Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that users on this video site are supposed to "certify" that they're 18 years old -- with good reason. There are thousands of short videos by well-known comedians like Will Ferrell (who helped bring this site to life) as well as by aspiring comedians that other users vote and comment on. Some of the videos and many of the posts -- both critical and complimentary -- about the videos contain a lot of adult-only subjects (think drinking, lesbian sex, etc.), mean-spiritedness, and the typical stand-up comedy style sarcasm. Yes, some of the videos are funny and tame, but the problem is, except for divining content by the videos' titles, there's no way to tell just how tame or racy each video is until you hit play.
Families can talk about what's so appealing about homemade videos. If your kids post videos, you might ask them what message they're trying to convey or accomplish in their submissions. How do they think people will react? What makes something funny? Does it have to include sex? Humiliation? Insults? What's the difference between "clean" comedy and "adult" comedy? How does one honestly critique creative work without being vicious?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Dana Villamagna
It's open mic night every night at the often hilarious -- and just as often raunchy -- FUNNYORDIE.COM, where people post short comedy videos and animation for a worldwide audience to judge. What makes this site especially intriguing is that work by professional comedians and actors like Jimmy Fallon and Brooke Shields is posted right alongside amateur content. Viewers then rate the work of art on a scale of 0 to 5: 0s go in The Crypt area of the site, while 5s are deemed Immortal and get better play.
Created by comedians for comedians and backed by Will Ferrell and others, FunnyorDie.com contains more than 4,000 short videos and other forms of comedy. From the animated "Alec Baldwin Calls Dora the Explorer" to clips with David Blaine or American Idol's Sanjaya, it's likely that any subject, celebrity, or issue is made fun of on this site. There are also critiques of the videos, a blog by the site's creators, and user profile pages (which have links to their personal pages).
For teens, however, the site poses a number of pitfalls -- which is likely why the 18+ age rule is given, although there's no real monitoring teeth behind it. Adult humor dominates much of the most popular videos as they rise to the top of the site via the rating system. As a result, those are the videos that appear first when browsing the site.
Videos entitled "Masturbation" and "How Not to Expose Your Vagina" are among the Immortals. Then there are the comedic videos about date rape, "sorority sluts," and, of course, Paris Hilton. Some videos and many of the posts -- both critical and complimentary -- about the videos contain a lot of vulgarity, mean-spiritedness, and the typical stand-up comedy style sarcasm.
Yet, there's some really funny, relatively clean material on FunnyorDie.com that teens and parents can both appreciate. The Father's Day posts, including the "Notorious D-A-D" music video and the gas-inspired humor in "Dads Love" are hilarious.
If the site can find a way to categorize videos by age-appropriate ratings, FunnyorDie.com could open itself to the teen audience and make a lot more comedy fans laugh for hours.
Other video sites include YouTube.com, MetaCafe.com, and Grouper.com.
Reviewed: 06/14/2007
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentMasturbation, date rape, anatomy of all kinds comedically mentioned -- and sometimes shown. |
 |
|
||
ViolenceSome videos use abusive language and mention violent crimes. |
|
|
||
LanguageSwearing occasionally in videos and posted comments. |
|
|
||
Message |
|
 |
||
Social BehaviorComedy is often commentary on social ills and/or deviant behavior. |
 |
 |
||
CommercialismMainstream Hollywood comedians post clips or outtakes from recent releases. |
 |
|
||
Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDrinking and smoking in some videos. |
|
|
||
Educational ValueMany videos include typical taboo topics with humor. |
|
|
||
