Thespians Vent For You in 'Project Rant'

HAHA YES!!1!!! If there’s one thing that I heartily enjoy it’s a good rant. It’s right up there with watching dudes not really getting kicked in the private parts. When a rant is on point I’m not even that particular about the subject matter and, heck, I don’t even have to know the circumstances or understand the metaphors.

What makes a rant “good”? Well that depends, but generally it should include massive amounts of hyperbole, righteous indignation and a few wild swings between irrational lunacy and excessively grounded rational thinking (actual facts are always helpful). If you want a good primer on how to rant properly read pretty much anything written by Drew Magary, as he is a true master of the art.

ThusI’m quite pleased to have been turned on to Project: Rant and the wonderful work they’re doing giving voice to victims of passive-aggressive roommates, road-ragey drivers and dollar-store failures. Like myself, Project: Rant co-creators Luis Caffesse and Cliff Wildman (awesome name!) are fans of people just going off about who-knows-what because, in their words, “A lot of that random bitching about said random sh*t is funny.”

That’s marvelous!

So…how does Project: Rant work? Well, they have a form on their website and you rant – proper grammar probably doesn’t matter – in the space provided. It’s rather simple, really, which is great if you’re the ranter because that’s one less thing to distract you from your target. You’re already aggrieved and on the cusp of producing a notable work of art; these guys don’t want to get in the way, go to town!

Caffesse and Wildman don’t have any formula for what makes a good rant, but like former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, they know it when they see it. Submitted rants they find sufficiently hilarious get remade for the camera, granting the ranter a bit of notoriety and some comfort knowing that somebody heard their shouts in the darkness. And the rants you see are not edited, either, so the script that gets filmed is the rant in its original form, just performed by someone more capable in front of the camera. Kinda like those Geico commercials.

Not only is that a classy maneuver, it will probably also keep Caffesse and Wildman from becoming the subject of some meta-rant about how, “my rant was edited after I submitted it and you changed it and now I’m crying because you betrayed my trust!” (Although such a rant would probably be hilarious and film-worthy, perhaps prompting some infinite regress of ranting and filming.)

Premiering in early March, there are now a whole bunch of episodes posted for our viewing enjoyment. Caffesse and Wildman are aware that between all the ravings about crazy people it’s nice to throw in a note of appreciation for someone or something, like some guy did for his local barista. Now do something nice for these guys and give them some page hits!

Check it out at ProjectRant.com.