Looking for Laughs? - Comedy on the internet
The internet is a great place for comedy. You could spend every day looking at funny stuff and you'd still barely scratch the surface. It is one of the most enduring genres on YouTube and iPlayer, and as well as comedy videos, there are funny pictures and jokes forever circulating on the web and social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Established comics and newcomers can all use the internet to go directly to audiences with their material. Sketches and series are made especially for the web, starring unknowns or 'A' list Hollywood stars alike. It's a great playground to try things out and experiment. Jokes get started and people run with them, adding their own spin and passing them on. These are sometimes called internet 'memes'.
I produce the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's comedy website and when I'm not making or publishing comedy content, I spend a fair amount of time browsing for other people's funny stuff. Here's a list of several comedy places you might like to visit. Comedy is subjective of course and one person's 'laugh out loud' moment is another's 'meh' (the verbal equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders), but I hope you find something that tickles you among this lot. Why not let us know your favourite online comedy in the comments sections below?
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I'm not contractually obliged to start with our own website, but we love comedy and we love the internet, so we've spent the last few years working hard on our website to make it an entertaining guide to the past, present and future of comedy.
We have themed collections of clips from the archive, where you'll find well loved shows like Blackadder, Absolutely Fabulous, Dad's Army and Only Fools and Horses to name but a few. Bringing us up to present day we have programme pages to support all the current comedy shows. Some of these are all singing and dancing such as the Psychoville Experience which contains enough to keep you occupied for hours - be warned though, it's not for the faint hearted. Or you could enter the world of Come Fly With Me and have a go at checking in with the distinctly unhelpful check-in girls Melody and Keeley.
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David Walliams and Matt Lucas in Come Fly With Me
Looking to the future, we're always searching for new comedians, writers and performers to make videos especially for the web. There's the existential cuddly toy Misery Bear, the anarchic sketch team Rocket Sausage, and one off sketches like Single White Feline which lifts the lid on the truth about single women and cats.
We're also on , and , so if your internet travels have taken you to any of those places, please come and visit so we can keep in touch!
From the best of British to the hype of Hollywood, here's a site you may have heard about because of its association with 'A' list comedians. Film and TV star Will Ferrell set it up with his writing partner Adam McKay and their first video has been watched over 75 million times. There are lots more videos to choose from, some of which star not just one or two Hollywood stars but a whole ensemble cast of them, such as . Also, Funny or Die, like YouTube, lets anyone submit a video so you will find much more amateur affairs jostling for position with the big hitters.
Satirical news parody The Onion started life as a newspaper back in 1988, before becoming a website in 1996. This is an especially ripe place for anyone who likes news satire like The Day Today or Have I Got News For You. As well as videos, they have written articles and radio, covering every topic imaginable so you're bound to find something that suits you from their biting parodies of sport, politics and entertainment news.
The 'micro blogging' site Twitter is filled with comedians and funny fictional characters. There's hundreds to choose from but perhaps you've heard of , , or for starters?
There's also the likes of (Shaun of the Dead) and writers (Father Ted, IT Crowd) andÌý (League of Gentleman, Psychoville).
And there are fictional characters, some of them 'official' feeds connected to films, TV shows and books, such as , but also a lot of 'fan fiction' such as . Add to that thousands of ordinary people who just happen to be funny and you can get lost tittering on Twitter for many hours.
Miscellany
There's no end to the funny stuff you can find online and it comes in all shapes and sizes so if you're sides are still intact, you could read some , see what is like when its star goes awol or gasp at the audacity of some people in .
I hope that's been a good introduction to the world of internet comedy. Obviously there's far much more I've missed out than included, but if you don't like any of these, keep searching and you should find what you're after!
Learn more about using Facebook and Twitter with our WebWise guides.
Read more comedy suggestions from WebWise blogger Julie Howell.
Jon Aird is the Producer for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Comedy online, working on the main website at bbc.co.uk/comedy and programmes including 'Psychoville' and 'Come Fly With Me'.
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