A Comedy Troupe That Actually Translates to Web

If you had asked me a year ago, I might have told you that comedy troupes would dominate the most-subscribed channels on YouTube. It’s a medium built for comedians that perform before audiences on a regular basis. They know what’s funny and what’s topical.

The problem is that just as most stand-up comedians can’t do what Mark Day does in online video, most comedy troupes don’t adjust to the medium (shorter content, more subtle, good editing, no pauses for audience laughter). They also don’t often take the time to promote their work… upload a few videos of live comedy and then toss in the towel.

Enter Atlanta’s “The Woodcreek Faction.” Check them out on YouTube or on their official website. Here’s their latest video: Hitler Trick Bike (thanks to Nutcheese). It’s refreshingly funny comedy with an edge but not a sharp one. Warning- you will be walking around all day screaming, “Hitler Hiking Boooots.”

18 thoughts on “A Comedy Troupe That Actually Translates to Web”

  1. It didn’t really seem like troupe comedy – one player. I’m too grumpy to watch their other films. Maybe I should have first cuppa coffee before attempting to YouTube?

  2. These guys have some of the funniest videos I have seen on YouTube. Well written and edited too! Good tip Nalts! Why in the heck don’t they have more subscribers?

  3. @6 Maybe they came late? Maybe they need to do a collab (with me)? Hard to say. Certainly there’s not a relationship between quality and subscribers!

  4. All people have to do to get big is collab with you? Jesus. Sign me up.

    Off the top of my head: lets make a video where you are a nun with Hepatitis C and a pair of nunchucks. BECAUSE SHE IS A NUN, GET IT?

    AND APPARENTLY A WHORE EARLIER IN LIFE.

  5. I like their stuff. It’s really well put together. It’s always nice to see a comedy team that does well on YT.

    I think you hit the nail on the head with the self-promotion part. Take for example, my good friends at 88improv (I’ve linked to one of their more recent videos (only a year old). Now, I’ve seen these guys live. Heck, I’ve MC’ed for them in the past, and they always have me busting at the seams, giggling like a little schoolgirl. (Wait, did I say that out loud?) But on YouTube, their stuff isn’t watched much, and even they seem to have lost interest in the medium. And I think it’s all owed to the involvement in the “community” factor.

    Posting messages, sending out emails, and chatting with others is how you get noticed on YouTube. I chatted with folks on the site for a few weeks before I uploaded my first video, and right off the bat I got a handful of subscribers, who are still close friends.

    YouTube can be used as nothing more than a video hosting site. You can upload the videos here, and use embed codes to put them on your site. But I think if you want to become someone online, you have to step down into YouTube and make yourself known.

  6. @Jim – That is the difference between today and 10-20 years ago, too. “The Stars” all had a mystique to them that YT people do not. We know everything we want to about the people we watch on YT, and if there is something we want to know a great deal of them are quite accessible and will tell you.

    The last generation benefited from said mystique as when new info came out, people crapped. It still works for Axl Rose, who makes headlines when he goes outside.

    People want to know their famous people nowadays, and YT is something that makes that very possible and therefore a good place to get yourself out there if you want to do this kind of stuff.

  7. @ Peter Coffin & marquisjolie – Nalts does make a good point though. Considering these guys are getting some attention, quality is finding a way to the top although slowly. The real problem in this equation is YouTube. Great creators like this should hit the homepage regularly. “Hitler Trick Bike” is better than anything on there right now. You can look.

  8. @12 Flexstone
    It’s the YouTube editors, I tell you. The YouTube editors. They’re choking out the uneconomically viable stuff like crabgrass in an urban vacant lot.

    No wait. It’s the advertisers. They can’t sell Pampers on a Hitler video.

  9. @NutCheese – Yeah, the video is pretty fucking sweet.

    @marquis – I should be on the front page every day. And not even with videos, like just a picture of me. I’m that good.

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