Starting on April 29, you can attend a great comedy show. Come see legends like Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles) and Carl Reiner (writer of Dick Van Dyke Show). Come see up and coming comedians like Amy Schumer (a semi-finalist on Last Comic Standing). You won’t be seeing this?show?at your local comedy club. You won’t even seeing this festival on TV. This event will be seen exclusively and entirely on Twitter.
This is a partnership between Comedy Central, Viacom, who owns Comedy Central and Twitter. For years, the relationship between television and social media has intertwined. Ever hear of Vine? Well, next Tuesday, Steve Agee will lead a ‘vine party’. At the party will be the cast of ABC’s mega-hit scandal. Don’t tell my friends about that one. But they will be sharing in six second videos. There is a bigger picture here. Comedy Central wants to be the network that is just as dependent on online media as much as TV.?For example, their core group is the young adult crowd, age 18-34. Guess what? The big core group for tweeters is the 18-34 crowd.
I think Twitter and Comedy Central are doing a great job and the right thing here. Gone are the days are families gathering around the TV at prime time. Did you miss an episode? Now you can watch it on Hulu. I find myself watching You Tube as much as I do regular TV. Whether we like or not, media is changing. I’ll ask this question to take it a step further: by the 2020s or 2030s, will TV be altogether obsolete?