“Do you have any ideas for docu-soaps?” the network executive asked me out of nowhere. “That depends. What’s a docu-soap?” I asked. I was in a meeting my TV agent had set up during a visit to Los Angeles. “It’s a documentary soap opera,” she explained. “They’re really big right …
We’re doing a new thing, folks. And I have to say, of all the things we’ve ever done, this is definitely a new one. For those who don’t know, Baratunde writes the back page column for Fast Company. Starting with this most recent piece he wrote on young entrepreneurs, Baratunde …
It is often said that a business is successful if it creates jobs. We disagree. Creating jobs is a sign of massive failure for it creates “costs” and “liability.” True success would be to create labor output with no compensatory input. That would be the cold fusion of business. Thus …
As part of our relationship with AOL for our web series Funded, the entire Cultivated Wit team will be going to Cannes, France for the Cannes Lions Festival June 16-20. While there, we will attend things while nodding our heads, shake many hands, and flash a series of increasingly large …
This admittedly blurry photo is the old Onion writers room, sans table. It’s where I spent upwards of 10 hours a week for four years gaining an incredible appreciation for just how difficult it is to produce good, original comedy for more than 20 years as The Onion has. One …
At this point in my life, a full-grown adult without any kids, publicly sharing the amount of cartoons I watch would either call into question my mental capacities or land me on a sexual predator watch list. So let’s skip over that part. Instead, let me jump right to making …
We’ve always liked to consider our company as existing within the overlap between technology and comedy/creativity. Well, listening to NPR yesterday I discovered the Cultivated Wit of shooting things with a high powered rifle. Tracking Point is a startup gun company (yup, that exists) from take one guess where. Hint: …
Late night comedy shows have employed the shove-a-microphone-into-a-stranger’s-face technique for several decades now. The Tonight Show has a long history of quizzes and gotcha-type moments exposing some level of ignorance in the public. I’m particularly interested in these street interviews when the setting is the historically black Harlem neighborhood in …
We recently spoke with Patrick Moberg who created the incredibly popular mobile game Dots, but somewhere in between chatting with him and actually publishing the interview there may or may not have been a couple hundred games that transpired. In addition to learning that I should never try and write …
A junkie sits alone in his ramshackle apartment, lit only by the glow of his smartphone screen. Unblinking, he taps and slides his finger along the screen like a panicked animal. “Squares, need squares, c’mon, just one,” he mutters to the emptiness. 100. 200. 300. “This could be the one.” …
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