Is the web killing comedy?
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.
