Humorous hybrid
In ‘Funny or Die’ fusion, Ferrell, McKay bring Web videos to television
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay forged their partnership years ago on “Saturday Night Live.” Now, in a much different way, the two are back on TV with a sketch comedy show.
Tonight at midnight, HBO will premiere “Funny or Die Presents,” a new half-hour series that compiles clips from the comedy video Web site that McKay and Ferrell co-created in 2007.
It arrives as part of a new batch of HBO comedy, following the premiere of “The Ricky Gervais Show” (9 p.m.), the second season of “The Life and Times of Tim” (9:30 p.m.) and the start of season eight of “Real Time With Bill Maher” (10 and 11 p.m.).
“Funny or Die Presents” is the fruition of a deal hatched in 2008 between the Web site and HBO, which purchased a piece of FunnyOrDie.com (reportedly in the neighborhood of $10 million).
The cable network also airs the McKay-and-Ferrell-produced hit “Eastbound & Down,” which is prepping a second season.
“Funny or Die Presents” represents an increasingly common fusion between Web-created content and television. When the series was announced, Ferrell sarcastically asserted the deal was “the missing link moment where TV and Internet finally merge.”
The show is introduced by a 1950s-style TV host who intones: “ ‘Funny or Die’ is at the forefront of computer technology, leading the way in computer comedy programming. Tonight marks a departure from our usual business model as we join the ever-declining world of broadcast television.”
McKay, best known as the director of comedies such as “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and “Step Brothers,” says that line is “70 percent true and 30 percent joking.”
“Funny or Die Presents” isn’t the next “Saturday Night Live” – it’s somewhat slight, unabashedly cheap programming. McKay, an “SNL” writer in the late 1990s, describes it as “the least noted or developed TV show that’s maybe ever been put on.”
“The whole concept of ‘Funny or Die’ … was the idea that people could have a place to put up whatever they wanted to put up with no notes and no filter,” McKay says. “The TV show came out of that same spirit.”
For frequent visitors to FunnyOrDie.com, the material on the HBO show will look familiar: Will Ferrell as Abraham Lincoln with Don Cheadle as Frederick Douglass in “Drunk History”; Rob Riggle and Paul Scheer in “Designated Driver”; Fred Willard in “Space Cats.”
“It has an energy to it,” says McKay. “There are some pieces that are brilliant and some that are kind of a mess. It feels really kind of free.”
When FunnyOrDie.com launched, it was rare in its combination of professionally created content (from Ferrell, McKay and their Hollywood friends) and user-generated videos that, if deemed funny enough by viewers, could compete with the pros.
It has had some mammoth hits, such as “The Landlord” (nearly 70 million views) and the beloved series “Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis.”
The site, which averages more than 7 million unique video views a month, has often capitalized on the news cycle by rapidly creating timely videos. Those submitted by users have been far less likely to find viral success, but McKay believes the contributions have gotten “way better.”
“Funny or Die Presents” is essentially a step in a direction toward longer-form material. McKay’s goal is to transition the site further into TV and low-budget movies.
“That’s probably the next big step for ‘Funny or Die’ – to continue to sort of blend the two,” he says.