CollegeHumor

Last updated

CH Media
Dropout
Formerly
  • CollegeHumor
  • CollegeHumor Media
Company type Private
Industry
FoundedDecember 7, 1999;25 years ago (1999-12-07)
Founders Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen
Headquarters
Los Angeles, California
,
United States
Products Dropout.tv
Brands
  • Dropout
  • CollegeHumor (formerly)
  • Dorkly (sold)
  • Drawfee (sold)
  • Lowbrow Studios (sold)
Owner
Number of employees
20 (2024)
Website www.chmedia.com

Dropout, incorporated as CH Media and formerly known as CollegeHumor, [1] is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles that produces content for release on its streaming service Dropout as well as YouTube. Dropout content is mainly composed of live play, such as Dimension 20 , and improv comedy and panel shows like Game Changer and Make Some Noise . Dropout's series often feature a rotating cast of regular comedians and performers. The streaming platform hosts original programming and does not run advertisements.

Contents

In its earlier years operating as an advertising-based business under the name CollegeHumor, the company focused on sketch comedy and scripted content which was posted to their website (CollegeHumor.com) and later YouTube. The CollegeHumor website featured daily original humor videos and articles created by its in-house writing and production team, in addition to user-submitted content. Some popular series produced under the CollegeHumor brand include Jake and Amir , Hardly Working, Adam Ruins Everything , Hot Date , and Very Mary-Kate .

Founded by Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen in 1999, [2] CollegeHumor was owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC) from 2006 until 2020, when IAC withdrew funding and the website shut down. [3] While owned by IAC, the company consisted of three main brands: CollegeHumor.com, Drawfee.com, and Dorkly.com. [4] The current CEO is Sam Reich, a performer and former Chief Creative Officer of CollegeHumor, who acquired the company in 2020 from IAC. [5] [4] [6] IAC launched CH Media's streaming service Dropout in 2018. [7] The streaming service includes original series along with the CollegeHumor back catalog of over 1,500 videos. [8] CollegeHumor was rebranded as Dropout in 2023. [1]

History

Founding of CollegeHumor (1999–2006)

CollegeHumor logo Collegehumor-logo.png
CollegeHumor logo

The CollegeHumor website was created in December 1999 by Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen when they were freshmen in college. [9] [10] [11] [2] Abramson and Van Veen were high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland; [12] Abramson was at the University of Richmond [13] and Van Veen was at Wake Forest. [10] [14] They began by posting photos of themselves as well as jokes, links and other material they collected from emails circulating among college students. [10] [14] [12] Within three months the site was receiving over 600,000 visitors per month and $8,000 in monthly revenue. [14] In under a year, they received a buyout offer from an Internet company called eFront for $9 million, most of which would have been financed with stock shares. Abramson and Van Veen refused the offer and continued to grow the company themselves. [14] Abramson said in an interview that they wanted to start an advertisement-based business, seeing the success of other ad-based websites. Their aim was to create a humor site that would appeal to the advertiser-friendly college-aged demographic. [15]

In 2001, they added Jake Lodwick, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, and Zach Klein, a friend of Van Veen's from Wake Forest. [10] [16] By the time the group graduated from college, the site was attracting 2 million viewers a month and the partners still had full ownership. [14] The group moved the company to San Diego briefly [14] [17] [16] before settling in New York City in 2004, where they set up shop in a 4,800 square-foot loft in TriBeCa. [10] [14] [16] Lodwick and Klein founded Vimeo as a spinoff of CollegeHumor in 2004. In 2006, prior to its acquisition, the CollegeHumor website had "about six million unique visitors per month" with "revenues between $5 and $10 million". [18]

Acquisition by IAC and expansion of CH Media (2006–2020)

In August 2006, Abramson and company sold 51% of Connected Ventures, CollegeHumor's parent company, whose properties include CollegeHumor, Vimeo and BustedTees, to Barry Diller's IAC for a reported $20 million. [18] [19] [20] [21] After being discovered by CollegeHumor Media in 2006, Sam Reich was hired as Director of Original Content. [22] [3] He was then promoted to President of Original Content along with the premiere of The CollegeHumor Show on MTV in 2009. [23] While IAC was focused on CollegeHumor's growth, [3] Max Willens of trade magazine Digiday said that CollegeHumor "was only intermittently profitable" throughout its history. [24] The company started to sell merchandise in 2004, in 2006 it began developing original video content, and by 2009 it was licensing original long-form programming to streaming platforms and television networks. [24]

CollegeHumor became known for its original comedy content. The site was nominated for the Webby Award in the humor category in 2007, [25] and many of their individual videos have been nominated for and/or won Webby Awards: winners include "Pixar Intro Parody" for Best Animation, "Web Site Story" for Best Individual Short or Episode, and Jake and Amir for Best Series. Their shorts "Awkward Rap" and "Hand Vagina" were nominated for the Webby Award for Best Comedy: Individual Short or Episode in 2008 and 2009.

Jeff Rubin at the CollegeHumor presentation at the 2012 New York Comic Con 10.12.12JeffRubinByLuigiNovi1.jpg
Jeff Rubin at the CollegeHumor presentation at the 2012 New York Comic Con

In 2010, IAC launched Dorkly as a sister website to CollegeHumor; this brand focused on fandoms and video game parodies and was edited by CollegeHumor staff. [26] [27]

In 2014, IAC merged its CollegeHumor with its production company Electus, consolidating its digital studios, production companies, and web entertainment properties. [28] Under Electus Digital, Reich founded CH Media's offshoot production company Big Breakfast, and moved CollegeHumor's video team to Los Angeles. [29] [28] [30] That year, Drawfee was also spun off into its own channel. [31] [32] In December 2014, Fortune 's Erin Griffith reported that IAC was considering selling CollegeHumor with the aim of finding a buyer who would "pay around $100 million" for the company. According Griffith, this was part of a trend of comedy websites and other video outlets seeking to be sold after Disney acquired the Maker Studios YouTube channels for almost $1 billion. [33]

CollegeHumor began to use Facebook as a platform for videos which, in 2017, had a higher reach than YouTube. However, Facebook never delivered the expected revenue which led to a pivot towards developing a subscription service "by mid- to late 2017" to "better monetize its audience". [24] Video production staff were split – the staff for Big Breakfast, which focused on production licensed to third parties, was reduced to six people while the upcoming subscription service had a staff of over 60 people. [24]

On September 26, 2018, CH Media launched Dropout, a subscription service that includes uncensored and original video series, animations, and other forms of media including comics and fictionalized chat conversations. [7] [34]

In October 2018, IAC sold Electus, which included Big Breakfast, to Propagate Content. [35] On January 23, 2019, CH Media announced on the Dorkly homepage that they would be ceasing the publication of new articles and comics on the Dorkly site in favor of shifting to other platforms for new material, citing increased costs of the website and the decline of ad based revenue for publications such as Dorkly. [36]

Acquisition by Sam Reich and rebranding to Dropout (2020–present)

On January 8, 2020, it was announced that IAC was selling CH Media to its Chief Creative Officer, Sam Reich, resulting in the job loss of nearly all employees and staff. [4] [5] Reich said in 2024 that he had paid nothing for CH Media, as IAC's aggressive approach towards quickly selling the company had resulted in it receiving very few offers. [6] The restructured company was reduced to seven people; [37] Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dungeon Master of the series Dimension 20 , was the only creative left on the payroll. [38] Bloomberg News reported that, "IAC will keep a minority stake in the business, according to a person familiar with the matter". [5] Reich clarified that the company would continue releasing pre-recorded CollegeHumor productions on its streaming platform Dropout for at least the next 6 months and stated that he hoped to use that time in order to "save Dropout, CollegeHumor, Drawfee, Dorkly, and many of our shows". [39] Knibbs commented that "Reich is beloved within the CollegeHumor community—WIRED spoke with more than a dozen former employees, and the praise was unanimously effusive, rare for someone who just laid a bunch of people off". [3]

In July 2020, a Dropout.tv newsletter noted that production had begun on new seasons of various Dropout shows. The company continued to upload content on the CollegeHumor YouTube channel. [40] Also that month, it was announced that Drawfee was to be spun off into an independent company, owned by creators who had previously lost their CH Media jobs. [41] [42] In December 2020, Reich commented that:

We saw this opportunity to sort of right size it. 'Okay, if the expensive content isn't moving the needle, maybe that opens up a window for us to do a less expensive version of this.' And it's that pitch that we made around town to try to sell CollegeHumor. And it's only when no one took us up on that offer that I went 'you know what, I think I believe enough in this to try to do it myself.' [43]

In July 2022, PC Magazine commented that the current slate of shows still reflected the January 2020 reduction "to a skeleton team with far fewer resources and full-time staff to create original content. When it comes to new, weekly shows these days, it's basically all Breaking News improv bits and game shows. There's also an incredibly heavy emphasis on the popular tabletop role-playing game show Dimension 20". [8] In May 2023, it was announced that Dorkly was to be spun off into an independent company, owned by Lowbrow. The announcement was made on the various Dorkly social media accounts, including Instagram and Twitter. [44] [45]

On September 26, 2023, it was announced that the branding of CollegeHumor would be retired, in favor of Dropout. This included rebranding the CollegeHumor YouTube channel to the Dropout YouTube channel. [1] [46] Reich stated that, "More people who are active fans think of us as Dropout than CollegeHumor now, and this message is almost for everyone else". [46] On moving away from the CollegeHumor style of shortform sketches, Reich highlighted that was in part due to the transition from advertisement-based video on demand (AVOD) to subscription-based video on demand (SVOD) as they felt they "needed to offer something more meaningful". [37] The SVOD model also allows Dropout to have editorial freedom as AVOD platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have a "censorship issue" – Reich claimed many topics may result in being "marked as not safe for advertisers" so the ideal content for these platforms is "a little milquetoast". [37] In 2023, the company did its first profit sharing with anyone who made at least $1 with the company during the year. [47] In early 2024, Reich said that Dropout had twenty employees, up from fifteen in 2023 and with plans to continue that slow growth to 25 by the end of the year. [6]

CollegeHumor content

CollegeHumor produced original comedy videos under the CH Originals (formerly known as CHTV) banner. In addition, the website hosted a large collection of user-submitted viral videos, encompassing home movies, bizarre sports highlights, sketches, and such. These videos were released one month prior to being posted on the CollegeHumor YouTube channel. The CollegeHumor archive of over 1,500 videos is available on the Dropout streaming platform. [8] In December 2022, the CollegeHumor YouTube channel had over 7.39 billion views and 14.6 million subscribers. [48] [49]

Digiday stated that "CollegeHumor's YouTube channel was at one time YouTube's seventh largest by number of subscribers". [24] Wired highlighted that YouTube became so central to the company that they "abandoned" the CollegeHumor "website in favor of rerouting CollegeHumor.com to its YouTube channel". [3] In 2017, CollegeHumor had "upward of 200 million Facebook video views a month, about twice the number of views then received by CollegeHumor videos on YouTube"; by 2019, the Facebook video monthly views slipped "to about one-third of the 2017 tally". [24] The Washington Post opined that the pivot to partnering with Facebook "probably sounded the death knell for the humor site" as Facebook had falsely inflated video metrics. [50] In contrast, Wired commented that its sources "suggested YouTube was far more central and influential to CollegeHumor's business model than" Facebook – CollegeHumor ran into trouble creating videos which YouTube would allow monetization of as flagged videos would be banned from advertisement placement. [3]

CH Originals, established by Sam Reich in 2006, [51] was CollegeHumor's original comedy video section, featuring sketches and short films written and produced by the CollegeHumor staff, which included Patrick Cassels, Emily Axford, Adam Conover, Mike Trapp, and Brian Murphy [52] (among others). CH Originals videos included sketch comedy, film and television parodies, animation, and music videos. In addition to stand-alone viral comedy shorts or "one-offs", which are usually shot on location and feature hired actors, CH Originals also produced a number of series—notably Hardly Working, Jake and Amir, and Nerd Alert—which were shot in the CH office and starred the CH staff members themselves. [53]

List of web series

This is a list of notable CollegeHumor series and CH Originals. Most of these series are now available in their entirety on the Dropout streaming service.

NameDescriptionPeople involvedRef.
Adam Ruins Everything A series that has Adam Conover informing other characters and the audience about common misconceptions. Adam also voices versions of himself in animated segments. This segment later gained a TV spin-off on truTV. Adam Conover, Chris Parnell [54]
The All-NighterAn annual event in which the CH staff shoots and posts 12 videos in one night between 9 pm and 9 am. While doing so, they communicate with fans via Twitter and UStream.CollegeHumor staff [55]
BadmanA parody of the Christopher Nolan Batman films. This version of Batman (played by Pete Holmes) is clueless and incompetent, frustrating both allies and villains. Matt McCarthy appears in multiple roles (e.g., Gordon, Two-Face), alongside guest stars like Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt.Pete Holmes, Matt McCarthy, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt [56] [57]
Full BenefitsTwo coworkers attempt to keep their relationship hidden. Each episode usually begins with them waking up in the same bed after having one of their numerous one night stands. [58]
Furry ForceA cartoon about four teens who become anthropomorphic animals to combat villain Victor Vivisector’s schemes. The show, nominally “on Fox Kids,” won the 2014 Ursa Major award for "Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series."Brian K. Murphy, Caldwell Tanner, Emily Axford, Adam Conover, Josh Ruben [59]
Hello, My Name Is...A series starring Pat Cassels and Josh Ruben. Ruben is placed in prosthetics and make-up by Hannah (their make-up artist), and he spontaneously creates a character on the spot, which Pat then interviews. The show was rebooted in 2023 as the Dropout original Very Important People .Pat Cassels, Josh Ruben [60]
Hot DateBrian K. Murphy and Emily Axford attempt a romantic night out, only to sabotage themselves with their own quirks and insecurities. Later adapted to a television series also called Hot Date.Brian K. Murphy

Emily Axford

 [61]
If Google was a Guy Brian Huskey personifies Google as various users come into his office to make searches. Cameos include Siri (Alison Becker), WebMD (Roger Anthony), the NSA (Brian Sacca), and Bing (Randall Park). Other guest stars include Colton Dunn, Mark McGrath, Charles Shaughnessy, and Jewel.Brian Huskey, Alison Becker, Roger Anthony, Brian Sacca, Randall Park [62] [63]
Jake and Amir Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld play humorous versions of themselves: Jake is usually depicted as a sensible "straight man" and Amir as his annoying, obsessive, and odd co-worker. Jake and Amir [64]
Prank WarA series that documents the escalating pranks that are played between former CH staffers Streeter Seidell and Amir Blumenfeld. Prank War gained national notoriety after Amir staged a fake public marriage proposal from Streeter to his girlfriend Sharon at a New York Yankees game. Seidell and Blumenfeld have appeared twice on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss their pranks. They have both since acknowledged the pranks to be pre-planned and fake. Amir Blumenfeld, Streeter Seidell [65]
Precious PlumA series parodying Here Comes Honey Boo Boo , starring Josh Ruben and Elaine Carroll (written by Carroll and Sam Reich). It replaced Very Mary-Kate in CollegeHumor’s Thursday release slot. A sequel, See Plum Run, was later released on Dropout.Josh Ruben, Elaine Carroll, Sam Reich [66]
The SixEach episode features six outrageous scenarios, such as getting out of the friend zone or having "monsters" for roommates. Josh Ruben [63]
TroopersA series parodying sci-fi movies and shows, particularly Star Wars . Most episodes feature stormtrooper-like soldiers Larry (Josh Ruben) and Rich (Sam Reich) dealing with the day-to-day pitfalls of serving an evil interstellar empire. The show includes Aubrey Plaza in a recurring role as the Princess. A second season was released as a Dropout exclusive.Josh Ruben, Sam Reich, Aubrey Plaza
Very Mary-Kate A series that revolves around the life of a fictionalized Mary-Kate Olsen—a rich young woman who is heir to Woody Allen—and her sensible bodyguard. Elaine Carroll [67]
WTF 101A cartoon parody of The Magic School Bus featuring absurdly gross or disturbing lessons in biology, history, etc. Mary Pat Gleason voiced the unhinged teacher, Professor Foxtrot.Mary Pat Gleason [68] [69] [70]

Other series

Previously, CH Originals produced The Michael Showalter Showalter , a Charlie Rose-style comedic interview series hosted by Michael Showalter and featuring guests such as Paul Rudd, Andy Samberg, David Cross, Zach Galifianakis, and Michael Cera. They also gained notoriety for Street Fighter: The Later Years, which was nominated for "Best Series" by YouTube's Video Awards. [71] In 2011, they featured Bad Dads, a series of five, three-minute shorts starring Michael Cera and Will Hines. The series was written, directed, and produced by Derek Westerman.

The CollegeHumor Show

On December 17, 2008, CollegeHumor.com announced The CollegeHumor Show , a scripted comedy that premiered on MTV on February 8, 2009. [72] The half-hour comedy was written by and starred nine CollegeHumor editorial staff members (Ricky Van Veen, Jake Hurwitz, Amir Blumenfeld, Dan Gurewitch, Patrick Cassels, Sarah Schneider, Streeter Seidell, Sam Reich and Jeff Rubin), who played fictionalized versions of themselves.

Other CollegeHumor.com content

CollegeHumor.com's pictures section featured user-submitted photographs. Like the site's videos, CollegeHumor's pictures were of a humorous or bizarre nature. CollegeHumor also occasionally held photo-based contests for its users. In 2011, Kevin Morris of The Daily Dot reported that CollegeHumor had lifted several images from Reddit without permission of the copyright holders and had added the CollegeHumor logo to these images. [73]

CollegeHumor.com posted original writing from its staff and users, including humorous essays, comics, interviews and weekly columns on sports, video games, college life, and dating. Contributing writers to the site have included notable comedians Steve Hofstetter, Christian Finnegan, Brooks Wheelan, Paul Scheer, Amir Blumenfeld, and Judah Friedlander. Andrew Bridgman curated the articles and edited the website's front page. [74]

Dropout series

In 2018, CollegeHumor created the subscription-based streaming platform Dropout, which became the home for a number of new scripted and unscripted series. After the company was sold to Sam Reich in 2020, budget constraints led to the cancellation of all scripted series in favor of more budget-friendly unscripted series.

Um, Actually

A game show — hosted by Mike Trapp and Michael Saltzman (seasons 1–8), later Ify Nwadiwe and Brian David Gilbert (season 9) [75] [ better source needed ] — in which contestants win points by correcting untrue statements about pop culture. Contestants must begin their corrections with the phrase "Um, actually...", or risk losing the point. Guests have included Matthew Mercer, Rachel Bloom, Demi Adejuyigbe, Kristian Nairn, Doug Jones, Maddox, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, Alice Wetterlund, Lindsay Jones, Zach Sherwin, Thomas Middleditch, and "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Breaking News: No Laugh Newsroom

A comedy series in which four performers act out a newscast and read absurd or comedic text from a teleprompter, with points deducted each time they laugh or smile.

Dimension 20

A live play tabletop role-playing show that debuted in 2018. It primarily uses Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition rules, and usually features Brennan Lee Mulligan as the Dungeon Master.

Game Changer

A game show hosted by Sam Reich in which each episode is a different game and contestants are not told what they are playing before the show. In order to win the game, they must figure out the rules as they play. Special guest appearances have included Jewel, Michael Winslow, Ty Mitchell, Bob the Drag Queen, Tony Hawk, Giancarlo Esposito, and Eric Wareheim. Three spinoffs, Dirty Laundry, Make Some Noise , and Play It by Ear, were released in 2022.

Books

Alumni

Many members of the writing and acting staff of CollegeHumor have gone on to larger productions after their time with the website. Katie Shepherd of The Washington Post highlighted that "alumni of the humor site have spread throughout the entertainment industry. [...] Multiple CollegeHumor staffers have gone on to write for 'SNL.' Others have gone on to work for critically acclaimed shows". [50]

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Amir Shmuel Blumenfeld is an Israeli-American comedian, actor, writer, television host, and member of the American comedy duo, Jake and Amir. Born in Israel, he moved to Los Angeles when he was two, and was hired by the New York City-based CollegeHumor in 2005. As well as contributing to its books and articles, he has written and starred in original videos for the comedy website—appearing in series such as Hardly Working and Very Mary-Kate—and was a cast member on its short-lived MTV program The CollegeHumor Show.

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