The Internet Is a TV Star
by asi
Yesterday after the 10 o’clock news I stayed on BBC1 and couldn’t believe my eyes. There was a (new?) TV show called LenryHenry.TV (yes, pronounced dot TV) a half hour comedy-talkshow-like format that promise to bring you the funniest videos found on the internet.
Now, we’re already used to mainstream TV showcasing stuff from the web but so far it’s been either as a 5min segment (virals of the week on the news) or tech/web-culture programs like click.
This time it’s different and it’s a significant format. LenryHenry.TV is an entertainment talkshow with the familiar format: a studio, a tacky comedian presenter, enthusiastic audience, opening gags, segments, guest/s, more segments, final gags. Only in this show there is one clear star – ‘the internet’ as the presenter calls it; the whole show is based around funny/weird/out-of-the-ordinary user generated youtube videos.
This for me represents the final weaving of the web and mainstream TV and another step in convergence culture. At the beginning, we got used to use youtube et al to watch UGC as well as greatest moments of TV. Now we have a prime-time TV with a presenter, guests and happy audience both in the studio (and at home watching the tele), and the whole show is dedicated to user generated internet video clips!
The presenter and his guest serve funny videos with ceaseless commentary (they make jokes out of the jokes) and in general having a good laugh. The content is exactly what you’d expect - 2 years old viral videos of talking cats, extraordinary skills, amusing misery, and dome cute stuff. And after almost every video the presenter LOLing and goes- “isn’t that amazing what you can find on the internet?” or… what I most like about the internet is…..” Absolutely hilarious.
It’s soooo bad that it’s actually good.
You have to see it to believe. The show ends with the presenter and the studio audience laughing out loud, hands up in the air, singing in oh-so-British ecstatically reserved manner Cocolate Rain with Tay Zonday
Unfortunately it doesn’t show on the BBC iPlayer but I’ve found a clip from an old show on….yes, youtube:
Come to think of it, from a mainstream TV perspective it’s a natural evolution of the likes of America’s Funniest Home Videos, only this time the editor fish the best of the web rather than audiences (users) sending their videos to the TV.
Sign of the times.
TV ran out of ideas years ago… It’s ridiculous…
This is just about as bad as that new Facebook magazine…
lame lame lame
I saw the start of that, one of the worst pieces of TV I’ve ever seen.
Yeah. I saw some of that programme last week. My dad called me up to tell me a viral I did a couple of years ago was on it.
http://davebirss.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/hitting-the-small-screen/
It is a horrendous programme. Kind of like an even lower-rent version of You’ve Been Framed. Ugh!
Well, there are a lot of funny things on the internet. Someone had to make a show about them. At least they’ll never run out of ideas or episodes to air! The internet is basically never ending with new stuff popping out every minute. It sounds hilarious and I’m always a fun of it’s so bad it’s good programs!
[...] Original post by asi [...]
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