MyDamnChannel hit the web and was within minutes dubbed a “Funny Or Die Clone.” Was someone holding an embargoed press release? Dunno. I’ll get beyond just cribbing from the press release and quickly clicking a couple of things to look at MyDamnChannel in more depth.

First, the press release regurgitation: “My Damn Channel launches an entertainment studio and new media platform created to empower artists to co-produce, distribute and monetize original, episodic video content. Comedians, musicians and filmmakers will develop short-form series and retain total artistic control of their own web channels.”

On to the content…

If you have the least bit of jazz in your soul, the visage of Don Was demands that he be called a hep cat. There’s an erudite coolness about him. In an online video marketplace where everyone is convinced that the answer is to amuse people to death, his contribution is a welcome respite. Some are discounting him as though the implied past tense means something, but take a look at the people he’s worked with and then tell me he can’t bring something interesting to the party for a wide range of tastes for many segments to come. It’s not an interview; it’s hangin’ out –and more; vintage clips: Iggy Pop from ‘89, Clapton from ‘68; Albert King from ‘80. Before you starting thinking it’s all “old” stuff, there’s new music, too. Enough. Go see for yourself; Was is a hit.

Harry Shearer’s initial offering is about as low key as you can get; literally. Shearer conjures up Dick Cheney grumbling out a torch song for Scooter Libby, “No Cooler For The Scooter.” About Libby, he croons, “He’s still free to bend over. Scooter’s rescued from the joint.” then repeats it, lounge style, to make sure we get the double entendre, “Scooter’s rescued from the joint.” Manna for the “Le Show” crowd. Again, an unexpected calm in the noisy cavern that is web comedy. Maybe this whole damn thing IS going to be different than the rest. But… why Cheney & Libby? It feels a less current; less immediate; like well trod ground. I dislike Cheney as much as anybody, but now that the approval ratings are permanently shattered, do we need to raise the cudgel for another blow with so many others worthy of a beating? The 2008 campaigners smell like fresher meat.

The third launch day offering is “Shelly,” the first of ten webisodes of “Wainy Days” by David Wain. At four minutes each, ten webisodes is less time than two airings of that “show about nothing.” Wain manages to get me slightly interested in the show (Elizabeth Banks sure helps) –enough to come back and see what happens next but I’ll agree with one commenter who expressed that if he doesn’t catch me at Episode II, I wont be back for III. Four minutes is a challenge: do you make it all about Wain or try to get viewers to invest in the development of the supporting cast (can you even develop multiple characters in four minutes)? Dunno. Maybe this is going to be a “different chick every couple of weeks” thing. If it is, there will be a many disappointed viewers because a lot of comment posters are banking on seeing Elizabeth for a while. It’s nice to see something on the web using people who deserve titles like DP and editor.

An Andy Milonakis channel is to launch in August. MyDamnChannel’s valiant effort to raise the IQ of the room with Don Was and Harry Shearer is likely to be undone by Milonakis. Let’s just say he’s an acquired taste; maybe like Aussies and Vegemite –you have to have grown up that way.

Is there a formula that explains the audience overlap between these channels? Only Rob Barnett knows. It will be interesting to what artists he adds to the roster. It had better happen quick. I don’t know if there’s enough there to satisfy the different niches established by the current foursome in the lineup. After watching the available material, I instantly had a craving for Dave Chappelle. Bringing back Chappelle to sketch comedy via MDC would be an event of mind blowing proportions. Oh well, that’s probably a half baked dream.

MDC’s remaining content is rounded out by promos –lots of them. “Landlord 2027” is the keystone, a clever nod to Will Ferrell’s “The Landlord” with a song, a dance, promo copy and two left turns. It’s chock full o’ nuts. The two left turns are funny and crop up elsewhere on the site. It’s good, but if treated like the Energizer bunny, too many left turns start feeling like going around in a circle. When pleasing the web, a stream of funny stuff often trumps one really funny gag. Keep them coming.

The site is, of course, supported by advertising. None of the video clips lead with annoying :30 TV spots re-purposed from broadcast television. That’s GOOD. Watching Don Was’ long interview in eight separate four minute chunks was tolerable, but if I had been forced to wait through a pre-video commercial eight times to get the whole thing, I’d be soured. The lack of a full 32 minute Don Was feed makes me suspicious, though.

Quick takes:

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PCRQ (pop culture reference quotient): .0074
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DISCLAIMER: I know some of the folks at Big Fat Brain who worked on some of the material for MyDamnChannel. I didn’t know when it was going to go live; I just knew that since they had disappeared from my personal radar for a while that they were holed up somewhere battling the grueling days & nights that a launch requires. I don’t know Rob Barnett; have never met him; he doesn’t know me. I travel with underlings.

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