YouTube’s Sketchie New Contest

If you needed any more proof that YouTube is the new Vaudeville, YouTube announced a new sketch comedy contest called the “Sketchies.” The grand prize, provided by Paramount Pictures and Pepsi, includes a budget and equipment to produce a bit for and about Sierra Mist Lemon Squeeze, as well as a trip to meet with agents and The Lonely Island team, who produced the following announcement video for the campaign.

“We’ve seen an evolution on YouTube from one hit viral videos, to people building passionate audiences that tune in to see every new video,” said YouTube’s head of product marketing Jamie Byrne in the release. Running these heavily promoted contests is certainly one way for YouTube to attract and develop talent within their own system.

Contestants have until May 31 to submit their video. A panel of Hollywood professionals will choose the twenty best, and then online voting will determine the top ten. Those ten will be asked to produce another sketch, with users choosing the final five. In the third and final round, the top five will be asked for one more sketch, with the winner again selected by a poll. The winner will be announced on July 12.

It’s another sign that you can throw all the technology you want at a new media platform, but without content, you’re not likely to attract much of a crowd. YouTube is banking that even without professionally produced content on their site, they’ll still grow. “What our users want to watch is themselves,” co-founder Chad Hurley recently told the Associated Press.

On that note, I got to thinking about when “sketch comedy” was new and different and exciting like YouTube is now. Can’t decide if I should submit a funny video about that seminal moment to YouTube, or just pitch the idea to the producers of Caveman…