DotComedy Introduces New ‘Vlogs’

NBC’s online humor destination, DotComedy, has announced a new slate of shows featuring professional entertainers posting new videos daily. “Gaggle of Star Vloggers Find New Home At NBC Universal,” read the emailed release touting the five acts.

Fronted by a former National Lampoon editor, Sean Crespo Will Teach U Vlogging provides an alternative to earnest educational efforts like How To Make Internet TV and FreeVlog.org. Think more gags parodying 24 and less clear instruction on how to actually begin your own vlog.

Crespo has some blogging and vlogging bonafides thanks to his role at Drink at Work. Paul Goebel, The King of Television, also had a podcast before DotComedy drafted him for video column The Remote Controller, as did singing duo Rhett and Link who’ve added video for their DotComedy effort. Ask Anything With Beth and Val rounds out the stable with some fillies.

It has been said that no one is ever really kidding, making it interesting to parse this quote from DotComedy’s managing director Sean Redlitz:

“The web has been a great democratizing force in the media landscape, and we figured it was high time somebody put a stop to it,” said Redlitz. “Our plan is to identify the truly talented from amongst the web rabble and bring them into the gilded halls of NBC Universal.”

It’s certainly more free online-exclusive content for you and me, but I wonder if these shows could really be called video blogs. They’re face-forward, but some faces are familiar from network TV; they play in a flash player, but can’t be embedded; they have comments, but DotComedy stopped publishing the RSS feed.

No matter how you define a vlog, the fact that NBC Universal feels the need to catch the ‘vlog’ buzz means that, well, there must be vlog buzz.