Spring Break
MTV picks up web series for Sunday lineup
Anna Clay
Issue date: 2/20/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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It has since then grown into a full company that provides entertainment to over six million monthly visitors through original videos and articles, as well as user-uploaded content.
Amongst the original videos, is a series about the web site called "Hardly Working."
It features the real life employees of CollegeHumor in an exaggerated work environment. These videos became a popular appeal to the site and eventually caught MTV's eye, gaining the crew their own television program, "The CollegeHumor Show."
The new scripted comedy set in real offices in New York City premiered Feb. 8 as part of MTV's "See You Sunday" lineup. The CollegeHumor employees play fictional representations of themselves.
"We're basically taking our real selves and making them dumber and more vulnerable, and basically taking our worst qualities and blowing them out. So I'm just like an absentee, unjustifiably arrogant, name-dropping boss. I guess in real life, that's what I work on not being. And Jeff [a site editor], for example, is a video game guy so he's like the nerd character," Ricky van Veen, the company co-founder, explained the roles to the New York Observer.
The show follows an extended format of the "Hardly Working" videos with some shorter sketches from the site tied in giving it an interesting adaptation from the web to television.
The first episode focused on the "kidnapping" of an employee, Patrick, when Ricky loses a bet to a rival site.
When Patrick pretends he loves the new company to avoid getting beat up by his new coworkers, Ricky implements a series of ridiculous "improvements," such as a ball pit, to try to make the CollegeHumor offices a more fun work environment.
The episode eventually comes to a close with an intense game of beer pong in order to win Patrick back.
Overall, the cast succeeded in transferring their sketch comedy from the computer screen to the television screen.
They create simple plotlines that capture exactly what a college mind set carried into the work force would turn out to be.
While the show may contribute to MTV's trend of essentially music-less shows, it is something different from the typical reality programs MTV offers.
"The CollegeHumor Show" is not for everyone - you need a particular sense of humor in order to enjoy it but those who are already fans of the site and "Hardly Working" productions will not be let down.
If you are new to CollegeHumor or "Hardly Working," the show is still worth checking out. Sometimes a good laugh at college is necessary.
The new program won't set you into fits of hysteria, but it should at least make you smile. The team makes sure to pack in as many jokes as possible.
"It's our sensibility to tell a joke with every single line," Sam Reich, the director of original content, told The Washington Post. "Yesterday we had to cut 30 seconds out of an episode, and it was excruciating."
Want to see the first episode? It is currently up for free on iTunes. Future episodes will continue to appear on Sundays at 9 p.m. If you have classes on Monday, it just might help ease some of those "end of weekend blues."
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