When web-sourced TV shows go horribly wrong

Kill it with fire

I’m a big proponent of homegrown web content making its way to the TV. Not that I want SittingNow TV to somehow make it to the box, just that I find it impressive that the ‘the web-dream’ has actually happened a few times.

Take The Lonely Island. Three guys put up a load of their comedy skits on YouTube, and now they are actors and writers on Saturday Night Live, makers of genuine big-screen movies, and justly praised by critics. Or, Tell Em Steve Dave‘s cast making it onto AMC with the excellent Comic Book Men. A show formulated from a podcast set in a comic book store. Both of these are great examples of talent finding a way through the undergrowth of the Internet, out into the big bad world of mainstream media.

But, sadly, as the saying goes: ‘what goes up, must come down’:

If you’re one of the lucky few out there who haven’t – in most cases – accidentally clicked on this guys videos, I’ll give you the skinny on the prick. Fred is an annoying ‘actor’ who speeds up his voice ala The Chipmunks, and screeches a lot. That’s pretty much it. Here is one of his asinine videos, in which he just rants pointless, unfunny shit at the camera, and acts like a massive twunt:

This video has 10, 000, 000 views – and here is the point of this article – but that doesn’t make it good content.     This smug-looking chud has 140,000,000 views, should she get a show on HBO now? Have the suits at Nickelodeon – a channel that has produced great stuff like Ren and Stimpy – got so desperate that they think giving this guy a show is a great idea? How about give us some more Ren and Stimpy? How about anything but this poorly conceived, unfunny trash.

So what is the solution? I don’t know, but jesus christ someone come up with something fast!

Ken Eakins