YouTube Comedy Week
GenreComedy festival
Location(s)California
Years active2013
Founded2013

YouTube Comedy Week was an event on YouTube, and produced by Jash in the US and ChannelFlip in the UK. Comedy week was an event that ran from May 19–25, 2013, and brought "the best of UK and US talent together on YouTube."[1] This was the first of a planned annual YouTube Comedy Week.[2]

The Big Live Comedy Show began the event, was hosted by Kyle Mooney, and was opened by Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogen. This was stage show that was broadcast live.[3]

Announcement

Arnold Schwarzenegger was featured in a video that promoted Comedy Week, and earned over 3.8 million views in one week.[4]

Following YouTube's announcement of the event, several news publications reported about the event.[5][6]

Tubefilter reported that YouTube had "hyped" the Comedy Week event with television advertisements.[7]

Reception

Commercial

As of July 10, 2013, The Big Live Comedy Show has garnered nearly 1 million video views and has approximately 73% likes on its YouTube rating.[8] Other videos uploaded by YouTube during Comedy Week, struggled to get past 250,000 views (as of July 10, 2013). However, the Gregory Brothers' The History of YouTube earned over 2 million video views (as of July 10, 2013).[9][10]

Critical reception

Schwarzenegger's promotional video, Ryan Higa's Google Glass Human, and the Fine Brothers' YouTubers React to Try to Watch This Without Laughing or Grinning were met with positive reception and called the "winners" of Comedy Week. However, due to Higa and the YouTubers React series having established success on YouTube, and Schwarzenegger's video being uploaded as a promotional video rather than a comedy one during the event, the overall event was met with mixed reviews by Adweek and other publications alike.[4]

The performers and entertainers involved in the event featured a mixture of traditional and new media stars and personalities.[11] The comedy show was met with negative to mixed reception, as the particular mixture of new and traditional media was criticized, as most traditional media stars were reported to seemingly not care about YouTube or its Comedy Week event.[7] The performances by YouTube personalities were met with better reception than those of mainstream media stars.[2]

References

  1. ^ Fletcher, Alex (May 3, 2013). "Vince Vaughn, David Mitchell, Jamie Oliver for YouTube Comedy Week". Digital Spy. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Michelle Jaworski (May 23, 2013). "YouTube has a Hollywood problem". The Daily Dot. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  3. ^ Rothman, Lily (May 20, 2013). "YouTube Bets Big on Laughs with Its First-Ever "Comedy Week"". Time. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Mike Shields (May 28, 2013). "Arnold pumps you up for YouTube Comedy Week - Join in May 19–25". Adweek. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  5. ^ Matthew Fleischer (April 25, 2013). "YouTube to step up the funny in May with launch of Comedy Week". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  6. ^ Tony Maglio (April 25, 2013). "YouTube's First Ever Comedy Week Features Vince Vaughn, Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogen". The Wrap. Yahoo! TV. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  7. ^ a b Sam Gutelle (May 20, 2013). "Six Reasons Why YouTube's 'Big Live Comedy Show' Didn't Work". Tubefilter. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  8. ^ "The Big Live Comedy Show - YouTube Comedy Week". YouTube. May 19, 2013. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  9. ^ "The History of YouTube by The Gregory Brothers (YouTube Comedy Week)". YouTube. May 20, 2013. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  10. ^ Ross Luippold (May 20, 2013). "Gregory Brothers Present 'History Of YouTube' In One Song (VIDEO)". Huffington Post. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  11. ^ "YouTube Comedy Week Is Now!". SourceFed. YouTube. May 20, 2013. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
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