So You Want to Be a Cop" and a stagy interrogation room scene in which the policemen switch from playing good cop/bad cop to tall cop/short top, followed by rich cop/poor cop and hot cop/cold cop.
- Yahoo Seeks Spotlight in Hollywood Feb 08, 2005
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- Suit Settled Over Political Parody Aug 26, 2004
