2008 Woodie Awards
Spreading that College Humor
Kellie Woodhouse
Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: News
Childhood friends Ricky Van Veen and Josh Abramson might be ridiculously rich 20-somethings now, but a few years ago, they were poor college students struggling to pay the rent. What is the cause of their fortune, you ask? Senses of humor - really big ones.
In a fit of boredom, the self-described "Internet nerds" decided to take funny videos they had made and post them on a website, allowing students from other colleges to post videos as well. Less than six months later CollegeHumor was popular beyond its creators' wildest dreams.
As it turns out, a site filled with witty, funny and just plain dumb videos intended directly for the inappropriate and skewed sense of humor of the typical college student was just what everyone - from fraternity boys to computer geeks - was craving. The Diamondback interviewed co-founder Van Veen about the website's rise to the top and the inspiration behind all of the laughs.
The Diamondback: What was the inspiration behind CollegeHumor?
Ricky Van Veen: My best friend Josh Abramson and I are from Maryland; we went to two different colleges - I went to Wake, he went to Richmond. We were both Internet nerds ... and we wanted to start an Internet site. And if you're a writer, they say write what you know, and what we knew well at the time was just being a jackass college student. So we basically just took a collection of dumb videos and pictures and put it on the site. We started it in January 2000, and by May, it had become really popular, the place where a lot of colleges put stuff up.
DBK: So how exactly did your website evolve from just another funny site to a multimillion dollar business?
Ricky: When we graduated in 2003, we decided to take it to the next level - we knew we could at least feed ourselves with the money it would bring in. We moved to San Diego, lived on the beach and took it to the next level. But after a year of hanging around unmotivated surfers, we realized San Diego wasn't the best place to start up a business, so we moved it to New York City. It was a long process; at first we were just doing it for beer money. Then, when we graduated and faced the choice of doing what we love for little money or working for somebody else for more, we chose to do what we were passionate about.
In a fit of boredom, the self-described "Internet nerds" decided to take funny videos they had made and post them on a website, allowing students from other colleges to post videos as well. Less than six months later CollegeHumor was popular beyond its creators' wildest dreams.
As it turns out, a site filled with witty, funny and just plain dumb videos intended directly for the inappropriate and skewed sense of humor of the typical college student was just what everyone - from fraternity boys to computer geeks - was craving. The Diamondback interviewed co-founder Van Veen about the website's rise to the top and the inspiration behind all of the laughs.
The Diamondback: What was the inspiration behind CollegeHumor?
Ricky Van Veen: My best friend Josh Abramson and I are from Maryland; we went to two different colleges - I went to Wake, he went to Richmond. We were both Internet nerds ... and we wanted to start an Internet site. And if you're a writer, they say write what you know, and what we knew well at the time was just being a jackass college student. So we basically just took a collection of dumb videos and pictures and put it on the site. We started it in January 2000, and by May, it had become really popular, the place where a lot of colleges put stuff up.
DBK: So how exactly did your website evolve from just another funny site to a multimillion dollar business?
Ricky: When we graduated in 2003, we decided to take it to the next level - we knew we could at least feed ourselves with the money it would bring in. We moved to San Diego, lived on the beach and took it to the next level. But after a year of hanging around unmotivated surfers, we realized San Diego wasn't the best place to start up a business, so we moved it to New York City. It was a long process; at first we were just doing it for beer money. Then, when we graduated and faced the choice of doing what we love for little money or working for somebody else for more, we chose to do what we were passionate about.
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