Funny or Die is setting up shop in Washington, D.C. The comedy site’s office will be at the 1776 campus; heading there from another patriotic address is former White House staffer Brad Jenkins, now managing director and executive producer of Funny or Die D.C.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jenkins will reportedly be working with “the private sector, advocacy groups, campaigns and lawmakers to produce politically-themed content” and will also “provide consulting services on social media, talent outreach, writing and brand strategy for clients,”
The Obama administration has made a concerted effort to be active on social media, particularly when opportunities to utilize POTUS’s not-too-shabby comedic timing arise. His appearance on “Between Two Ferns with Zack Galifianakis” was a win-win for the White House and Funny or Die: the video racked up 29 million views and led to a 40 percent jump in traffic to Healthcare.gov; enrollment reached Obama’s goal of 7.1 million by April 1.
For Funny or Die, political content has the potential to be a big growth industry. With the 2016 election only 19 months away — Are you ready? Do you have an election advent calender? Are we having fun yet? — Funny or Die’s arrival in the capital comes at a time when the political landscape gifts the nation with its most unintentionally hilarious offerings. Sure, the jokes-from-politics field is a crowded one, but with all the shake-ups as of late (Jon Stewart leaving The Daily Show, the end of The Colbert Report, a couple of rookies helming a not-quite-there Weekend Update desk at Saturday Night Live) there’s an opening for a new player to break through.
Years before Obama’s “Between Two Ferns” spot (just a month after Obama was elected for the first time, to be exact) the site produced “Prop 8: The Musical,” which has since earned the site’s highest honor: an Immortal rating. It’s been viewed 7.7 million times. More recent efforts include a “Billy on the Street” special starring Billy Eichner, Michelle Obama and Big Bird. It was posted less than two months ago and has racked up 320,000 views.
As people post ostensibly personality-revealing links to their Facebook pages — results on Buzzfeed quizzes, jokes from The Onion — one of the best ways to ensure content is shareable is to create stories or videos that, while humorous, send a serious point of view that a user can co-sign. It’s not enough for a video to just be funny; people want their social media to be a carefully curated reflection of Who They Really Are. Sharing a Funny or Die video like “Indiana Home Shopping with James Van Der Beek and Anna Camp,” a comic takedown of Indiana’s new religious freedom law that went up yesterday and already has 43,000 views, is a kind of political shorthand, a way to tell all your Facebook friends that you have a sense of humor and you support LGBT rights.
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Indiana Home Shopping with James Van Der Beek and Anna Camp from Funny Or Die
Shouldn’t be too hard for Funny or Die to hit the ground running here. In D.C., the jokes practically write themselves.