Got an original idea for a sitcom?
There’s more to DIY comedy than a witty riposte about flooring from Handy Andy. Or cheeky banter and a winning smile to camera from loveable Nick Knowles. Or even the endless grunting from Tim Allen in the actually quite excellent Home Improvement. In fact, when I talk about DIY comedy I don’t mean jokes about tools at all.
The advent of YouTube has opened the virtual video door to thousands upon thousands of comedians, would-be comedians and cat owners. Mainly cat owners.
The problem with YouTube, however, is that sieving through mountains of guitar tutorials to find the genuinely funny stuff amongst all those keyboard playing cats, Hitler ‘Downfall’ parodies and drunken people attempting to walk up hills can sometimes be a real chore.
If only there was some place you could go to see genuinely funny, well-structured web videos, created by genuinely funny people.
Step forward Blip. Since its inception back in 2005, Blip has been attempting to separate the comedic wheat from the hair-ball infused chaff by offering would be a comedians and writers a place to share their work without fear of kitty shaped distractions.
In its eight year life span, Blip has been a worthy home to countless funnies and engaging web series, acting as a springboard to help showcase and develop up and coming comedians. In those eight years, Blip has cultivated a community of 2000+ independent producers around the world who are producing their own original series and using Blip tools to showcase and distribute them across the web.
With bases in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit and London, the Blip team is dedicated to delivering one common goal: to help people discover the best in original web series and to help web series producers make a sustainable living.
The site averages over 39 million viewers a month, each viewer benefiting from free access to their deep content library that features a wide range of genres, from comedy, drama, arts, sports, tech and other shows. It’s almost impossible to not find something you’ll love on the site.
The series showcased on Blip are hand-picked by their ever so trust worthy editors, so it’s also easy to browse and discover the most entertaining options available.
“The original Blip was designed based on direct interaction with the videoblogging community,” they told Giggle Beats.
“We continue to be grateful to this community and to seek advice from its members, even as the community has evolved and grown over the years.
“We still get great advice from producers and viewers at BBQs across the country and get-togethers around the world, and we’re always open to making changes based on community feedback.
All in all, Blip has cultivated a community of 2000+ independent producers around the world who are producing their own original series and using Blip tools to showcase and distribute them across the web. Pretty impressive, right?
“We love that professional and up-and-coming independent producers can create entertaining series and gain audiences of millions,” they said.
“We celebrate that they can produce original series as their full time job and make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, or more. Their only constraint is the limit of human creativity.”
So how can you get involved? It’s quite simple, really. If you’ve got a series, a dream, and a plan then you’re already most of the way there.
The next step is to visit the Producer section of their website.
You’ll need to tell them a bit about your web series – what it’s about, how often you’ll record, how you plan on marketing it, etc. Then you upload your videos – like you would on YouTube – and when approved you’ll gain access to Blip’s suite of producer tools.
And that’s it. It’s out there.
Making your own sitcom has never been easier.
