Comedy Central wants you!

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on May 9th, 2006

FOS Tommy James sends along a link to a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal about Comedy Central and their bid to rule the standup comedy world.

The cable outlets are threatened, it seems by our new friend, The Internet:

Comedy Central’s entry into these new arenas is one part innovation and one part survival. Just a few years ago, cable channels were seen as the scrappy newcomers taking away viewers from the traditional broadcast-television networks. But the Internet is posing new competition for both cable and broadcast television– and in some ways the Web is more of a threat to cable than broadcast[…]

Being a one-stop shop for comedians gives Comedy Central more control over its content and key performers. “We try to own everything,” says Caleb Weinstein, Comedy Central’s senior vice president of strategic development. The different businesses feed each other.

Cue the scary music!

You can bet if we were tapped to perform in front of a group of people that included Caleb Weinstein, senior VP of strategic development, we’d take the opportunity to abandon our set and speak truth to power! How can we let these media conglomerates enslave us?! Someone should let these corporate vultures know that we’re artists! We will not sell our souls for a few measly dollars! Hey… waitaminute… I’ll bet this Weinstein fellow was present at the recent MTVN upfront advertisers meeting in New York last week. Someone should have spoken up then! Surely there were artists present…

Awww… I guess we’re just a tad cranky because no one ever gives us any credit for speaking “truth to power.” Hell, in the past 14 months, we’ve called the folks who run Just For Laughs “cheap fucks” and mercilessly harangued the people at Parallel Entertainment in a scorching email exchange. I suppose when you only get a half-million hits a month, it’s more like “squeaking truth to power.”

Well, gotta go. Headed to Atlantic City to make some seniors laugh. (Note to selves: Change “shit” to “poopie.”)

from → News • 0 Comments - Let's discuss! • Print-Friendly • Back To Top