http://www2.funnyordie.com/public/flash/fodplayer.swfthe parody video Tom Cruise WANTS you to see! on FunnyOrDie.com
When the Will Farrell/ Sequioa backed ($15m+) FunnyorDie launched in March 2007 it made a huge splash with Farrell providing original content that quickly went viral. After an initial peak the traffic slowed right down, with some suggesting that it may not rise again. Content has always been the key, and as the Jerry O’Connell send-up of Tom Cruise above demonstrates, they’re still producing the right stuff.
The positive side is that FunnyorDie has slowly grown since their initial post launch slump. According to comScore figures, FunnyorDie did 1.8 million uniques in December on 10 million page views. In perspective this placed FunnyorDie 5th on comScores humor index for the month, behind CollegeHumor at 4th, and ahead of The Onion at 11th. Notably that this is with FunnyorDie allowing their videos, like the one above, to be embedded on other sites, a move that would result in video views not being represented in comScore’s measure of site traffic.