Funny or Die, the humor video site from Will Ferrell and Blades of Glory director Adam McKay, started up last April with only $17,000 from Sequoia Capital, according to a profile of the company in Portfolio. After "The Landlord" got 50 million views, Sequoia and a pair of unnamed institutional investors came back with another $15 million in funding. Though Funny Or Die expects to gross "a few million" next year, as Sequioa partner and Funny Or Die cofounder Mark Kvamme told Portfolio, prospects aren't perfectly shiny for the funny site.

Problem is, despite attracting talent such as Bill Murray, Jenna Elfman, John C. Reilly, Jimmy Fallon, Jeremy Piven, John Mayer, and a writing staff of 30, "The Landlord" remains Funny Or Die's only real hit. This despite 16,000 subsequent efforts by the company and its users. In fact, the video's sequel and the site's second biggest hit, "Good Cop, Baby Cop," (see above) garnered just a tenth as many views.

"I kind of wish we'd released 'The Landlord' today and not last spring," Kvamme told Portfolio. "The site was nothing then, and now it's a robust thing."