With the release of the controversial award-winning short film “Bulimia: The Musical,” comedy website WorldWideInterweb.com has launched a film production division dedicated to developing original long-format content rooted in the comedy genre of internet videos, taking these “viral” concepts and extrapolating them into feature films.
WorldWideInterweb made its first foray into creating longer format content with the original 15-minute film “Bulimia: The Musical,” directed by Kristin McCasey and produced by Joe DiSanto, one of the site’s co-founders. The clip’s popularity continues to rise, having already reached a total view count of over 160,000 views since its release in late May (Youtube: 72K, Funny or Die: 73K, Daily Motion: 12K). The offbeat sketch is also making the rounds at over a dozen film festivals, proving the draw of internet comedy does indeed extend beyond the web itself.
In the grand tradition of the National Lampoon comedy style, the film takes viewers on a journey through a young girl’s tragic struggle from first vomit to last breath, with the laugh-'til-you-puke song and dance all tying into a positive message at the end. “Bulimia: The Musical” is a cautionary tale that takes an off-color look at a serious illness, using extreme satire to examine the dangers and consequences of our society’s obsession with thinness.
The creators of the ‘Quick And Funny Musicals’ series at the Los Angeles Upright Citizens Brigade Theater first developed the concept. It stars Kathryn Burns, Matthew Patrick Davis, Jamie Denbo, Jackie Johnson, Kristen Rozanski, Betsy Sodaro, Gary Anthony Williams and Cedric Yarbrough, and was also written by Burns, Davis and Johnson.
“Bulimia: The Musical” was created as a test case for the WorldWideInterweb.com platform, which maintains an audience of over 1 million visitors per month. DiSanto, McCasey and the site’s editor and co-founder Nathan Davidson wanted to know if they could leverage the web audience to garner views and attention for the short film, with the idea of future feature films in mind. The case study yielded the successful results they had hoped for, to both ignite distribution and to also prove a model that investors of future projects could bank on.
Taking advantage of its already-established structure, WorldWideInterweb’s new long-form development and production division officially launches to create more original films inspired by today’s internet culture. With the website’s distinctive brand of edgy humor, and the knowledge of what it takes to make something go “viral,” WorldWideInterweb is setting out to prove that the best things on the Internet might not only be memes and funny cat videos, after all.
Watch “Bulimia: The Musical” below or here: http://www.worldwideinterweb.com/bulimiathemusical
