• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, April 24, 2007

Yahoo’s launching a site called “Underground” is a bit like Disney opening a casino — somehow the idea doesn’t quite compute. But the Web portal unveiled just such a site last month, highlighting “America’s fringe cultures” with a heavy dose of video and hosted by Broadway gypsy turned “singing reporter” Brad Miskell.

An initiative of Yahoo News, Underground kicked off with video and photo reports from Miskell on topics such as the annual World Science Fiction Convention, “drifting,” a sport where drivers intentionally go into controlled spins, and the graffiti walls of Venice Beach, Calif. — nothing that couldn’t be found on the TV networks’ morning shows or “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

Besides the produced material, the site also invites user-submitted videos and photos tied to the subcultures it explores. Miskell himself is an amiable enough guide to the weird and wacky, and the original songs he’s composed for the videos are surprisingly catchy.

But Underground isn’t likely to strike fear into the hearts of the folks at YouTube, The Onion, “The Daily Show” or any of the other members of the Internet’s video and humor establishment.

Yahoo has repeatedly said that it no longer plans to create costly original programming, preferring to work with content partners instead. So why even undertake projects like Underground, which are too structured to have viral appeal and too small-bore to attract a big audience? It’s not a good sign when bloggers think your new site is an April Fools’ prank.