everybody's talking about on the web. Content is shareable when it hits people

emotionally and makes people feel like they're proud to have it be associated with their

identity. I kind of call it the new advertainment. Make us great content and make

it good enough that they'll want to pass it around to their friends. Internet comedy specifically, I

think that everyone's just getting good at

being funnier faster. Because people have such a shorter attention span for online stuff.

That's what I love about online is that it's now

created this opportunity where you can make two to five minute videos

and have them matter. People remember them. It has a timeless appeal.

One of the interesting things about viral video is there is actually no

generally agreed upon definition. A lot of people like to use the word viral to describe

something that

takes off or is popular. For me, what counts as viral is: are people inspired to share with their

friends?

Oftentimes it's not even the

video itself that's so important.

It's what you think of the video.

It's what your reaction to that video is.

We're entering this new era in media where it's not just about serving your own needs. It's about

finding things for your friends and the people in your life

and people are becoming curators and publishers themselves. It's what the video

says about us when we share it.

I like to be the funny guy so i share the funny video. And so i think what you're seeing

now is the web is maturing, social signals are becoming a bigger and bigger

part of it and there's going to be a higher bar for content creators to make things that

people actually want to watch and share.

From two thousand 'til two thousand six,

accidental would be the key word in characterizing these videos.

It's an extension from America's Funniest Videos. Some of the most prominent themes

will include cats, babies,

schadenfreude moments, repetitive types of music videos, animations, and

borderline obnoxious songs.

About two thousand six, there was the emergence of a remix artist community

on YouTube. Their primary role is to take an existing clip and, totally re-contextualizing them,

it took to the idea of viral culture to the next level. From there people

in the professional fields of video production started taking notice. Videos

like dick in a box, like a boss. These videos totally took the absurd humor that

has been running through internet videos and they just introduced them to a much

wider audience. That was the checkpoint where mainstream and internet culture

is really converging. How do we one up from there?

That's the driving engine that this convergence is bringing about.

Viral video has been fantastic for comedy.

As much as we try to predict what's going to be a huge hit on the internet, you never totally

know. And we try our best and there's things you can do. For example, I try to

always start from a place of

relatability. Like some topic that people have experienced before in some way.

Six Girls You'll Date In College. You're just like my dad.

You'll keep a picture of her to show to friends.

She will not.

With internet video, you just have to cram it. It's visually like

Hey keep watching! Don't click away! Hi! HI! HI! We try to keep everything very visual,

very fast and within like ten seconds everyone needs to be aware of

why is this funny, where its going to go. Another thing is

it's just, it's more about the execution of a concept that touches on a cultural

nerve. Pop culture. That's the thing that's being consumed the most. We did

have a One Direction parity where we just

totally called them

like the seventh sign of the

apocalypse.

And all the One Direction fans were like we

love it!

As long as you're covering things that they're interested in

they don't care what you say. People are a lot more likely to share with their friends a video that

they feel relates to their own lives in some way. But we're always surprised by what ends up becoming really popular.

Early on, brands started looking at You Tube creators and the so called viral videos they were making

and thought hey we can do this ourselves.

Initially they were trying to get free advertising. That they could mimic what was

going on on You Tube and with a gag or a funny joke

or a cute animal or a baby they could

replace their television advertising. Avion babies was sort of the first major

super successful viral campaign.

It reached over a billion views on You Tube. Just an amazing success. But what they found

over time is that these things cost money so

they're investing more in it.

I like power!

Old Spice did

hundreds of videos that were funny and made that campaign last over time. What's

interesting are start-ups out there and some established companies that are using video

as their only marketing strategy.

The dollar shave club

launched basically on a funny video. Another example is the orabrush guy.

Their strategy is a hundred percent video.

Videos that appeal to people's emotions also really work. Like the Google

campaigns do.

And those can be incredibly powerful but

you know they're not mentioning anything specific about Google. It's not just

trusting that

we can make good content and people will love us for it but it's trusting that we can

make good content that maybe really isn't even about us. This is about brands

creating content that people want to watch and it's really a revolutionary notion.

I love two to three minute stories. Storytelling is almost all I care about.

Motivation or inspiration behind my videos is just whatever I think is interesting at that moment. In two thousand

three the battery in my iPod died

and I was really broke back then so it was a huge deal and Apple wouldn't replace it.

"Apple doesn't offer a new

battery for the iPod?" "No."

We made a three minute movie about it and put it online.

It really exploded. It had about five million views in a couple of weeks and

that predated You Tube.

I always try to get a character

that's leading me through the story.

Whether they care about the specific subject matter or not

if they're invested in the character, it'll drive them through the videos.

I'm a big cyclist so naturally I make a lot of movies about bikes and I live in New York City

which is this amazing backdrop so it inspires you to want to tell that story. And that's

what like texting while walking was. it's hard to invest yourself in a generic

message but if its humanized, if there's a face behind it, it's something to have a

relationship with. So if i have the opportunity to type a title in using

software and it just pops up on the screen or I can draw the title and then film it,

by drawing it and filming it, you're seeing the human hand. You're seeing something I actually created.

I don't make movies for them to go viral. I just make the best movies I can and happen to just

love

three to five minutes. It's my favorite length for telling a story. And certainly that's

what I love about life more than anything else, is experiencing the world

through stories.

We think about viral as entertainment

but we've seen recently how powerful and very dramatic events can also spread

very quickly. So all of these trivial rules that we try to assign

to what becomes popular on the web

don't always apply. Those videos could possibly lead to

a discussion or a bigger debate about an issue, whether it be

interracial issues or bullying in schools. It's now starting to affect

politics. Like at the very start of the revolution in Egypt

there is a video of a guy staring down a water cannon.

it had elements of the Tiananmen

idea.

There's gotta be comforting feeling that somewhere, someone in the world, other people

are seeing the mess that you're in. So what we're seeing is transition from

receiving and consuming these videos

to talking about the video and

starting another chapter.

Now people are raising funds and doing things to actually make things happen.

When we think back and remember many of these moments, we'll remember them

through these You Tube videos. And

that is a very, very different thing.

Ten years ago it would take six months for something to reach it's full viral spread.

Eight years ago it took something like two or three months.

Then it got down to a week and now it's something that things can reach there full viral reach

within a day or two. I actually think were in this You Tube created renaissance of content. I

think it's cool that were in an era now where people are paying more attention to like

how to get to the funnier thing faster. So it is kind of a game, the viral

contest. I think You Tube is still entirely the wild wild west. Five years from now the

stuff that we're seeing

online will be

entirely different than right now. We're in sort of this transitional phase. We're just starting to understand

what happens when you open up the power of video to the masses. We're going to continue to see things that surprise us for the next decades.