Comedy Central Orders Pilot From Sketch Comedy Channel BriTANick

Comedy Central is searching for the next great TV series it can adapt from the web, and that search has brought it to BriTANick. The Viacom-owned cable network has ordered a pilot from Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, who will attempt to adapt their sketch comedy personae for TV.

Kocher and McElhaney began making videos in 2008, and their BriTANick channel has since racked up millions of views across YouTube, CollegeHumor, and Cracked. While the BriTANick channel has been quiet over the past year, Kocher and McElhaney have kept their comedy bromance alive. They’re regular live performers and were recently nominated for an American Comedy Award.

In their TV pilot, Kocher and McElhaney will play a pair of friends who go on madcap adventures together. The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the deal, also provided a plot summary of the pilot: “Nick fakes his own death to get out of a relationship as Brian tries to buy his way back into one.”

If this premise feels like an episode of Broad City, that’s probably the point. BriTANick has a lot in common with Abby Jacobson and Ilana Glazer’s Comedy Central series. Both star a pair of best friends, both began as popular (and sporadically-updated) sketch comedy channels, and both groups have had a few famous guest stars in the past. This formula turned out to be a big TV success for Broad City, and Comedy Central would love a similar result from the BriTANick pilot.

At the same time, adapting BriTANick is a trickier proposition than Broad City. Kocher and McElhaney’s videos tend to be strange and often border on the surreal. Take, for example, one of the duo’s best efforts, “Boys Night In”:

Can BriTANick successfully bring that web-friendly humor to TV? At the very least, their pilot will provide fans with some much-desired new material.