Those fratty nerds at CollegeHumor celebrated the launch of their new MTV television show last night, in the lobby of their big boss Barry Diller's IAC building in Chelsea. Here are some photos.
MTV has bought the pilot for a TV show from the gentlemen behind CollegeHumor.com. The deal is for six episodes, scheduled to air this fall, we hear. No word yet on exactly what the content will be, how much MTV paid, or what role supermogul and College Humor owner Barry Diller may have played in making the deal happen. But needless to say, it will add a much-needed dose of humorous frat-boy hijinks to MTV's current schedule of sober public affairs programming. [UPDATE: We hear the show will consist of comedy shorts, wrapped in a storyline, set in the CH office]. (Pictured: CH co-founder Ricky Van Veen)
In a more innocent age, much earlier in this decade, bloggers traded links out of a sense of camaraderie. Over time, it turned into more of a quid pro quo: You scratch my back, I boost your pageviews. Now, blogs routinely auction off space in their blogroll. CollegeHumor, the IAC-owned juvenile-jokes site, has refined this business model even further. A come-on from CollegeHumor's marketing department encourages Valleywag to participate in its Linkswap program. Every link to CollegeHumor, it promises, will be returned one for one with a link to Valleywag. Thanks, but I think we'll pass.
CollegeHumor, the Internet's most unlikely feminist website? They've originated the homosocially delicious Jake and Amir Show, had a breakaway hit with the sex worker rights' paean "Moments Before 2 Girls 1 Cup," in which workplace health and safety for adult models takes center stage, and now have reimagined the Internet as if girls ran it. The only problem is — and this might even be due to the success of CollegeHumor and their comrades in boy-funny — girls mostly already do.
Gary the Puppet — who in the clip embedded below tours the offices of Tumblr, Next New Networks, Gawker, CollegeHumor, and Wallstrip — might be the perfect metaphor for the New York tech scene. It makes a big show of itself, but it's kind of flimsy and despite how it may look, somebody much larger and more powerful is actually running things. For New York tech, the puppeteer's hand is old media companies. IAC and CBS own College Humor and Wallstrip, respectively. Tumblr has its roots in Hanna-Barbera cartoons. So does Next New Networks, which just agreed to distribute its videos over Hulu, a News Corp. and NBC joint venture. And what's Gawker but a tape worm in Old Media's belly? Still, New York tech has this over the Valley: perhaps because of those old media connections, it knows how to present itself with a hokey smirk instead of new media's typical sassback.
IAC subsidiary CollegeHumor's Hottest College Girl in America Party, held Thursday night at New York club Room Service, was not an official Internet Week party. Yet above, we have Tumblr's David Karp, said college girl and a piece of tape in photographic proof that such a minor detail didn't stop New York digerati attending. The photo needs a caption. Make your suggestions in the comments and we'll rename the post with the best one. Friday's winner is Vulture with: "Serge Faguet cameos in a John Hughes movie VH1 special."
Earlier this month, employees in Facebook's New York office challenged employees at IAC property CollegeHumor to a game of beer pong via an ad in CollegeHumor's Facebook network. CollegeHumor took the challenge, but as we reported, Facebook's new management forced its employees to back out of the contest. It was an embarrassing development for all those who, like Facebook, call the Valley home — including Valleywag.
College Humor spoofs one of those video games that make more money than any blockbuster movie and thus define a generation. The clip below is only funny if you've played online shooters, but according to sales stats that's 90% of you, so we're set.
Due to "PR concerns" — or rather, new COO Sheryl Sandberg's excessively grownup attitude — Facebook bailed on a scheduled game of beer pong against CollegeHumor. The people at CollegeHumor, an IAC subsidiary, were certainly nonplussed. But Facebook is flush with cash. Sure, it's supposed to go toward server upgrades, but sometimes bribery through food is a better investment.
When Google took on Facebook in ultimate frisbee, Facebook took the series 2-0. Now we hear a contest of beer pong — the drinking game involving ping pong balls, Solo cups and Milwaukee's Best — has been scheduled between Mark Zuckerberg's finest and the New York-based, IAC-backed CollegeHumor. CollegeHumor cofounder Ricky Van Veen began the smack talk early posting the above image to his blog. It reads:
"Amir has never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." "Amir has never drank coffee." "Amir has never seen any Star Wars movie." It's a list of things never done by Amir Blumenfeld, a writer and actor at CollegeHumor.com (and half of the comedy duo Jake and Amir). And they're all true, if you believe his boss Ricky Van Veen. [Things Amir Has Never Done]
Mark Zuckerberg wants to be the Steve Jobs of his generation. But his fumbling speeches have only shown how far he has to go. A tip, Zuck: Study CollegeHumor's parody. From the gesticulations to the light lip-smacking, the comedy website's mock Jobs keynote nails the Apple CEO. Look for CollegeHumor cofounder Ricky Van Veen's cameo as John Mayer at the end of the clip.
Ricky Van Veen, founder of sophomoric entertainment site CollegeHumor, was surprised to see one of his inventions pop up in a box of promotional schwag for the new Grand Theft Auto IV game from Take Two Interactive. No, it wasn't some nifty new electronic gadget, but a simple foam fan hand — in the shape of the "shocker." Yes, the savvy Van Veen actually patented the thing. But no, he won't be suing:
Say farewell to Mo Koyfman, the IAC executive dropped in to monitor the crazy kids when Barry Diller's internet conglomerate acquired College Humor. He's resigned from his position as chief operating officer of the dorky web site. There's nothing particularly amusing about the news, except for the assumption that Koyfman represented adult supervision. Founders Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen were always substantially more straight-laced than their reputation for rampant loft parties would indicate; while 30-year-old wannabe modelizer Koyfman, however engaging, is as much a grown-up as Barry Diller is an internet guru.
College Humor co-founder Ricky Van Veen today blogged about how Gawker writers are "hurling dozens of harsh items a day at vulnerable people," and said it's only a matter of time until one of them is murdered by a "victim." In case he didn't get his, uh, point across, Van Veen went ahead and described exactly how someone might, hypothetically, kill a Gawker blogger. First, be a thinned-skinned introvert who bottles up his emotions for years, so one can go apeshit about a blog post (crime of passion=manslaughter=reduced sentence!). Identify the author of the post by reading his byline (clever!). Then hunt him down, since you "know where the writer works (a low-security, first-floor storefront). These bloggers aren't guarded national TV pundits with chauffers and security — they're young people making relatively little money and taking public transportation." He also writes, "statistically it's just a matter of time before one of your targets snaps. It's simply a numbers game." Creepy and servicey all at once! But if Van Veen thinks "harsh" and "negative" blog posts about microcelebrities are really so dangerous, perhaps some housecleaning is in order closer to home. After the jump, a nasty attack on Star editor and Time Out New York columnist Julia Allison, created in the offices of College Humor sister site Vimeo and published to the world by Vimeo Community Director Blake Whitman.
