Funny or Die Website Gets British Treatment

September 23, 2008 World Screen

LONDON, September 23:
David Walliams and Matt Lucas, the duo behind the hit series Little Britain, are launching a U.K. version of the comedy
website Funny or Die.

Walliams and Lucas will
oversee the new U.K. production team and will provide exclusive clips and
sketches for the site on a monthly basis. The site will also showcase the first
exclusive previews of sketches from the upcoming HBO series Little Britain
USA. Funny or Die has also secured
a partnership with Hat Trick Productions to identify and support new British
comedy talent.

The production team at the
new London-based office is helmed by comedian James Serafinowicz, who is best
known for his writing on the BBC comedy sketch show The Peter Serafinowicz
Show. The team also includes Al
Campbell, the director behind Charlie Brooker's Screenburn, Brasseye and Channel 4's FoneJacker, and also the writing trio Dawson Bros, whose credits include That
Mitchell and Webb Look and Skins.

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Funny or Die is the
world’s number one comedy portal, with more than nine million unique viewers in
August 2008 alone. Founded by U.S. comics Will Ferrell and Adam McKay and
writer/producer Chris Henchy, the site has become the home for established
comedians and celebrities to showcase their comedic skills.

Lucas commented: “When we were asked if we wanted to work with Funny
or Die, we thought 'What's that?' We found out that it was based in America and
we thought 'Where?' They then told us that Funny or Die was the most successful
comedy website on the Internet… then we were really confused. 'What's the
Internet?' we asked. After years of talking to scientists, geographers and
leading politicians we finally discovered the answers to all of these
questions. Armed with this information we said 'Yes'. It's exciting to be
involved with a comedy website that's already number one. The U.S. site has
been a great place for comedians to test out new stuff and more importantly
it's worked well as a platform for discovering new talent. That's what we're
hoping to achieve over here."

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski