Everyone has a “sense” of humour. That’s the problem.
That’s why it’s hard to please a group of people with a movie or a show. So don’t bother, and just make yourself laugh with top-shelf comedy videos from one of the internet’s best sources: Funny or Die.
You’ve almost certainly seen a video from there before, because the site co-founded by Will Ferrell is a link-baiting machine. Paris Hilton, James Franco, Lindsay Lohan, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria and more have starred in clips that have been emailed across the intertubes.
Don’t tune out just yet – they’re actually good.
FoD has content submitted by the un-famous, but it’s hard to get beyond clips from the likes of director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and comic Will Arnett (Arrested Development).
If it has a gimmick, FoD’s hook is that videos are voted either “funny” or “die” after you watch them. The best are pushed up the list.
I first visited the site during the 2008 election in the US, when a Republican TV ad comparing Barack Obama to an empty “celebrity” like Paris Hilton drew the heiress to respond.
That was just the start. Even better was her enlistment of Martin Sheen, as she questioned his experience gained from portraying President Bartlet on The West Wing.
“Being a fake President is a lot harder today than it was when I was a fake President,” he noted. “My fake administration started before the country took some hits. It was the go-go-90s.” Hilton didn’t win, despite the US still being in “the biggest depression since The Notebook”.
Post-election, a huge cast took apart the arguments behind gay marriage laws in Prop. 8 – The Musical. Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and Alison Janney were great, but late, on the issue.
FoD is also home to Between Two Ferns, the interview series hosted by comedian Zach Galifianakis, the bearded one from The Hangover. Mumbling questions like a zonked Kerry O’Brien, it is rolled gold comedy.
“Well man, you can’t skate on your looks alone,” he tells co-star Bradley Cooper.
“So,” he begins his first question to Oscar-winner Charlize Theron: “you were in Monsters Inc.?”
There’s more: a filthy Topher Grace and Kate Bosworth doing a difficult scene (NSFW), Lindsay Lohan’s eHarmony profile and Natalie Portman and Rashida Jones’s solution to the global economic crisis.
Every clip is more “funny” than “die”. But that’s just my sense.
The Details: Funny or Die is at www.funnyordie.com
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