Is There A Future For Online Comedy ?
Anybody who keeps a watchful eye on TV news will know that some of the more recent comics of the last 20 years (well remember that it’s fifty years since Morecambe And Wise burst onto our screens) are finding that they are being pushed aside by soaps and reality TV in the great ratings war.
Consequently they are reacting by offering their new works to a different medium – online. Regular readers of this site will know we’ve covered comedy on the box, the big screen and the radio. Now it seems there is a new medium that is attracting interest from some comedy heavy weights. Steve Coogan hasn’t been on our screens in anything new for a while, but there has been an Alan Partridge comeback. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer recently hit the headlines when the BBC axed Shooting Stars, despite it’s popularity, last year the pair worked together putting out some new material along the lines of Big Night Out and The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer.
We’ve been covering the return of The Fast Show, so what have all three got in common, they’ve all shunned the traditional route with their new material and headed online. A much wider, more easily accessible audience with more freedom, if it’s online you watch when and where you want, you can watch it anywhere, on the train, in bed far more accessible than the telly.
Is this the future? Who knows, but if big names are already prepared to give it a go, how long before we see a dedicated channel, imagine the possibilities you could repeat anything without fear, aim at an audience that is interested in that kind of programing, could we even see new comedy that returns to the form of some of the classics such as Love Thy Neighbour, you know the kind of thing that realistically is quite harmless but in modern day P.C. would never get commissioned.
