Tubefilter News

The internet has made it clear our future will be filled with angry, amateur YouTube pundits. Technological advancements have given the masses the necessary tools of production and distribution to be get their opinions recorded and broadcast. It’s a beautiful thing, except for all the noise.

So when everyone has a virtual soapbox, how do you stand out from the chatter? The viral successes of sketch comedy and fake news have made it clear that if you want people to listen to your point of view, you have to entertain them while you do it.

Enter That’s Gay, a recurring segment on Current TV’s popular infoMania news show. Propelled by the charisma and sharp wit of host Bryan Safi (who conceived of the segment after being offended by Millionaire Matchmaker and Kathy Griffin), That’s Gay engages contemporary gay issues with refreshing honesty and insight, accompanied by a dose of devastatingly sardonic humor.

Like most infoMania segments, That’s Gay is driven by its host’s commentaries on news and pop culture, employing news footage, television clips, and the occasional skit to examine an issue. Unlike other infoMania segments, That’s Gay loads up on the satire and utilizes a more editorialized style, the bread and butter of which tackles how homosexuality is portrayed by the media. Past segments examined the gimmicky exploitation of lesbianism on soap operas, the lack of positive gay portrayals in film and television, and, most entertainingly, the suddenly widespread use of “no homo” as a disclaimer.

Mr. Safi, a regular at the Los Angeles UCB and a former staff writer at Funny Or Die, is consistently pitch-perfect in his role as host, eschewing easy punchlines or moral heavy-handedness for a frenetic, dexterous delivery. Each episode of That’s Gay delivers three to four minutes of pointed comedic commentary, but it does so without proselytizing or overselling its messages. After all, the show’s repeat viewers almost certainly share its opinions. That’s Gay embraces the choir it preaches to, and, as a result, can translate uncomfortable or sensitive topics into accessible and entertaining commentary.

Web television aficionados will probably find Downsized to be something of an enigma through the first few episodes, and with good reason. As is the case with other mediums, the most successful of web series tend deal in the currency of escapism, whether they’re meme-ripe comedies or eye-dazzling action/adventures. Downsized, on the other hand, has no interest in taking us away from the real world or its concerns. It’s instead best described as a series of dramatic vignettes, following three sets of characters throug lean times while providing a clear message: everybody feels the recession, but they do so in their own, personal way.

The characters are familiar, not because of their conformity to archetypes or because we’ve seen them before, but rather because they’re so close to real. There’s Beth (writer and director Daryn Strauss), the smart, career woman who’s brusquely let go from her company; Lowell (Duncan Murdoch), the sharkish “efficiency expert” who deals in corporate cliches like “being a team player”; Astrid (Shannon Conley), the smarmy-yet-sympathetic beauty pageant coach who squeezes money out of gullible clients to pay her credit card bills; and Leyla (Esra Gaffin), the immigrant cleaning lady whose tearful workplace breakdown makes her less invisible than her broken English ever could. These are not the type of people we visit YouTube to watch—they’re the people we pass on the street every day.

Situational comedy is, by nature, a formulaic storytelling medium. It derives its humor from the mechanism of an “everyman” protagonist pushing against the outlandish circumstances that surround him or her. Peas in a Pod does a thorough job of following this formula to the letter, which is unfortunate. It’s not because the formula is broken, [...]

If there’s one thing to be said about Craig & the Werewolf, it’s that it doesn’t beat around the bush with its premise. Three seconds into the first episode, we see Craig’s roommate gnawing on a bloody, severed hand. Five seconds later, Craig enters the apartment, freaks out, and demands to know what’s going on. [...]

Many, if not most viewers seeing Meet the Mayfarers for the first time will probably immediately think of The Office. This really isn’t that surprising. The style of NBC’s flagship show – which seems to have become the prototype for uncomfortable humor – easily lends itself to mimicry, especially online.
Still, despite the familiarity of its [...]

You might be forgiven if, upon first glance, you mistook Real Life with Married People for a web series incarnation of the typical family sitcom. There’s the love-hate dynamic of the charismatic couple, the “fun” family activities that invariably go wrong, even the classic, familiar use of the living room couch as the dominant setting.
Yet, as [...]