The original comedy competition show "Annual Comedy Competition" breaks through the broadcast
Ma Dong: Comedy is about creating positive emotional value
The original comedy contest "Annual Comedy Competition", produced by iQiyi and Mi Wei, was officially launched last Friday.
The show assembled the "strongest comedy lineup" of Huang Bo, Li Dan, Ma Dong, Xu Zheng, and Yu Hewei as the organizing committee. It uses a variety of comedy forms such as sketch comedy, comics, mime, etc. to make life-loving, optimistic and cheerful Comedy works and comedy newcomers stand out and enter the public's field of vision.
After the show’s premiere, many works that took into account both laughter and social care soon broke the circle on the Internet, such as "Internet Medical Examination" which satirizes Internet advertisements, "Sanmao Defense War", which presents the crisis of workers’ hair loss, "The Strange Neighbor on the Bus", which is an absurd display of contemporary human fear, and so on.
Some viewers predict that the "Annual Comedy Contest" will continue "Wonderful Talk" and "Summer of the Band", bringing the comedy industry back to life.
However, Ma Dong, the founder and CEO of Miwei Media, always upheld an expectation and wait-and-see attitude when accepting an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Beijing News.
He believes that Mi Wei produces content, hoping to use variety shows as an "amplifier" to create positive emotional value, and to make talented people in this industry be seen by the outside world.
Laughter is the most important criterion
When making "Annual Comedy Contest", Ma Dong had two "firm beliefs": First, he firmly believed that comedy should fall firmly on amateurs.
The comedians in the show are mostly new faces. The audience can put aside the cognitive interference with the stars and focus more on the performance, purely accepting the comedic effect brought by the characters.
The second is to insist on co-creation.
Comedy is not the achievement of either an actor or a screenwriter alone. Only when everyone gathers together and persists in creating amidst the undue doubts, can we inspire better comedy creation.
But in the final analysis, the audience’s "laughter" is still the most objective measure.
It is reported that the "Annual Comedy Contest" has been running for more than nine months. Before the recording, the comedians and screenwriters had been stationed in Miwei’s company, constantly creating and rehearsing; but more importantly, every once in a while, they Take the work to the temporary "small theater" set up downstairs, and accept the inspection and voting by different audiences in advance, until hundreds of comedians are gradually eliminated to the current 25 comedy squads.
In order to maximize the balance of different aesthetic jokes, the program also includes as many comedy types as possible including sketch comedy, comics, one-man drama, musicals, mime, etc.
However, in a society where information can be exchanged quickly and adequately, it is difficult for comedy to make the audience feel "reasonable but unexpected". In addition, should comedy pursue value output, or should it laugh wildly?
The contradiction between the two has not yet come to a clear answer.
In the first stage, Ma Dong laughed the most happily in "Taoyuan Three Knots", tears of joy came down; but some people think that "Taoyuan Three Knots" is not as comical and ironic as "Internet Medical Examination".
"Don't care, just make it funny first." This is Ma Dong's purest understanding of "Annual Comedy Competition".
Persevere in happiness and convey positive emotional value
In Ma Dong's cognition, the essence of variety shows is "funny" and "good crying"; when both are taken into consideration, it is the best state.
In essence, Mi Wei has always insisted on making "funny" shows since he was founded.
"A lot of people watch "Wonderful Flowers" is also funny; although the music of "Summer in the Band" is very good, but the other parts are also funny." Ma Dong believes that the debate is good, the band is not bad, and now the "Annual Comedy Contest", They are just the means and grammar of "happiness"; what remains the same is that it allows the audience to reap happiness and then secrete the feeling of happiness.
Ma Dong's vision for Mi Wei is to become a "company that creates positive emotional value and continues to grow."
A simple interpretation is, “Don’t rely on blocking people and creating curiosity to drive traffic for yourself.” This is why it is difficult for viewers to find variety show contradictions or negative emotions in the "Annual Comedy Contest". Instead, "Sanmao Defends" "Father and Son's Voice" and other works can make people laugh purely while looking for self-care and love for life.
"Negative emotions are not worthless, but we choose to subtract everything below zero, leaving only the warmth, care, and kind release above zero." Ma Dong knows that such a pursuit is in the moment. Slightly stubborn in the variety show market, but this is his choice.
As for whether "Annual Comedy Competition" can promote the comedy industry to become a new hot spot, Ma Dong does not seem to take this as his main goal.
He believes that the content produced by Mi Wei is more like an "amplifier." "We use organic content production to generate positive emotional value for everything, and then release it through the mass media, so that talented people in this industry will continue to be The outside world sees it and generates greater value. I think this is the most important synergy of the combination of media and content."
Written by/Beijing News reporter Zhang He