Funny or Die is a comedy video website founded by Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell

John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...

 and Adam McKay

Adam McKay

Adam McKay is an American screenwriter, director, comedian, and actor. He is most famous for his partnership with comedian Will Ferrell, with whom he co-wrote the films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys....

's production company, Gary Sanchez Productions

Gary Sanchez Productions

Gary Sanchez Productions is a production company operated by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. They also founded the video site Funny or Die.It is named after supposed entrepreneur and financier Gary Sanchez, and is represented by Creative Artists Agency.-Film:...

 with original and user-generated content. Funny or Die contains exclusive material from a number of famous contributors (e.g. Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is well known for his work in comedy films, especially for films he has been involved with throughout the latter half of the 2000s. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, a film production company that also developed the...

, James Franco

James Franco

James Edward Franco is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, painter, performance artist and instructor at New York University. He left college in order to pursue acting and started off his career by making guest appearances on television series in the 1990s...

) and also has its own Funny or Die Team, which creates original material for the site. Many clips on the site feature well-known actors (examples include Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen

Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....

, Patrick Stewart

Patrick Stewart

Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...

, Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe is an English actor who rose to prominence playing the titular character in the Harry Potter film series....

, Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...

 and Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld

Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...

).
Michael Kvamme, an aspiring young comedian, came up with a concept for a new kind of comedy site and the site was developed by Randy Adams

Randy Adams

Randy Adams is an American serial entrepreneur funded by Sequoia Capital in Menlo Park, California in the Silicon Valley, and a founder of seven venture capital backed companies including Will Ferrell's popular comedy site, Funny or Die.He was educated at Mount Desert Island High School in Bar...

. Videos are voted on by users of the site; those that are deemed funny stay, but those that are not "die" and are relegated to the site's "crypt".
The title is a reference to the well known political cartoon, Join, or Die

Join, Or Die

Join or Die is a 2003 album by Amen. It was the first album published by the Refuse Music label and was limited to 2000 copies with the first 1000 copies hand numbered by Casey Chaos in his blood...

.

The site's first video, "The Landlord

The Landlord (film)

"The Landlord" is a 2007 short comedy film starring Will Ferrell, Pearl McKay, and featuring Adam McKay. The film was directed by Adam McKay & and written by Ferrell and McKay. In the film, Ferrell's character is harassed by his landlord for overdue rent money...

," has received over 70 million views and features Ferrell confronted by a swearing, beer-drinking two-year-old landlord. In June 2007, they received venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...

, and in June 2008, they announced a partnership with HBO.

Voting System

Unlike other viral video sites, members of Funny or Die are encouraged to vote on videos which they view, with the options of "Funny" or "Die". The video then gets a score of the total percent of people who voted the video "Funny". If the video receives an 80% or greater "Funny" rating after 100,000 views, it gets an "Immortal" ranking. If the video receives a 20% or less "Funny" rating after 1,000 views, it is relegated to the Crypt section of the site.

The Funny or Die staff can also select a rating of "Chosen One", which hides the score from the public, merely saying "Chosen One" instead.

Funny or Die Comedy Tour

In February 2008, Funny or Die launched "Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die Comedy Tour Presented by ‘Semi-Pro’", in conjunction with the promotion of the movie Semi Pro. The tour featured Ferrell, members of the FOD Team and comedians Zach Galifianakis

Zach Galifianakis

Zachary Knight "Zach" Galifianakis is an American stand-up comedian and actor known for his numerous film and television appearances including his own Comedy Central Presents special...

, Demetri Martin

Demetri Martin

Demetri Martin is an American comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist. Martin is best known for his work as a stand-up comedian, contributor on The Daily Show and for his Comedy Central show Important Things with Demetri Martin.- Early life :Demetri Martin was born to a Greek...

, Nick Swardson

Nick Swardson

Nicholas Roger "Nick" Swardson is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and writer. He is best known for his recurring role as Terry Bernardino in the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, for his work in Happy Madison films, most notably the 2011 film Just Go With It, and for his new Comedy Central...

 and Andrea Savage

Andrea Savage

Andrea Kristen Savage is an American actress best known for her comedic roles in Step Brothers, Comedy Central's mockumentry series Dog Bites Man and in the HBO sketch comedy program Funny or Die Presents.-Personal life:...

. Adam McKay and Will Arnett

Will Arnett

William Emerson "Will" Arnett is a Canadian actor and comedian best known for his role as George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II on the Fox comedy Arrested Development. He is also known for his role as Devon Banks on the NBC comedy 30 Rock. Since his success on Arrested Development, Arnett has landed major...

 served as tour announcers. The eight-city tour hit college campuses in Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, North Carolina and New York.

Funny or Die Presents

In June 2008, HBO and Funny or Die announced that HBO had purchased a stake of less than 10% in Funny Or Die. With this, Funny or Die will be responsible for developing at least 10 half-hour episodes for HBO, and the companies may organize future comedy tours together. Regarding the agreement, Will Ferrell said, "I don't want to overstate the importance of this deal, but this is the missing link moment where TV and Internet finally merge. It will change the way we as human beings perceive and interact with reality. Okay, I overstated it. But it is an exciting deal."

In August 2008, FunnyorDie hired Andrew Steele, a twelve year veteran of Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

, and one of three head writers in recent years, to oversee content production and development for the site and for the HBO partnership.

Or Die Networks

Following the success of FunnyorDie, parent organization Or Die Networks has spun out three additional verticals, based on FunnyorDie’s binary voting system.

Funny or Die UK

Funny or Die UK, launched on September 23, 2008, was a UK specific version of Funny or Die. The patrons of the site were Little Britain

Little Britain

Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...

 stars Matt Lucas

Matt Lucas

Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas is an English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and...

 and David Walliams

David Walliams

David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...

, in place of Will Ferrell. The site worked in much the same way as the U.S. site, but featured a number of UK comedians, including Peter Serafinowicz

Peter Serafinowicz

Peter Szymon Serafinowicz is an English actor, comedian, writer, composer, voice artist and occasional director.-Early life:Serafinowicz was born in Liverpool, England. He attended Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Primary School and St Francis Xavier Secondary School...

, Kevin Eldon, Brendon Burns, Matt Berry

Matt Berry

Matthew Charles "Matt" Berry is an English actor, writer, comedian and musician. Berry is perhaps best known for his appearances in The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and The Mighty Boosh; he also had his own series, Snuff Box...

 and Dom Joly

Dom Joly

Dominic John Romulus "Dom" Joly is a British television comedian and journalist. He came to note as the star of Trigger Happy TV, a hidden camera show that was sold to over seventy countries worldwide...

. Or Die Networks and UK partners Hatrick Productions chose to close the dedicated UK website due to financial struggles. The UK contents were consolidated in the main site and today the funnyordie.co.uk domain redirects to funnyordie.com.

ShredorDie.com

Shredordie.com, launched October 23, 2007, is an action-sports website OrDie Networks created in partnership with Tony Hawk

Tony Hawk

Anthony Frank "Tony" Hawk , nicknamed "The Birdman" is an American retired professional skateboarder and actor. Hawk gained significant fame for completing the first 900 as well as his licensed video game titles distributed by Activision...

. Users rate videos of members performing (or failing to perform) stunts by clicking either "Shred" or "Die." Shredordie.com was prominently featured in Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom Huckjam Tour.

PwnorDie.com

Pwnordie.com, launched July 1, 2008, is a site devoted to all things video game, where users can post and enjoy videos about walkthroughs, cheats, reviews, or parodies of popular games. Users vote content either "Pwn" or "Die."

MorradeRir.com.br

Morraderir.com.br, launched July 28, 2008, and brings to Brazil the same home for comedy as FunnyorDie.com in the US. Users can view professional and user-generated content unique to Brazil and also from FunnyorDie.com, and upload their own videos as well. The site features celebrity content from Ivete Sangalo, Sabrina Sato, Diogo Portugal, Fernando Caruso, Luis Miranda and others.

EatDrinkorDie.com

Eatdrinkordie.com, launched August 20, 2008, is a culinary site where users vote videos on preparing and enjoying food as either "delicious" or "die." Tom Colicchio

Tom Colicchio

Thomas Patrick "Tom" Colicchio is an American celebrity chef. He co-founded the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, and formerly served as a co-owner and as the executive chef. He is also the founder of Craft and Colicchio & Sons restaurants...

 is one of EatDrinkorDie’s primary content partners, and the site has also featured content by Art Smith

Art Smith (chef)

Charles Arthur "Art" Smith is an American chef who has worked for former Florida governor Bob Graham and Jeb Bush and until 2007 was personal chef to Oprah Winfrey...

, Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk is a video blogger, co-owner and director of operations of a wine retail store, and an author and public speaker on the subjects of social media, brand building and e-commerce. Vaynerchuk immigrated to the U.S...

, Michael Chiarello

Michael Chiarello

Michael Chiarello is an American celebrity chef specializing in Italian-influenced California cuisine. He hosts the cooking show, Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello, on the Food Network and hosts NapaStyle on the Fine Living Network...

, Jon Shook and Vinney Dotolo, and Sophie Uliano. EatDrinkOrDie.com no longer exists. It now just links to FunnyOrDie.com.

External links

• Funny or Die
• Funny or Die UK