Advice For New Media Comedy Producers: Befriend Mark Day

Mark Day, your friendly, bald-headed, surly Scottsman, is leaving his yellow backdrop from where he dispenses topically comedic metaphor and observation to manage a more digital stage. The political and pop culture pundit just announced that he’s now on the job as YouTube’s new “Comedy Manager.”

That means that Mark – a YouTube user since March of ’06 and a top 100 most subscribed to producer – will be sifting through the haystack of comedy uploaded to the internet’s biggest video-sharing site to find the few shiny needles that are sharp enough to prick the funny bones of the masses. He’ll be doing everything he can “to bring you the full range of comedy available on YouTube today – from the best sketch groups and the latest movie parodies to up-and-coming stand-up comedians, and the kind of videobloggers who love to make their subscribers laugh.”

It also means, if you’re a creator of comedic internet content, you should befriend Mark Day.

###Though some may purport to have secret strategies behind viral videos – and despite the likelihood that some of those strategies might even work – the featured videos on YouTube are still chosen, programmed, and promoted by actual people. On a site that reportedly serves upwards of 100 million videos per day, this generally equates to tens of thousands of views – and tens of sexually charged and/or homophobic comments – for the lucky, chosen few.

It’s a shot. A break. A ticket to web consciousness. Here’s Mark’s contact info: comedy AT youtube.com and markdaycomedy AT gmail.com.

One casualty of Mark’s new gig is that he won’t be lending his insightful, impassioned rhetoric to your computer screen anytime soon:

“Now that I’m part of the YouTube team, you won’t be seeing much of my big bald head any more (which is, perhaps, a blessing). But I do want to thank everyone who made it fun for me to get in front of a video camera in the first place. Now I hope I do my part to encourage more users to post their own rants, skits and amusing opinions.  As for my yellow wall, it’s currently hoping to film its own sitcom pilot as soon as the writers’ strike is over.”

 Here’s a look at a typical moment of Mark in front of said wall for the sake of posterity and a laugh: