Beat the Heat, Watch on Repeat

As we inch into mid-July and the gunpowder from Independence Day fireworks finally dissipates and settles on the ground like an ashy, foul-smelling snow, it comes time once again to face the fact that, like it or not, it's Summer.  For some, summer means long, lazy days spent at the beach or in the park, full of barbeques, bikinis, and melty ice cream cones.  These people are are insane madmen who are not to be trusted.  For the rest of us, summer is a time to stay indoors and near the air conditioning, cowering away from the sun like it was some kind of vengeful God.

Point is, it's hot out there.  Why not stay indoors and expand the depth and breadth of your pop culture acumen by doing a few complete-series re-watches of your favorite shows?  And sure, you could plow through your box set of 'The Sopranos' or 'The Wire' for the umpteenth time, but given the brain-boiling heat outside, wouldn't you prefer something a little more... digestible?  Might we suggest starting with Season One, Episode One of Wainy Days and working your way through the entire series?  Or Pilot Season?  Or Back on Topps?

It's easy, just pour yourself a nice cool glass of Four Loko, aim that oscillating fan at your genitals, click play, and check another one of your life's goals off the list.

---

My Damn Channel Sees God and Others at "The Book of Mormon"

Jesse Cowell (My Damn Channel Director of Content),                      Rob Barnett, Josh Gad  
Josh Gad, Rob Barnett (My Damn Channel Founder/CEO)


We saw God last night (and others) at "The Book of Mormon" - the funniest, most original musical comedy on Broadway.

The show stars Josh Gad, our My Damn Channel brother & hero & the star of our newest comedy series, "Gigi: Almost American."

We're previewing Gigi now, created by Josh and The Lost Nomads. Our series launches 3/23. New episodes every Wednesday on My Damn Channel.

I decided not to read all the Mormon press or ask Josh all about the show before experiencing it fresh. This was such an orgasmic comedic masterpiece. Get tickets and see this for yourself. And we'll buy more and give them away like Santa, or the other guy.

"Mormon" was created by South Park's Matt Stone & Trey Parker with Avenue Q's Robert Lopez. We had insane comic heaven hangtime during and after the show with them all last night... along with The Pope: Jon Stewart; "Mormon" producer and show business Midas: Scott Rudin; the Head of Comedy Central and MTV Networks Entertainment Group: Doug Herzog; Iconic Legends Mike Nichols and Angelica Huston; our friends and heroes from IFC: Dan Pasternack & Debbie DeMontreux; and we even met Spock: Zachary Quinto. 

"The Pope" proves every time year after year that he's one of the most generous humans in the game. We were so stunned to see Mike Nichols, I couldn't imagine lame bla-bla and went to a spontaneous salute - which he returned!

We capped off the night and the cocktails with da man of the year, Josh Gad, eating 2am style pizza reminding us all of why we love the voodoo we do. God bless.

---

The Secret Origins of Sukashi - REVEALED!

Where is Jimmy Hoffa buried?  Who built Stonehenge?  What's up with Donald Trump's hair?  These questions are inconsequential compared to this: Who is Sukashi? 

Well, the wait is over, ladies and gentlemen.  Watch the newest episode of Go Sukashi! and find out the secret origins of the man, the legend, and the possibly insane...Suksahi.

---

The Streamy Awards HEART My Damn Channel

Shock, awe and appreciation to all who voted for the STREAMY AWARDS nominations.  An insane 14 nominations for My Damn Channel series and stars.

The Streamy Awards honor excellence in original web television programming and those who create it. The annual ceremony and its live online broadcast on April 11, 2010 bring together top talent, decision-makers and influencers shaping the online entertainment industry. 

Respect & Praise to the My Damn Channel Family of Nominees:

Wainy Days

    Best Comedy Web Series

    David Wain for Best Actor

    Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series

Easy to Assemble

    Best Comedic Web Series

    Best Branded Entertainment Web Series

    Best Ensemble Cast

    Illeana Douglas for Best Actress

    Justine Bateman for Best Actress           

    Best Product Integration in a Web Series

Sparhusen

    Best Original Music in a Web Series

Back On Topps

    Best Ensemble Cast

    Best Branded Entertainment Web Series

    Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series

    Chris Hardwick for Best Guest Star

        

---

LOOK WHO'S IN THE MIDDLE

6/24/09: Don Was, Richie Sambora, Andy Madadian, HIM, Jon Bon Jovi, John Shanks

Most people know us for bringing the laffs. Don Was is the man that brings the music to My Damn Channel.

We've been in awe of the way his latest inspired idea has taken off in the past 48 hours.

"Stand by Me" is spreading like wild. THANK YOU ALL for turning this idea into action. And thank you for getting this inside Iran.

Media coverage is insane. There are soulful responses pouring in from emails, tweets, calls, facebook, video comments, the YouTube community, and every site taking this free video and mp3 and making the music move.
 
We just watched & stopped the video at 1:12 & found the MYSTERY & well...the funny.

Look who's in the middle! Look how many people are in the photo. Let 'the Kevin Bacon game' begin.

Keep sharing this link: 

http://www.MyDamnChannel.com/DonWas

---

TIME MAGAZINE on NEWSSTANDS

TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World

Technoculture

Fun with Photoshop

Thursday, May. 01, 2008 By JOSH QUITTNER



Troy Hitch, left, and Matt Bledsoe have just been revealed as the co-creators of the hit Web series You Suck at Photoshop.


Five hundred Gazillion Web video channels and nothing good on? Google this: You Suck at Photoshop. Narrated by the fictional Donnie Hoyle--an angry, sarcastic, cuckolded Photoshop expert--it was launched in late December and ended 10 episodes later, in April, when Donnie mysteriously disappeared. Not that you ever saw him. In the videos, the camera remains centered on a computer desktop and follows Donnie's cursor as he conducts mock tutorials on how to use the photo-altering application. Sound obscure? Maybe not. With the explosion of blogging and do-it-yourself publishing, Photoshop has become one of the Web generation's indispensable tools. Accordingly, the Donnie series has been viewed nearly 8 million times and is up for two 2008 Webby Awards: Best Comedy and Best How-To Video.

How a goof became a phenomenon is a Web-age love story almost as sweet as Donnie is bitter. Many fans believed the video series had to have been made by a professional comedian; Dane Cook was a favorite suspect. But it turns out to be the work of Troy Hitch, 37, and Matt Bledsoe, 39, both of Covington, Ky.--two former ad-agency guys who met while recording a radio commercial in nearby Cincinnati, Ohio. They buddied up, started writing funny bits and launched a new-media-centric creative agency called Big Fat Institute in 2005.

That's where Rob Barnett discovered them. A show-biz guy who had worked at MTV and VH1 before spending two years at the helm of CBS Radio, Barnett had decided to become a Web-video impresario. He found Big Fat Institute while looking for someone to design his website. You Suck at Photoshop "was hysterical," Barnett recalled recently. "I was instantly engaged and e-mailed them: 'WHO are you?' In 38 seconds, I get a response: 'Who are YOU?' We started flirting." The e-mail led to phone calls and an invitation to visit Barnett in New Jersey. "A few days later, they jumped on a plane to Newark, and we fell in love," he says. Barnett signed the guys to build his video-entertainment website, MyDamnChannel.com and then produce comedy videos for it. You Suck at Photoshop was their first baby.

Hitch and Bledsoe had long nurtured an idea for a character they thought of as the Angry Photoshop Guy. Explains Bledsoe: "We had both been in the agency business so long that after a while we'd seen every kind of person in the advertising world." One of those stereotypes, he says, was the "insane designer, basically. He has horrible social skills and horrible things going on in his life, and the only thing he has going for him is he can out-Photoshop the guy in the cube next to him." It took 2 1/2 hours to complete Episode 1. "The vast majority is improvised by Troy," says Bledsoe. "I hate him for that." Hitch adds, "It was meant to be a one-off thing." But within a few weeks, the blogosphere discovered it, and the series began racking up page views.

In my favorite episode, Donnie shows viewers how to seamlessly remove the wedding band from a picture of his cheating wife's finger. "We actually really put the ring up for sale on eBay, and within four hours, 30,000 people had come by to look or bid on it," Hitch tells me. "The ring was bid up to $760." But eBay shut down the auction after discovering the performance art--a violation of the terms of service, apparently.

The team emerged from anonymity in April to launch a sequel, Snatchbuckler's Second Chance. It's filmed in a fictional, virtual world called Peopleburg.com Snatchbuckler, Donnie's erstwhile partner in the online game World of Warcraft, has gone there to shake off his Internet addiction. The video debuted on MyDamnChannel.com in late April, and it looks pretty cool. But I miss Donnie and wish I could Photoshop him back into my life.

---

Two F Words: (11.7.07 - 4:48 am)

As the sun rises, My Damn Channel celebrates our 100th birth-day. We're still in diapers but not full of shit. We're having too much fun learning how to walk and talk. We moved into a new office in NY this week. We spent the past year ramping up and launching from a tiny, 15-foot space gifted by an angelic co-con named Cathy. Our new place has enough space for the 7 of us ... we've even got our own toilet. In truth, it's pritty pritty cool. My office window stares directly into irony: facing the Viacom skyscraper where I spent over 11 years at MTV + VH1. Our LA team is still bunkering together in close quarters but a latenight television pal is threatening to buy a cool new place near the beach and be our NEW "Landlord." Great phone call from a HipHop icon yesterday looking for his own "My Damn Channel." If this deal closes as fast as it seems to be moving, it'll be because of the first two minutes of that call.....and because of the two F bombs that he dropped. I asked why this man wanted to move to webworld with such a solid track record in music, film, and television. "FREEDOM - Freedom - Freedom - Freedom," was his first response. He'd grown tired of taking too many meetings and said he was always filled with too many good new ideas to wade through months of red tape to get every new project off the ground. Second F Bomb: FAST. He wants to start his own My Damn Channel now. He has a new television deal in the spring and I asked if he wanted to wait to let all the heat hit at once. The response was "let's go NOW." The entire call went just like that. Total agreement - no need to wait. No lengthy lawyers dancing either. It was the same way when we first pitched David Wain. That meeting took ten minutes for David to get to "yes." Don Was happened in seconds. Harry Shearer and I wanted to do this (without realizing it) from the day we met. Kimmel brought Milonakis. This father/son team are brothers in arms and the newest Milonakis music video in our pipeline is going to blow up insane. We launch our newest "My Damn Channel" this Friday. The announcement breaks tomorrow. Bonus F bomb for all the souls on strike this morning: FIGHT.

---