Our tale is about to begin, but there’s still time for me to introduce you to our players. Meet Barbara (@barbology) and Laurence (@about2bhitched), a lovely couple. If you make friends with them, perhaps they’ll invite you to there nuptials. Yes, they’re engaged and the wedding is this Friday at 6 p.m.
Standing up with Barbara is her bff, Lily (@lottalily). Lily is very pregnant which is a wonderful quality in a bridesmaid because by comparison the bride seems slender, even if she has been binging on chocolate and bacon in the lead up to the big day.
Also attending the wedding is Laurence’s college roommate, Brad (@soon2b_single) whose marriage is wrapping up. And sending regrets is Barbara’s old pal, Peter (@hollingpete) who is too busy with work in New York to make it up to Toronto for the wedding.
Now let’s turn our attention to David (@BigD4Dave) and his gf, Carmela (@findcarm). Theirs is a turbulent relationship. David’s not the type to lay blame, but Carm thinks all their troubles stem from how much time David spends online. You see David is a Gary Vaynercuk fanatic. Gary’s book Crush It is his bible and he truly believes he can use the social media tools to capitalize on what his passion… if only he knew what he’s passionate about. Until he does find his passion, David’s happy to spend his evenings online, crushing it Gary Vee style.
Crushing along with David are two other Gary Vee fans, Gam3rgurl and Neal (youngneal) who Dave’s only ever met virtually. They meet online every night to talk social media and cheer each other on.
The newest member of David’s online posse is unexpected. David’s mom, June (June_H_Tetley), feeling a little lonely over in England, has just joined Twitter the better to monitor her son’s life.
If you have time, before the Twitter action begins, check out our character’s websites. Lily blogs at Babybumping, Barbara and barbology, Gam3rgurl posts at RE:thinking, and YoungNeal has a YouTube channel, but hasn’t quite gotten to posting anything on it.
If you want to follow Crushing It, then follow the Crushing It Twitter list and tune into Twitter during Social Media Week (February 1st to 5th). If you want to be part of the story, then be sure you know where the @ is on your keyboard.
Some things have not changed so far, so it’s safe to assume that they will remain unchanged. The laws of the classic joke, a setup that brings you into the world of the joke and preps you in a certain direction (”I bought some batteries…”) and a punch which surprises the listener and in fact lets him understand that the assumption he had made upon hearing the setup was incorrect (”…but they weren’t included so I had to buy them again” — Steven Wright). It worked for Shakespeare, it worked for Chaplin, it worked for Seinfeld–and it will probably continue to work in the future. The fact that it used to be clowns who told “jokes” or “stories,” whereas now they’re called stand-up comedians and make “observations,” hasn’t actually changed the basic technique. In the world of new media too, for all the developments it has brought about, there are no new techniques for humor, only a refinement of the old ones.
The topics too are likely to remain unchanged: interpersonal relationships, identity, romantic relations, parents, children, work environment. Obviously, the physical expression of these issues will change according to time and location, but then, too, the new images will pass through the filters of humor as soon as we start developing an emotional relationship with them. If we add the issue of new media into the equation, it becomes clear that in a society that is becoming ever more technologically oriented, humor will also increasingly deal with the mediums themselves. This is especially true when the medium itself becomes much more than a channel of information and turns into a status symbol. When Apple made the platform as meaningful as the content that was being transmitted over it, humor too turned more to the platform. (Link)
From a psychological standpoint, laughter is a social experience. Canned laughter is a testament to this fact. The concept of attaching audience laughter to a joke is as daft as it is effective. For years, the convention that reigned supreme was that in order for an audience to laugh, it had to be told where to laugh, and to be made to feel that it was OK to do so. Humor, as has been stated on the American networks, is like that tree falling in the woods: If no one heard the joke, is it really funny? On the other hand, in recent years, in the transition from classic sitcoms to comedy series such as “30 Rock” and “The Office,” there is less and less use of canned laughter. In Generation Y, the consumer implements the social element by forwarding the sketch through his social network, and by doing so, he effectively creates a community of sorts, who are all in on the joke.
Monty Python and Woody Allen base a substantial part of the comedy in their sketches on knowledge shared by both the creators and the audience. Quotes by Freud, Bergman and Plato are a layer of humor that goes by completely unnoticed for people who are not familiar with their writings. As society puts less of an emphasis on the importance of such a single cultural core, we will able to see these influences in comic writing that will be less intellectual. It is important to emphasize that this writing will not be less cultural. The vacuum will be filled by other content, largely commercial or processed. This, by the way, is not necessarily a bad thing. Here is an excellent example from the guys at College Humor who made a parody of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”. I’m not sure Hans Christian Anderson would recognize his creation, but hey–it’s funny.
The cultural reference is simply different. Here’s another example, a parody of the “2 Girls 1 Cup” video, in which Kermit the Frog and Rowlf watch the clip together. The cultural knowledge required here comes from the field of hardcore porn, no less.
You should go read the whole thing because it’s an amazing analysis and valuable information for writers, creators and comedians. And there are jokes.
We shot the posts for Barbara’s video log this evening. And the first is already up. The amazing fluidity of working in the digital space.
Last Sunday, at the Crushing It story meeting, we realized how hard it was proving to get to Barbara’s story — Barbara being the character I’m writing and who is known on Twitter as barbology. There was really no way on Twitter to get to her subtext.
That night I decided to write her a little video blog that we could post day by day over the week. Dharini Woollcombe — who I’ve worked with before and whose work I love — agreed to play her.
I looked at my week’s schedule and saw a gap of about 4 hours Thursday afternoon and evening. That was going to have to be when we’d shoot it.
I’d never met Jennifer Liao before she sent me an email volunteering to work on Crushing It. Every minute I spend with her, I’m more amazed by her skill set, her calm competence and her sly creativity. At our first story meeting, she showed us her new HD flip-style camera. And I’d seen a test web video she’d shot for her character, Neal (@youngneal). So I asked her if she would shoot Barbara’s videos with it. She agreed.
Next, a location. Scott Albert’s office seemed like it would suit my needs. Not just because it would look right but because Scott seems to know how to just about everything well. Bonus: Scott invited Ben Walsh who’s playing Scott’s character, David to join us.
What else really? Oh yeah, scripts… the hard part.
Today we shot. We met at Scott’s office around 4:30. Wrapped and home by 7:30. Uploaded the first of the videos by 10. I built Barbara a little blog on tumblr and boom! Done.
Conception to distribution in less than five days.
Barbara and Laurence are getting married on Friday. They might both be getting cold feet. Lily’s baby isn’t due till March… unless she made some serious miscalculations. David is about to get fired, spilled on and dumped.
It’s going to be an interesting week.
Crushing It is a social web comedy in which each character’s twitter feed and blog is written by a different writer. As part of Social Media Week, in a daring feat of collaborative story telling, nine writers will spin the tale live on Twitter daily from February 1st to 5th with most activity around 1 and 6 pm eastern.
Audiences will have lots of opportunities to interact with David, Barbara, Gam3rgurl, Neal, Laurence, Brad, June, Peter and Lily. The audience can @ the characters on Twitter and take part in their conversations. The can influence the plot including how it all ends.
Crushing It is an homage to Gary Vaynerchuk and his book, Crush It! Neal, Gam3rgurl and David are all Gary V fans and are on the web nightly, crushing it and hoping that one day, Gary will follow back.
Follow the story by following the Twitter list @crushingitstory/crushing-it-story, searching the hashtag #cistory or following the aggregation on our soon to live website.
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