GMU Pop Culture Journalism

Website Response: Splitsider

Splitsider is one of the best, and only, websites devoted to covering the humor beat. It started last September as an addition to The Awl Network and is run by New York-based blogger/comedian Adam Frucci. Updates come throughout the day from Monday through Friday, and usually are short links to online videos, news about the world of comedy, or the occasional column article.

One such column is “The Finally Screenings”, in which comedian Alden Ford watches classic comedy movies and reviews them to see whether or not they stand the test of time. A different column appearing weekly is British Comedy, by another comedian named Curtis Gwinn, which takes an in-depth look at the world of British comedy and some interesting shows and movies within that world.
The last and most recent, column is Sketch Artists, in which Colin Perkins, also a comedian, profiles sketch comedy groups which produce online videos. This is my favorite column, because it reads like a traditional feature column and includes quotes from the groups and, of course, hilarious videos.

Though Splitsider is already informative and interesting, I came up with several ideas for articles that might suit the website. One could be summaries/reviews of recent stand-up comedy CDs or television specials. Another article might profile someone in the comedy business and give a biography, so to speak, of their career and what they’ve done, why they’re famous, and what material of theirs is best. I think that a weekly article previewing or rating of all the week’s big comedy TV shows might be fun to read, as well.