• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, March 21, 2012

The Web was destined to upend most industries, but its impact on stand-up comedy wasn’t seriously considered -- until now. That’s thanks to a handful of influential comedians, like Louis C. K. and, more recently, Aziz Ansari, who are pioneering a straight-to-the-Web strategy. Without the help (burden?) of big production studies or cable networks, these guys are producing comedy specials on their own, posting them online, and selling them directly through their personal Web sites.

“By eliminating the editorial control of broadcasters and the perceived taint of corporate endorsements,” The New York Times writes, this new approach “is already having a profound impact on the comedy landscape, enabling online content providers and individual artists to take more turf from television networks and empowering comedians to be as candid (and as explicit) as they want in their material.”

If this model takes off, it could also impact another landscape: online advertising. Explaining the sponsor-free beauty of self-production, Louis C. K. tells NYT: “I don’t have to go, ‘Here’s this product,’ to whatever company … and then cringe and shrug and apologize to my fans for whatever words are being removed, whatever ads they’re having to watch, whatever marketing is being lobbed on.”