• The New York Times, Friday, June 1, 2007 11:15 AM

The future of funny is online. Who needs standup comedy when the layman can easily produce something more polished and post it to the Web? Who needs network television and its censorship rules when a guy like Will Ferrell can reach 30 million people with a video clip that took 45 minutes to produce?

Of course, it helps that Ferrell, who commands about $20 million a picture, is a huge celebrity, but video-sharing sites like YouTube and MySpace have shown that anyone who creates something generally appealing can have success. Web video production is easy to do, quick and cheap. It can also catch like wildfire. Perfect for starving comedians.

The Times speaks with comedy director and producer Adam McKay, whose 2-year-old daughter starred in the Will Ferrell clip "The Landlord." This being Hollywood, success usually means a sequel, and McKay and co. already have the next installment, "Good Cop, Baby Cop," in the pipe.

But the remarkable thing about these clips is that they're not the property of Hollywood; they belong to the online comedy site FunnyOrDie.com, owned jointly by Ferrell and McKay, with backing from Silicon Valley VC giant Sequoia Capital. The pair seek to make the site the de facto destination for funny stuff on the Web. The idea is to create a resource comedians actually use to make money, as opposed to being a springboard for a career in mainstream media. Ironically, mainstream celebrities like Brooke Shields and Bill Murray are also posting material to the site.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »