Growing Demand Blog

As a former comedian (and a former lots of other things, but that’s not important right now), it takes a lot to make me laugh.  And given the high bar of comedy that we set at Cracked, it takes a lot to make the collective team laugh.  Really, really laugh, the way we do when we watch re-runs of The Magic Johnson Hour.  Sure we might crack a smile here and there. Or even emit a very abbreviated guffaw.  But laughing so hard that milk comes out of our nose (even when we are not drinking milk at that particular time) can be tough to find. 

So this past Monday, at 8am no less, if you made your way in to the Cracked offices you might have wondered why everyone was giddy with excitement and completely cracking up.  No, it wasn’t because of the extra sugar we put on our bowl of Rice Krispies (cereal is free here).  The entire Cracked team was in early on Monday to gather around the biggest monitors we could find to watch the premier of the 3^rd season of Streamy Award winning Agents of Cracked.  There were hot air balloons, epic guitar solos, lots of Jameson, and a few fistfuls of butter. There was also a real-time interactive live chat with the show's creators and an exclusive "director's cut" version available to fans via a brand-new social media player.  Not bad for a Monday morning.

The thing that struck me was we were able to create a fully interactive experience for our fans that was unlike anything we've ever done before.  Through video, chat, and a brand new streaming experience, we connected with our fans around the world in an entirely new way, and provided them with three distinct, unique comedy experiences. 

At Cracked, we walk a fine line between funny and fiercely competitive. Because we're a part of Demand Media, we have access to technology and tools that make it easy to push ourselves to find new ways to make the world – and each other – laugh. 

It's not a bad way to spend a Monday morning, and frankly it's just one more reason I feel pretty lucky to come to work here every day.  The free cereal is a close second.

Oren Katzeff is Demand Media's Vice President and GM, Cracked.com.