Originally published at: The fall of College Humor | Boing Boing
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Well, if this video is any indication–the first African American person shows up at 11:08 in a video that’s 11:37 long–then one problem might be that the staff of CH look nothing like my students. I remember their videos. I remember how funny they were. I also remember how incredibly white the casts were. This video reinforces that memory.
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I don’t remember a lot of people of color on CollegeHumor in the videos, but I don’t know about the contributors. That was one of the cool things about CH, you could submit stuff to their site and sometimes see it posted on the site. I submitted few things on there that made it to the front page before. It was always gratifying knowing that people who eventually became writers for SNL (Streeter) liked my humor enough to include it on their site.
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Corporate suits opportunistically take over an indie and edgy content producer to “connect with the kids”, force them to give up their authenticity when their MBAs and bean counters start demanding actual quarterly revenue now-now,-now, and then lose interest and pull support. At least IAC didn’t sell the brand to a content mill, which is often the fate of once popular on-line brands.
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Too true. This is good though. Even if it is kinda like they were t r o l l i n g themselves.
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Their “message from the CEO of X Company” videos were funny as hell. But yeah, most of what I’ve seen from them in recent months is the same (quickly growing tired) news “no laughing” videos. It’s not really “college” humor at this point.
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From what I understand, the high page views at CH gave their other company, Busted Tees, the ability to make a killing on merch. The market is saturated now with that sort of product, but at the time it was a big deal because competition was low.
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Dropout is very good, and Sam Reich has encouraged a level of diversity that ICH never did.
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I really kind of hate the internet. I even get annoyed with myself for coming to this site so much.
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World Wide Web I believe is what you mean…
Now get off my virtual lawn!
Oh I’m getting so old and tired… nap time now.
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I look fondly on the old days when the “internet” was that “inner netting” they put in men’s bathing suits.
BTW, I’m sorry, but I think my virtual pet took a data dump on your virtual lawn. I’ll see if I can wipe the computer.
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Did they wear onions on the belts of the swimsuits, as was the style of the time with trousers?
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I like the news and several of the skits–including the “CEO” ones. They’re a good bunch and sure–the market is different–but it’s still funnier than a lot of junk that clogs up the interwebs. Their ttrpg group Dimension 20 is also pretty good.
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As I recall (hitches up pants to chest level) nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em, “gimme five bees for a quarter” we used to say.
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A buck two eighty’ll get you some cat’s pajamas.
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Adam Conover has spoken quite a bit about the fall of CH. For a while, it was apparently a great place to work- creative, low pressure, good pay and benefits, etc. Then some company bought it and started demanding content quotas, monetization schedules, and other such things. This was apparently the beginning of the end. This is why we can’t have nice things- billionaires have to come along and squeeze the blood out of everything.
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Was CH forced to sell?
Maybe the moral of the story is if you are going to sell out your Indy label to some MBAs holding a big check, also write your two week notice into the contract.
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No mention at all of Dimension 20, which is the reason I subscribe to Dropout.
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I have been here for 23 fucking years.
Annoyance? Think self-loathing.
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CollegeHumor is dead, vive Dropout.tv! It’s the first time I’ve paid for an independent subscription service. I really liked the episodes of “Well Actually” they posted to YouTube, and was hooked by their Game Changer shorts, a very effective (to me) ad for their full episodes. Seeing a show where people are having fun, being spontaneous, and being nice to each other was a breath of fresh air in this Doomscrolling era.
I’m glad to support their good sketch and improv comedy.
(if I’m being perfectly honest, I’m mostly paying to see more of Brennan Lee Mulligan)
(Bonus, my all-time favorite CH Sketch: Who Got Me Sick (2019!))
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