It’s now been a week since the film Funny People has been released, so it’s time to review their viral campaign. In case you missed it, be sure to check out Nick’s review of the film itself. Funny People follows established comedian and actor George Simmons (Adam Sandler) as he takes a young comic under his wing (Seth Rogen) after he thinks he’s going to die. This is definitely one of those Hollywood insider films where most of the characters are actors or comedians.


The point of a viral campaign is to draw attention to the film in alternative ways. The internet has become the go-to destination for viral and ARGs, so it’s not surprising that all of Funny People’s viral campaign was online. While the medium they used was limited, the reach within that medium was not. Not only were there individual websites for many of the main characters, there were also pages and videos on mainstream websites such as Hulu and NBC.

The viral kicked off with the faux show “Yo Teach!”, starring Jason Schwartzman’s character Mark Taylor Jackson. NBC and Hulu each had entire pages dedicated to show (since the show was on NBC). The show even has a YouTube page. The videos (the same on each site) are mostly just clips from the show and interviews with Jackson. The NBC page is especially good because of how real it is, even offering the Season 1 DVD for sale. This plays into the film pretty well because Jackson flaunts his success in front of his roommates (Rogen and Jonah Hill), and Rogen even visits the “Yo Teach!” set.





Then came the character websites. Jackson, Simmons and comedian Randy (Aziz Ansari) each had their own pages, as is common for actors and comedians. Jackson’s page is the simplest of the bunch, but is humorous in how pompous it is, especially compared to the Jackson we see on screen. Randy’s page is very involved, considering he only has a small role in the actual film. Randy isn’t really that funny (just vulgar), much in the same way Dane Cook’s humor is based on delivery and theatrics as opposed to punch lines. The site really plays this up, including a soundboard of his funny vulgar sayings. Simmons’ site is my personal favorite, showcasing some clips from his movies, including “Re-Do”, which Funny People shows a bit of. All the sites are rather in-depth and realistic, making the experience that much better.


The viral didn’t stop there. Funny Or Die had a three part series on Randy, which was hilarious. Then on the day Funny People opened, a YouTube page created for Leo Koening (Jonah Hill) posted a funny clip of him and kittens, which is referenced in the film briefly.





All in all, the viral did what it was supposed to do. Since it’s marketing for a comedy, it should be funny, and for the most part it was. It gave some good insight in the characters, especially their careers. This was valuable, because we saw these characters more as people than as actors/comedians, so to get more of that side of them helped put everything in perspective. Lastly, the viral works because you didn’t have to follow it before the film was released to enjoy it. Funny People (like most comedies) isn’t the kind of film a lot of people are going to follow closely leading up to its release, say like a Cloverfield or The Dark Knight. Sci-Fi and mythology films have that nerdy base (which includes me) that has the time and effort to do that. Comedies are aimed more broadly, so a viral campaign has to be able to work after someone has seen it. The fact the sites aren’t blog or news-like in nature makes them fit this need perfectly. Many people will see the movie first then go to the sites to find the funny clips and sites. In fact I saw someone do that on Monday. So, it obviously works.


Final Viral Review: B+

Funny People was released last Friday, along with the final touch to the viral campaign, but earlier in the week, Judd Apatow announced that Aziz Ansari’s character would revieve a spin-off.  Of course, the film’s likelyhood all depends on the success and reception of Funny People. Here is the exact quote from Apatow.

Randy isn’t in the movie anywhere near as much we wish he was. Something hilariously magical happened when Aziz showed up. So we all said, ‘What else can we do?’ Let’s just make a documentary! We just couldn’t stop writing for him. And now we’re talking about making the RANDY movie. We can’t get enough of Randy…

To which he later added

we’re outlining it right now.

I’d consider myself hyped. In other news, part three of RAAAAAAAANDY’s documentary was uploaded to FunnyOrDie. It’s a great conclusion to the series.

SOURCE: Joblo (http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=27697)

Just last week, Funnyordie.com released Part 1 of their documentary on Randy, the character played by Aziz Asanri in Judd Apatow’s Funny People. This Sunday, the site released Part 2 of the documentary. Check it out below.

Funny People, directed by Judd Apatow and starring Adam Sandler, opens July 31st. See our page on the film’s viral to see even more funny material.

As many of you know, Funny People has a pretty extensive viral campaign in the works. Check out our in-depth analysis to catch up.


What’s turning out to the favorite of the bunch is the viral for Randy, Aziz Asanri’s vulgar character. He has a documentary featured on Funnyordie.com about his rise to fame. So far only Part 1 is uploaded, so I look forward to Part 2. Check out the video, embedded below.

This is the first time I even noticed the character has a MySpace, so check that out.


Funny People, directed by Judd Apatow and starring Adam Sandler, opens July 31st. See our section on the film’s viral to see even more funny material.

At the end of May, we introduced you to some viral marketing Universal had implemented for Funny People, the Judd Apatow film starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. Last week, we added the film to our list of viral campaigns we would be covering in depth, thanks to the viral exploding with content. You can check out our page for the viral yourself, but for those wanting some incentive to explore, let’s go over what this viral campaign is all about.





The viral all started with NBC (a subsidiary of NBC Universal) adding a TV show called Yo Teach! to their official webpage and on their Hulu channel. The show is fictional, of course. Jason Schwartzman’s character Mark Taylor Johnson is the star of the show, though I have yet to get any sense of what part this Mark character plays in the film. The fake show is pretty dumb, which I expect is part of Apatow’s attempt to make it a typical Saturday morning sitcom (ala Saved By the Bell or Hanging with Mr. Cooper). On a side note, YouTube celebrity Bo Burnham plays one of the students on the show.

From there, the viral exploded. Many of the characters actually have their own websites, and the whole thing is kind of trippy. It’s already a bit confusing that the movie stars actors playing actors that mirror their real selves, but with the viral you now have actors with fake sites for their actor characters. Schwartzmann’s character Johnson is one of the characters with his own website. Although the site looks realistic and professional at first, if you actually read the content, it’s pretty funny (and ridiculous). I was interested in looking at the character’s work, so the big thing I noticed was that he has only been a few episodes of three shows prior to his first starring role as Mr. Bradford in Yo Teach!. So we can gather that he’s a small-time actor with little talent (based on the sitcom clips we’ve been given).





Adam Sandler’s character George Simmons also has his own webpage, and it’s personally my favorite. The site makes it very clear that the character is modeled after Sandler himself and other outlandish comedian actors in the same vein (Eddie Murphy is the first that comes to mind). Watch all the video clips of Simmons’ films to see what I mean. They are a little on-the-nose (as a lot of viral humor is so far), but still hilarious. Explore the site for some more subtle humor like ads for other Simmons films and even information on his comedy albums.





All of the sites I’ve mentioned so far can be easily found on the Funny People official website. However, there is one “secret” character page not listed on the site. Aziz Ansari’s character Randy (read the URL after you click it for extra laughs) is a crude comic who seems to be more of a performer than a true comedian (think of Dane Cook mixed with Dave Attell, but like 10 times worse). His site has things like a soundboard and ironically a page on Darfur. Randy also has a DJ, just to up the ante on his performance-before-comedy persona. I’m not sure I like this character (which may be the point), but Aziz is a great comic, so I’m open to it. Check out the NSFW videos on the site to get an idea of his humor (as if the site isn’t enough to drive the point home).


That pretty much sums of the viral. The big thing I noticed were that the characters and content were pretty broad stereotypes that were a little too obvious and in-your-face for my liking. A bit more subtly would have gone a long way. What does this all mean for the film? I doubt the careers of the characters will be the centerpiece for the film, so if they are as caricature as they seem, I doubt it will be too much of a problem. Not to mention I trust Apatow’s judgement immensely.


The other thing this viral brings to mind is that it is the one of the first comedies I have seen to do a complex viral campaign usually reserved for action and sci-fi flicks (Others that come to mind are 2008′s Tropic Thunder and this year’s Bruno, to a lesser extent). This is most likely due to the fact that (at least until now) only film geeks and computer nerds followed viral, so action sci-fi were the appropriate genres. Who would bother following a viral campaign for Bride Wars? Now that studios are making an effort to mainstream viral campaigns, this could be a sign of a sign in the idea of what films can do virals. What do you guys think of the Funny People viral? Is this a good sign for more comedy virals in the future?


Funny People opens nationwide July 31st. See our page on the film for more info.