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Is the web killing comedy?

By Rags Martel

Updated on 27 February 2009

Are mobile phone cameras and web video giving rise to joke theft on a grand scale? More4 News explores.

Rags Martel has been talking to one man who's rage against the machine has recently landed him in court.

What the comics tweeted

Quite a few comedians seem to be fans of the latest social networking phenomenon twitter - perhaps because the 142-character limit on messages effectively limits you to one-liners.

So we tweeted - as it's called - various comedians for their views on the subject. This is what they said:

misterspidergod, aka Paul Foxcroft: No. But it is changing how comedy is experienced and produced, the big change is that there's more, good and bad, out there.

Matthew Crosby: I like that you contacted me by twitter to ask if the web is killing comedy. My question to you: Is it killing journalism?

Robert Popper: No. It's helping it. There's now a platform for new folk to try stuff out without being too exposed.

thesophie: No, you fool. There's news on more4? That's news to me.

Matthew Crosby: the web isn't killing comedy. The fact that anyone can post their comedy to be ignored/viewed by anyone can only be a good thing.

Matthew Crosby: that said, Twitter may be killing comedy. It seems that everyone is tweeting, rather than working. I say everyone, I mean me.

Dom Holland: no I dont thing so - what's killing comedy is commisioning editors who dont know funny. I realise you cant use this.

Tiernan Douieb: I think the web promotes and helps comedy. Look at jim jeffries who has got a big US career and sell out UK tours from youtube.

Some of our other followers chipped in their views too:

evibenstein: Is spamming the same question to every comedian on Twitter missing the point of Twitter? Find out after the break.

bertieager: its not killing it but it certainly doesn't help with the standard of it, sometimes its good to have a 'funny filter'

Follow @more4news on Twitter.

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