The New Yorker, which once considered its cartoons to be some form of gold, are now giving them away. Subscribe to some email or other, and you get a cartoon every day, and you can get most of the week's cartoons free online, too. There's a desperation like never before, because...there are SCABS like never before.
It used to be that professional comedy writers got paid, and you saw the result in those long Jay Leno monologues on "The Tonight Show." Jay even allowed freelancers. If you were funny, and could be trusted, you'd get his fax number so you could send in some gags. That's how much Jay valued a top monologue.
Thanks to the Internet, EVERYBODY'S A COMEDIAN. People can't stop tossing jokes, quotes and memes all over social media. Yes, if you were a jokes editor, you'd throw most of them out, but if you're the average moron, you're laughing and passing them on.
Comedians trying to drum up business or show off their topical talents routinely GIVE AWAY jokes on Twitter. Wiseguys galore rush to Twitter to toss out their latest Trump insult, or make fun of something a celebrity did. And there are games.
It seems every day on Twitter there's going to be a hashtag that trends in which YOU are supposed to JOIN THE FUN, and become a gag writer. FREEEEEEEE. One of today's games was "Make a Rock Band Healthier." You know what, given the number of out-of-work gag writers, people trying to impress their friends, and clever dicks just dicking around with nothing better to do, the humor wasn't bad at all.
Here, unedited, are a few sets of Tweets, and really, there isn't a clinker in the bunch:
Is it a surprise that Jimmy Fallon quickly put people to work with a weekly hashtag contribution feature? Newspapers now routinely rush to Twitter and look for ordinary quotes to add color and humor to just about any article. Letterman used to mock "network time killers," and how people would watch dumb non-comedy because "this is all that's on CBS right now!" Now, scabs and silly amateurs are eager to contribute to the general waste of time that we call the Internet.
Bored at work? Go check Twitter for a fun hashtag and read a whole bunch of amusing gags. When this material is so easily available, why look elsewhere, like TV (where few late night comedians have long monologues of gags, since they'd better get right to a Kardashian lumbering onto the stage for an interview...or say "Hey, did you see the funny video on YouTube" and show THAT item, which somebody uploaded for FREEEEE.)
Some online "magazines" have "Top Ten" features of one kind or another, but don't pay much for them, if anything. The way things are with the "lawless" Internet, most any list could easily have been stolen or creatively plagiarized from somebody else. "Fair use!" Who needs a lawsuit? If you didn't pay the writer, or didn't pay much, you don't have much to lose.
So, how does a humor writer make any money? SORRY I HAVEN'T A CLUE.
That's the title of a long running British radio series. Every show has what you might now call a "hashtag" feature. The panel is told to have a round of "Hairy Movies" or "Bird Songs" -- ie, re-write a famous movie or song so that it might interest somebody hirsute, or somebody who likes birds. Round they go, contributing and trying to top one another.
"I'll ask the teams to suggest to songs likely to appeal to an audience of bread lovers!"
The panel: "Another one bits the crust!" "Where has all the flour gone." "Shake shake shake yer butty." "Stand by your naan." "Do nut leave me this way." "Achey bakey tart..."
Well, why make a point of trying to dial up the show when you can get that concept free every day on Twitter?
How lovely it is to get so much entertainment FREE. It's just that nobody, except the CEO's of Twitter and Instagram and Facebook perhaps, are laughing all the way to the bank.
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