AB2014 Comedy AMVs - A Challenge.

kiarrens · Post by **kiarrens** » Wed May 29, 2013 9:44 am

We all know that comedy is the hardest category to pull off, and statistically the one with the least entries. This has been the one constant for every year of the AMV contest (except for that first year when it was divided by Novice, Journeyman, Master).

I'd like to issue a challenge to all of us (myself included, I will make one last video for this purpose) to make 2014 the best damn Comedy AMV category AB (or the world!) has ever seen.

If every single editor here makes one really good comedy video, we have the potential to make this category the most amazing one in the entire contest.

How about it, guys? Can you step up? Can you take the heat? Can you make the top 5 in the best comedy AMV category EVER? Let's do this.

drewaconclusion · Post by **drewaconclusion** » Wed May 29, 2013 11:06 am

I was planning to make a comedy specifically for next year, so I'm in.

Post by **Sayoria** » Wed May 29, 2013 3:50 pm

I have an idea, but I don't know if Adam would be up for this....

Could we like.... allow two videos per person again, HOWEVER, to increase comedy videos, allow THREE per person, if they include a comedy video in the mix? Might increase comedy traffic, but I am not sure. I myself hope to try comedy next year (Wanted to this year too, but I was so blanked out on ideas) but we will see if any unique ideas cross my path. Most comedy ideas end up as:

- The "channel changing" type.
- Cute > Violent/Scary
- Scary/Violent > Cute
- Shows played to a comical song

If I attempt comedy, I kind of want to pull away from this, and that's kind of hard to do.... like that DBZ Silent Movie back in what.... 2009 or something?... that one was gold.

While comedy IS the hardest category to pull off, it is also one of the easiest ones to go for sometimes since you don't have too many videos to compete with. If all comedy videos suck, if you can get at least one chuckle of the audience, you are in the running... which in the end make it not too too hard.... but it would be better having a full category of drop-dead funny videos. Let's hope so next year.

Elder_God · Post by **Elder_God** » Wed May 29, 2013 5:45 pm

Kiarrens wrote:We all know that comedy is the hardest category to pull off, and statistically the one with the least entries. This has been the one constant for every year of the AMV contest (except for that first year when it was divided by Novice, Journeyman, Master).

I'd like to issue a challenge to all of us (myself included, I will make one last video for this purpose) to make 2014 the best damn Comedy AMV category AB (or the world!) has ever seen.

If every single editor here makes one really good comedy video, we have the potential to make this category the most amazing one in the entire contest.

How about it, guys? Can you step up? Can you take the heat? Can you make the top 5 in the best comedy AMV category EVER? Let's do this.

I would be up for giving it one more go if enough editor's agree to sign on. To be honest, I was going to pull the plug on comedy after this year. Just because there were 13 entries doesn't mean they were any good. the 4 good ones made the contest. Period. The rest were bad. Period.

So if enough of you guys agree to step up to the challenge, it'll buy comedy a one year reprieve and we can send it off in style.

YouTube · Post by **basharoftheages** » Wed May 29, 2013 6:15 pm

I'll come up with something.

algonzal · Post by **algonzal** » Wed May 29, 2013 7:47 pm

In best Barney Stinson/NPH voice: "Challenge Accepted!"

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Wed May 29, 2013 8:48 pm

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Wed May 29, 2013 9:49 pm

Somewhere along the line I became known as a Comedy Editor so I actually do want to go in-depth on this.

Yukito Kunisaki wrote:Could we like.... allow two videos per person again, HOWEVER, to increase comedy videos, allow THREE per person, if they include a comedy video in the mix?

I honestly don't think this is worthwhile. If an editor wants to make a comedy they're going to make a comedy; you don't need to give them the extra incentive. What this would do is encourage the 'YouTube' editors - i.e. the ones who don't edit for quality, but rather for quantity, view counts, and recognition by people who don't care about quality themselves - to submit yet another video in order to see their name on the ballot. So you'll get more videos, but not necessarily better videos.

Yukito Kunisaki wrote:- The "channel changing" type.

You know why Hell-style videos are funny? Because that's as funny as most people can be. It's the difference between saying something funny in front of a group of friends and writing/performing a 30-minute stand-up set. You can blame audiences for having short attention span and laughing at easy meme-based humor but the fault also lies on the editors who cannot or will not develop a longer concept.

For some reference, here's Seinfeld/Curb Your Enthusiasm director David Steinberg on being funny and there's plenty of other comedians and writers who have discussed similar topics on YouTube and in print.

Yukito Kunisaki wrote:- Cute > Violent/Scary
- Scary/Violent > Cute

Uncomfortable can be funny. So can shock.

Yukito Kunisaki wrote:- Shows played to a comical song

If you're going to write off funny songs you might as well write off wacky/funny footage, and then what are you left with?

Yukito Kunisaki wrote:If I attempt comedy, I kind of want to pull away from this, and that's kind of hard to do.... like that DBZ Silent Movie back in what.... 2009 or something?... that one was gold.

It's an admirable stance but in some ways a futile one. In the end you're just setting anime clips to music and trying to make people laugh enough to circle your name on a ballot. If you figure out a way to do that, do it, but there's really no need to reinvent the wheel just because the current one isn't getting you home fast enough.

Yukito Kunisaki wrote:If all comedy videos suck, if you can get at least one chuckle of the audience, you are in the running... which in the end make it not too too hard.... but it would be better having a full category of drop-dead funny videos. Let's hope so next year.

The bigger problem with this decision is that comedy AMVs are simply more memorable than most others. The most you'll ever hear said about a good action/drama/romance video is usually "[Song/anime pairing] was so good!" but they aren't going to refer to specific sections or cuts. Meanwhile, a good comedy video has people talking about specific jokes and memes. Not that one genre is better than the other, but this will inevitably lead to people saying that the contest wasn't as memorable as it was last year, or that it was lacking... etc.

If anything, the lack of a Comedy category disrupts the rest of the contest because now all an editor has to do is make a funny Romance vid or a funny Action vid and they can potentially steal the category. Fun/Upbeat/Other would basically become 'anything goes' and Drama... well, nobody cares about Drama anyway. And if all of this happens the first complaints you'll hear are "those were comedy videos, why didn't they have their own category?"

Adam's already stated that 'the four good videos made it'; if that's the case just reduce the category size and establish a scoring curve. I think everyone would have been happy with a 4-video category and I doubt it would have affected voting that much.

YouTube · Post by **basharoftheages** » Wed May 29, 2013 10:00 pm

dokool wrote:If anything, the lack of a Comedy category disrupts the rest of the contest because now all an editor has to do is make a funny Romance vid or a funny Action vid and they can potentially steal the category. Fun/Upbeat/Other would basically become 'anything goes' and Drama... well, nobody cares about Drama anyway. And if all of this happens the first complaints you'll hear are "those were comedy videos, why didn't they have their own category?"

Actually a lot of that already happened. The answer to "where did all the comedy go?" isn't that it vanished, it's that it combined in smaller doses with other genres to appeal more broadly. Romance has been filling with fun/upbeat and comedy for years now, because sappy isn't as engaging.

Post by **Sayoria** » Wed May 29, 2013 10:09 pm

The way I see comedy though, it can be anything. It's one of the categories where you have many ways to go at it. Romance is as is.... love and interest. Action.... well, action and fast paced scenes. Comedy on the other hand can be taken in so many ways, and while hard, there are still ways people can go at it, but haven't yet. I mean, I remember your haiku video a few years back too. That was crafty. Simple yet different and crafty.

If I am going to go after comedy, I want to look into something not yet done. This is why I have only attempted comedy one time ever. (Personally, I think my comedy video was good, but my problem a year or two after looking at it, I realized I dragged it out heavily, and that killed me. Was a unique idea too) .... After last year, I was hoping to go for comedy THIS year, but it never happened because while ideas came about, nothing I thought of I thought were worth doing. Makes it even harder since I don't watch as much anime as I used to, but hey.... I got another 9 months to get something rolling. If this is going to be the last year for comedy, then I definitely, definitely want to think up something that will satisfy. Comedy is my favorite genre of all genres (not exclusively to AMVs, but movies and such as well) so I feel if I can't do it justice, I just don't bother.

Post by **Sayoria** » Wed May 29, 2013 10:12 pm

BasharOfTheAges wrote:
dokool wrote:If anything, the lack of a Comedy category disrupts the rest of the contest because now all an editor has to do is make a funny Romance vid or a funny Action vid and they can potentially steal the category. Fun/Upbeat/Other would basically become 'anything goes' and Drama... well, nobody cares about Drama anyway. And if all of this happens the first complaints you'll hear are "those were comedy videos, why didn't they have their own category?"
Actually a lot of that already happened. The answer to "where did all the comedy go?" isn't that it vanished, it's that it combined in smaller doses with other genres to appeal more broadly. Romance has been filling with fun/upbeat and comedy for years now, because sappy isn't as engaging.

I noticed this too. 1337meatwad's Panty and Stocking video last year was a good example of this. I felt similar from the Haruhi one this year too. I didn't even see a single romance video this year really "romancy" as much as I did comedy. Last year's entry by AimoAmi was the last AMV that I really saw being well "sappy" but really well done. I was surprised to see a true-to-heart romance.

chaobunny · Post by **chaobunny** » Fri May 31, 2013 9:14 pm

I attempted comedy once and didn't get in. I have a sort of funny upbeat in the works (I was going to enter it this year but I never came close to finishing). Unless I come up with a fantastic idea or the upbeat one comes out funnier, I don't know if I'm willing to put effort into a category that I don't think I stand a chance in.

The one exception to this is if we would be allowed to do something not completely music for comedy (i.e. audio from a movie with lipsync sort of a thing). In that case I do have ideas.

Post by **Cave** » Fri May 31, 2013 11:20 pm

Yukito Kunisaki wrote: I noticed this too. 1337meatwad's Panty and Stocking video last year was a good example of this. I felt similar from the Haruhi one this year too. I didn't even see a single romance video this year really "romancy" as much as I did comedy. Last year's entry by AimoAmi was the last AMV that I really saw being well "sappy" but really well done. I was surprised to see a true-to-heart romance.

I don't get why the Denpa Onna AMV was skipped over apparently. As good as Enchanted? Not even close, but still a good AMV. The 7 Days With Suzumiya was a good video, but I agree, not romance. Romance is a difficult one for sure. I remember previous winners being that "I Like You" Bakemonogatari and "Rough Love" (I was confused seeing "Tough Love" on the ballot lol) which were both kinda silly/comedy.

Post by **Sayoria** » Fri May 31, 2013 11:55 pm

Cave wrote:
Yukito Kunisaki wrote: I noticed this too. 1337meatwad's Panty and Stocking video last year was a good example of this. I felt similar from the Haruhi one this year too. I didn't even see a single romance video this year really "romancy" as much as I did comedy. Last year's entry by AimoAmi was the last AMV that I really saw being well "sappy" but really well done. I was surprised to see a true-to-heart romance.
I don't get why the Denpa Onna AMV was skipped over apparently. As good as Enchanted? Not even close, but still a good AMV. The 7 Days With Suzumiya was a good video, but I agree, not romance. Romance is a difficult one for sure. I remember previous winners being that "I Like You" Bakemonogatari and "Rough Love" (I was confused seeing "Tough Love" on the ballot lol) which were both kinda silly/comedy.

Being a little harsh, I am sorry, but yeah, that one was romancy. I dunno though. I suppose the influx of non-romance-ish videos in the category just completely made my mind write off all of them. Part of the burden being top of the list I suppose.

Elli21486 · Post by **Elli21486** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 12:02 pm

Just knowing now that the thought of the Comedy Category would be scrapped makes me sad. After all, the Comedy Category was what inspired me to do the Voters' Reaction series. Anyway, as a viewer, I did notice a lot of comedy leaking into other categories, most notably the Romance Category, such as Tough Love. It was a good video but at the time, I felt it was in the wrong category. I am also aware that Comedy does not get as much entries as the other categories.

I guess all this leads up to, why not just combine Comedy with another category (not this year, of course since this challenge was issued.) I mean, it wasn't long ago that the Fun/Upbeat/Other category split into Fun/Upbeat and Other.

Post by **Sayoria** » Sun Oct 06, 2013 10:11 am

I kind of have a video being worked on that kind of leaks into comedy, but at the same time, not so much. It's got a few "haha" moments so far, but it's clearly a fun/upbeat video as far as I am right now. We will see as I make it if that changes, but at this rate, I won't be submitting to comedy after all.

mikami · Post by **mikami** » Thu Oct 17, 2013 12:09 pm

Elder_God wrote: I would be up for giving it one more go if enough editor's agree to sign on. To be honest, I was going to pull the plug on comedy after this year. Just because there were 13 entries doesn't mean they were any good. the 4 good ones made the contest. Period.

I'm gonna accept this as the first and only positive comment I received on my video -_-

Post by **Sayoria** » Thu Oct 17, 2013 9:01 pm

Your video was good, just not so funny. The category sucks in terms of trying to be different and keeping everyone smiling, but that's just how it is. It's honestly been years since a comedy video has made me laugh. Last one to do it *Well, more or less smirks* out of me was the DBZ Silent Film. Not that the comedy videos weren't good *Like Bashar's this year, I actually went back, watched it again, and DO like it, but it just wasn't funny IMO*, they just aren't funny.

Looking forward to it this year though. Here's hoping someone has thought up something spectacular. As for me, I am blown. Thought about it ever since two years ago, and I just can't think of anything. Doesn't help the fact I don't watch new anime anymore, so I am working on what I know from the past.

Elli21486 · Post by **Elli21486** » Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:22 pm

Yukito Kunisaki wrote:Doesn't help the fact I don't watch new anime anymore, so I am working on what I know from the past.

Hmmm, I wonder...will there be a submission in the comedy category using Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui!? Now that would be interesting to watch!

YouTube · Post by **basharoftheages** » Tue Oct 22, 2013 9:34 pm

Yukito Kunisaki wrote: *Like Bashar's this year, I actually went back, watched it again, and DO like it, but it just wasn't funny IMO*

I don't know... I turn and look at my trophy case and I'm seeing a lot of stuff in there that tells me otherwise.

To be fair, though, most of them are Canadian; they could have just been being polite.

Post by **Sayoria** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 8:09 pm

Canadian trophies are probably bootleg anyways. :p

Honestly though, I do love me some comedy. I try to be pretty darn stern while watching this category. It's easier to judge and give vote if I can actually get a cracked smile. Might make it a little less enjoyable, but at the same time, it's good to see if my shell will crack or not. Hopefully will next year, or maybe I should just sit back and enjoy what's there, since next year may be comedy's last.

Elli21486 · Post by **Elli21486** » Thu Oct 24, 2013 1:39 pm

Yukito Kunisaki wrote:Canadian trophies are probably bootleg anyways. :p

Ok, that cracked me up!

YouTube · Post by **otakuforlife** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:46 pm

Don't worry I'm submitting to comedy..
Gotta challenge yourself somehow!

drewaconclusion · Post by **drewaconclusion** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 4:27 pm

otakuforlife wrote:Don't worry I'm submitting to comedy..
Gotta challenge yourself somehow!

If this is your "shameless" video, then I'm pretty sure what you made.

mikami · Post by **mikami** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 5:10 pm

drewaconclusion wrote:
otakuforlife wrote:Don't worry I'm submitting to comedy..
Gotta challenge yourself somehow!
If this is your "shameless" video, then I'm pretty sure what you made.

Indeed. Have you been to the H-AMV contest? Brian has no shame

YouTube · Post by **basharoftheages** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 5:22 pm

mikami wrote:
drewaconclusion wrote:
otakuforlife wrote:Don't worry I'm submitting to comedy..
Gotta challenge yourself somehow!
If this is your "shameless" video, then I'm pretty sure what you made.
Indeed. Have you been to the H-AMV contest? Brian has no shame

Been to it? He's still owed last year's trophy!

YouTube · Post by **otakuforlife** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 7:58 pm

Nope... Shameless doesn't mean unoriginal..
You'll just have to wait to find out.. Well back to work

drewaconclusion · Post by **drewaconclusion** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 10:33 pm

otakuforlife wrote:Nope... Shameless doesn't mean unoriginal..
You'll just have to wait to find out.. Well back to work

Hold up, I never said anything about originality. I just was saying that if your comedy video was the "shameless" video you mentioned on the dinner group thread, then I knew what the video idea you used was. That's all.

YouTube · Post by **otakuforlife** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 1:32 pm

Oh sorry didn't mean to imply anything there.
I was saying the ideas I mentioned were shameless ones.
Well It's not the ones I mentioned

Post by **Sayoria** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:03 pm

Okay, I don't have a comedy submission this year, however, I have a F/U video with a good amount of comedy in it that it could actually easily double up as a comedy. I had F/U in mind making it but if need be and suitable to judge expectations, it could be recategorized. It WILL be submitted as F/U though.

hg revolution · Post by **hg revolution** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:19 pm

Submitted two comedy AMVs this year.

YouTube · Post by **basharoftheages** » Sun Feb 09, 2014 9:30 pm

Time is running out. I hope to see great things. Great Things.

drewaconclusion · Post by **drewaconclusion** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 9:44 am

Well, I got my comedy video submitted.

VivifxAMV · Post by **VivifxAMV** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:24 pm

I submitted my Comedy video too! Although I could see it being moved to upbeat lol

reaper527 · Post by **reaper527** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:43 pm

you guys definitely succeeded. comedy was great this year. (and even beyond that, many of the things in other that could have easily fit in comedy were amazing as well)

Post by **Cave** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:57 am

I think we need a new challenge for Romance now.

https://www.youtube.com/user/davenfonet · Post by **thetoddfather** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:06 am

Cave wrote:I think we need a new challenge for Romance now.

Challenge Accepted!

Elli21486 · Post by **Elli21486** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:02 pm

Cave wrote:I think we need a new challenge for Romance now.

Hmm... I think these challenges can be an annual tradition, bringing creators to try new things.

Post by **Sayoria** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:35 pm

Romance could use one, definitely. It's coming to the point it's borderline comedy sometimes.