Archive for Comedy

Cary Huang, a Mind Behind Battle for Dream Island

Cary K Huang is a creator whose journey started sooner that most would expect. Cary, in collaboration with his twin brother Michael, created an animated web series called Battle for Dream Island. Their first entry in this series, “BFDI 1a: Take the Plunge”  was released to YouTube, beginning the story of the original twenty living objects and the host and establishing that the contestants would battle to win a beautiful island. It did not receive a wide viewership at first, as it was through the steady persistence of their uploads that their audience would grow. Cary and Michael were twelve when the first episode was released on the first day of 2010, and over the course of exactly two years and twenty-four episodes totaling nearly four hours of animation, they gained more than a thousand subscribers.

The fans of Battle for Dream Island and a similar YouTube show known as Inanimate Insanity would come to be called the Object Show Community. This online community, as is the case with others like it on the net, produces large amounts of fan made content. Some may consider the OSC, especially as it exists today, to be a self-sustaining vortex of inspiration, animation, and creativity. 

The brothers’ journey in online animation had a good early chapter. It was followed by several false starts in the form of sequel seasons that did not get far off the ground. Through most of his time in high school and college education at Stanford, Cary was too busy to focus on animation. During this time, he was able to experiment with code in some interesting projects. It was not until a flurry of new episodes releasing in 2017 and 2018 that Battle for Dream Island was ready to return, this time with a far larger production team and renewed art style. Following a hiatus that can be attributed to a lack of time at the end of Cary’s college career, Battle for BFDI (aka. BFB) was able to release episodes regularly until it reached its conclusion. 

The BFDI team is still active today, and is currently producing the prequel season Battle for Dream Island Again and the sequel season The Power of Two simultaneously. Each new animated episode receives millions of views. Though the world and the scope of their creation has expanded greatly, Cary and Michael’s original vision from when they were twelve years old still persists in their modern efforts.

Dave Portnoy- Barstool Sports

David Portnoy is an internet and sports sensation. He grew up in Massachusetts and attended the University of Michigan. He had a minor job directly out of college at a small marketing firm in Boston but eventually left his job to start Barstool Sports in 2003. Barstool Sports started off as a sports newspaper that Portnoy himself would hand out in downtown Boston and in subway stations to people passing by. The newspaper had some trouble taking off at the beginning and the only sponsorships they had were with some small sports betting sites which were illegal in America. Believe it or not but Barstool Sports started to gain some traction in and around Boston once Portnoy started adding different things that would appeal to men on the covers of his newspapers. Portnoy eventually graduated from the newspaper and opened up his blog in 2007. Portnoy himself comes off as a ruthless type of person in his blogs and on the internet for his political incorrectness and has gained the name El Presidente amongst the fans of Barstool Sports. As of 2022, Portnoy still owns Barstool Sports and is in charge of the creative thought process for the blogs. In 2020, Penn National Gaming bought a 36% stake in Barstool which gave Portnoy $135 million in cash. Portnoy has retired his persona of the big ruthless “bro” as some would say and now has a series of going around the country reviewing pizza shops trying to find the perfect slice. When it comes to Dave Portnoy himself, he may not be the best person and there are many negative things that surround him, but all entrepreneurs should take his gritty push to become rich and famous and implement that into their work ethic. Not many people would go out and stand on subway stations for hours in consecutive days to try and make a name for themselves and their product.

Johnny Cupcakes

Johnny Cupcakes, an odd name for a bakery. A nickname from co-workers, Johnny Earl has been serving “fresh-baked” T-Shirts across multiple locations for several years now. An entrepreneur from a young age, he started 16 businesses before the age of 16. He has been featured in FORBES, NPR, BusinessWeek, INC Magazine, Wall Street Journal, WIRED, New York Times, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times; and seen on MTV, Bloomberg TV, MAKER, Attack Of The Show, The Food Network, and WWD!

Johnny Cupcakes: A T-Shirt Startup That Gained a Cult Following Through  Unique Marketing and Word of Mouth

The idea came when he was creating new designs for the rock band he played for. He came up with the first Johnny Cupcakes design, featuring a skull and crossbones with a cupcake replacing the head. After wearing it in the office, everyone seemed to want one! Johnny began selling t-shirts out of his truck, and focused on customer experience instead of marketing. A known prankster, he loved the idea of “tricking” people into thinking he was running a real bakery!

50 Johnny Cupcakes ideas | johnny cupcakes, johnny, cupcakes

“Our bakery aesthetic is so convincing, that customers are usually convinced they are walking into a bakery expecting to get a cupcake. My inner-jokester still gets a kick out of fooling hungry shoppers. Cupcake or not, customers usually leave with a t-shirt or a great story. However, one April Fool’s Day we sold real cupcakes and hid all of our t-shirts!”

Johnny Cupcakes® Dragon Ball Z on Behance

As he began to assume a cult-like following, he added new and exclusive designs. some would only be available for certain hours! The T-Shirts, which make fun of pop culture and replace known figures with cupcakes, are becoming increasingly popular on social media where they garner the attention of masses.

OFFF16] In Conversation with Johnny Cupcakes • Inkygoodness

For Johnny, customer experience is everything, he hides vanilla scented air fresheners in store locations to mimic the smell of frosting. T-Shirts are placed in vintage refrigerator cases and packaged in pastry containers when purchased. He is known as “The top Innovator in Retail” because of his personal connection to customers. He has been known to show up randomly, and post his location for people to find him. Johnny Cupcakes has hosted movie nights, bowling, roller-skating and more simply for the connection and brand loyalty. Prankster or not, Johnny knows the importance of a strong customer base and uses the connection to his advantage by dialing in to what fans want to see next.

 

Want to learn more? Check out this YouTube Video

Visit Johnny Cupcakes website here

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Lucca International Clothing Brand

Lucca is very famous on Tik Tok and known for his ironic clothing apparel and has blown up on Tik Tok for advertising his apparel. What is unique about this young entrepreneur is that he uses ideas from people who comment of his Tik Tok’s, so he is appealing to the public, who are buying his stuff, and is more likely to sell more of his clothing if he uses ideas straight from consumers. He is also making customers laugh and have cool stuff which is what motivates him. The funny shirts and apparel that are usually ironic and don’t make sense is what makes his business interesting and intriguing. He does his business out of his house and uses his own website to organize his orders, this always makes his business innovating. With him being able to organize his own website makes it more personal for himself and customers instead of using an Esty shop where Esty gets to include their franchise. I have learned through him that if you have an idea, you can truly start anywhere, and it is so cool that he uses ideas from the public to get variety in his apparel so it’s not the same thing all the time.

Zach King – The Digital Illusionist

Zach King is a well-known media content-creator who began with Vine and then expanded to Youtube and Tiktok as his content began to take off. He is now one of the most followed influencers on the platform of Tiktok. Zach was a filmmaker whose interest in film was sparked when he was 7 years old. His love for creating videos followed him his entire life and didn’t stop when he was denied acceptance to film school at Biola University. Most people would have given up at that point and have believed that was a sign to pursue something else in life. While he did enroll at Biola as a general student, he turned instead to social media to show his videos. Originally, he had sold film editing tips under a different name than he has now, but he began to grow exponentially from there. He won $35,000 from Youtube’s Nextup Creators contest way back in 2011. Advertisements were a big part of how he made his money. King is most well known for his comedic, magical videos that he says function as a “digital sleight of hand.” It takes 25 people to accomplish his videos today, although he had to do a lot of his content by himself during the pandemic. He said that he found his success because: “We’re on the top charts right now on TikTok and our stuff is really different. Hopefully that shows others that you can be really successful, and at the top, by doing something totally left field. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing. In fact, that’s where people are going to find their strength: By figuring out their niche and really owning it.”

I can’t help but agree with that. Following along with the trends and staying within one’s comfort zone might eventually grow a following, but they will only become a micro-influencer, just like so many others who also replicate trends. Doing something different and innovative, utilizing the unique talents that one might possess might be the ticket to success. Instead of being just one of the dime-a-dozen, standing out like Zach King did could lead to unimaginable success. 

 

Zach King: https://zachking.store/pages/about

Insider article: https://www.insider.com/zach-king-explained-tiktok-star-vine-youtuber-2021-8

top videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KDmnwOmtQc

 

The Bridge to Success

Social media has been building bridges to new ways of innovation and entrepreneurship ever since it began. Those who have capitalized on it when it began, however, are the ones making all the money and gaining the most fame. Felix Kjellberg, or better known to some as “Pewdiepie,” created his youtube account only one year after the website was released. It wasn’t until 2011, though, that he began to post on what would become the largest account on the platform ever (owned by one person). He began by posting quite short and relatively boring videos on his account purely for the entertainment of his friends and himself. As time went on, more people began to find his account, subscribing to it, and Felix’s fanbase grew. Less than a year later he had surpassed the 1 million subscriber mark. He began to post more and more and only a year after that was at 10 million. It was safe to say that he was on the right track.

Pewdiepie began to create merch such as shirts, chairs, headsets, and eventually his own game on the app store. He was rapidly gaining fans and in the spring of 2019, the creator finally reached an astonishing 100 million followers, which meant that 1 in 15 people who used youtube was subscribed to his account. This may not seem like much, however, almost half of the country uses this platform. He is still creating to this day and after selling many products and featuring in other videos and ads, he has accumulated roughly a cool $45,000,000 from online interactions alone. Felix will forever be remembered in the industry of videomaking and for revolutionizing the world by his assistance in bridging the gap between the real and digital worlds of entrepreneurship.

Anna Sitar: A Brand of Positive Encouragement

 

Anna Sitar is a social media influencer who’s main focus is to spread positivity and joy. She is active on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and has a website to sell some merchandise like t-shirts and sweatshirts with quotes specific to her personal brand on them. Not quite an influencer, Anna still manages to pull many viewers through her wholesome content. She recommends different brands all the time, and is real about her experiences with her followers.

Her big debut came with her Poland travel blog that she posted on YouTube. Then, once TikTok became popular in the States, Anna started a TikTok account. Her content shows that she is a good-natured, encouraging, kind, and humorous person. Two catch phrases Anna is known for are: “I don’t want it” and “get with it.” Either one is a common phrase in her TikToks.

Although Anna does not have a lot of products to sell and grow as a business, she is cultivating a brand that reaches much further than products. Her clean content and positive outlook help her followers believe in the good that is in the world. Anna Sitar is an encouragement all around, and her entrepreneurial mindset is taking her places.

Her website states her philosophy quite simply: “There is no such thing as an unrealistic standard. This brand represents the fighters, the lovers, and the humans who know what they want, and will not rest until it is achieved. If you don’t believe in us, we don’t want it.” It’s an honest and beautiful brand that can cheer anyone up.

 

https://www.annaxsitar.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/annasitar/featured

Full Send

NELK Boys

NELK is a YouTube Channel that was created by two boys Sebastiani and Kyle Forgeard. Jesse had a love for riding dirt bikes, skateboarding, snowboarding and getting in trouble at school. He had and entrepreneurial mind from a young age and even created his own clothing line at 12 years old. Kyle was from Canada and was a big part of making video with Jesse.

NELK Boys throw huge party at Illinois State University during pandemicThe NELK boys consist of three main guy which are Jesse, Kyle and Steve Deleonardis but they also have a few faces that show up multiple times on their channel. They travel around doing public pranks and using their bold personality to entertain other people. The NELK boys have 5.8+ Million subscribers and their net worth is estimated to be around 1.8 million.

Danny Duncan

Danny Duncan is a famous YouTube star whose videos generate up to 3 million views. He performs stunts and comedy routines that interest your average day YouTube consumer. Due to his status as a internet celebrity, he has been able to generate a great amount of revenue from his websites and retail stores.

Duncan first worked at a Walgreens right out of high school before quitting to focus on making videos about skateboards and injuries. He was then hired to teach actor Jason Lee who sensed a great ability in Duncan to act and entertain. He told Duncan to focus on his YouTube channel as it would help with getting acting gigs and from there he took off. His most famous video is “Falling with 30,000 pennies” had close to 6 million views

Cites:

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/danny-duncan-41751.php

Steven Crowder – The Conservative Canadian-American

Image result for steven crowderAs a teenager, Steven Crowder started off in the performing arts as an actor and a comedian. He performed in many national competitions with great success. As he got older he realized that his “politically incorrect” humor would resonate with and get laughs from many on the internet.

Crowder saw an opportunity as the political climate was starting to resemble Hollywood more and more and he started a political comedy show on Youtube. He called his show “Lowder with Crowder” which is a weekly show where he discusses the current political climate mixed with jesting humor.

Louder with Crowder became extremely successful as one of the most popular conservative channels on youtube, which was able to be monetized. On top of youtube monetization, Steven created a “mug club” which is a subscription to view unique content and receive other special perks such as a Louder with Crowder mug, hence the name.

Since Crowder’s launch of Louder with Crowder, he has started a segment on his youtube channel called “Change My Mind” where he goes into public locations such as universities or in front of the White House. In this segment he asks presents an idea and asks the public to convince him to change his mind on said idea. This has sky-rocketed his popularity to the point where even if someone doesn’t support his ideologies, they’ve probably still heard of him.

Crowder has time and time again navigated murky water to improve his entrepreneurial endeavors and continue his ventures in comedy and politics.