Friday, April 25, 2008

Matt Stone wants more mon-ay

Well, not really. He's swimming in it. But he has some thoughts on "some of that Internet mon-ay" that can be found in some audio interviews here. Some discussion of something I was ranting about after Canada On Strike, which is that the actions of Stone's own studio shows that they clearly think there IS money out there:

In the above-mentioned strike episode, the boys make an outlandishly obscene "YouToob" video, hoping to cash in on some of those Internet ducats. Their video is a hit on "YouToob" -- and it got posted all over the real YouTube too. With so many would-be auteurs constantly battling just to get their work noticed online, there was something surreal and incongruous about watching Viacom methodically remove dozens of copies of a hit viral video its own show had generated as a joke.

When I asked about those takedowns, Stone admitted to being "a little schizophrenic" about it. "Trey and I have never had a problem. It's never hurt us," he said, but he added that "from Comedy Central and Viacom's point of view, I understand how they want to try to make some money."

Well, is there online money or isn't there?
Exactly. Parker & Stone can afford to be blase about the writers' strike becaue, unlike other shows, their corporate masters haven't made them work without pay to produce online-only content that the companies clearly think has earning potential. Overall, interesting media analysis.

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