One of the funnest parts of releasing a series online is getting to interact with the audience. It's exciting to be able to have that 2 way communication. To see their immediate reaction to the videos release, whether those reactions are really, really good or really, really bad.

So, in honor of that, here's a totally random sampling of the comments so far...

1) dude in green looks like Zuckerberg. lol. - Koky5150
2) Why was I spammed with yet another sad excuse for a trailer yet again. - LaTinctoire 
3) american comedy sucks since 20 years ago - SkyLitDriveFan123
4) This looks great, I would love to see this as a full half hour or hour show - SkyLitDriveFan123
5) YEAH! YE-YEAH!Alan Matthews from Boy Meets World, a few people from The Guild, good shit! - RockMeChunsaDeus

Obviously, comments can be good or bad. But it's important for content creators to look at every comment as a positive thing. First, no such thing as bad publicity etc. etc. But second, and more importantly, everyone that leaves a comment is a potential fan. You just need to engage with them, respond to the comment, and they might keep coming back.

That's why we're trying to respond to every comment left on our youtube videos. If they commented in the first place, yes they could just be trolling, but they probably just need a friend.

Let your show be that friend! 

Funny babies are all the rage on the internet. They're right up there with cats. In my opinion, they're actually much cuter and more entertaining to watch. They rip paper, they babble, and they giggle. God damn, do those babies giggle. 

But what about these ridiculous tiny diaper people attracts viewers and how can that be applied to a successful web series?

The most obvious answer is that babies are cute, so people watch them. But there has to be something more to it... Right? Thus, in pursuit of the almighty funny baby truth, we watched the top 10 funny baby videos on youtube.
 
We then gathered the information on the following four aspects of the videos/their channels: views, length, subscriber base and theme. Yes, theme. This post is going to be just like that paper on 18th Century Women's Literature you wrote in college. Except it's going to be less sexist, and we're not going to buy it online.

So, without any further preamble whatsoever, here are the illustrious and the magnificent, the babytastic and the diaper clad, the terrific goo goo ga ga celebrities of the online internet online tv wacky video viral cuteness world, the... Oh... There are actual people reading  this?

Here are the ten videos we gathered, along with their stats:

1) Funny Babies 2 - 15.9 Million Views - 1min17sec - 813 Subs - Theme: Humiliating Babies
2) Top 10 Funny Baby Videos! - 2.9 Million Views - 3:14 - 272 Subs - Theme: Babies Laughing
3) 2 Funny Babies Laughing - 18.6 Million Views - 1min29sec - 992 subs - Theme: Babies Laughing
4) Funny Babies - 1 Million Views - 3min22sec - 664 subs - Theme: Exploiting Innocent Babies
5) Funny Baby Accidents - 3.5 Million Views - 1min25sec - 261 subs - Theme: Humiliating Babies
6) Funny Baby Clip - 8.9 Million Views - 2min6sec - 405 subs - Theme: Exploiting Tired Baby
7) Funny Baby - 4.6 Million Views - 1min41sec - 1,180 subs - Theme: Laughing Babies
8) Funny Baby Makes a Speech - 7.1 Million Views - 1min29sec - 924 subs - Theme: Babies Are People Too 
9) Laughing Baby Ripping Paper - 42 Million views - 1min41sec - 4,597 subs - Theme: Babies Are Uplifting
10) The Funniest Baby Sloth Video Ever!!! - 3.5 Million Views - 3min01sec - 222 Subs - Theme: Odd Fascination

Okay. That was a huge pain in the ass, and I never want to see another baby video again. Here's what we noticed in all of these videos... 

Youtube View Counts: Obviously they are huge. That's why we included them here. Yeah. It's crazy. Let's move on, and see how we can apply the wisdom of the baby video to web series...

Youtube Video Length: They're all very, very short. Like lawn gnome short. In fact, the longest video is 3:22 seconds. Now, I don't think that means web series creators need to be exclusively releasing uber short material, but I do think it's an indication that audiences like videos on the shorter side. Under 6 minutes is probably good at first. But that's common knowledge. The real underlying message here, is that although the common wisdom of 'keep your videos shortish' prevails, the real wisdom is this: Also include super short videos on your channel! 

Try to produce short teasers, trailers and promo videos as supplemental content. If you want to succeed on youtube, it seems shorter videos are good at drawing people in. Hook them with the short extras. Then if just a few people stay for the main attraction, you've earned some real fans. 

Subscriber Base: I wasn't too surprised to see that most of these videos did not translate into subscribers for their channels, but I was kind of taken aback by how universally true that seems. Even "Laughing Baby Ripping Paper," which has 42 million views, didn't attract even 5,000 subscribers.

That reinforces what we've said on here before: Don't worry about 'going viral.' One viral video, in and of itself, will not lead you to the pot of gold at the end of the youtube rainbow (the gold is actually piles and piles of iPads. The rainbow is a real live rainbow). 

That said, we all kind of secretly hope our video will catch virtual fire. If there's anything these toddler videos teach is that you need to be prepared for virality to happen to you. That means always have a 'subscribe now' button on your videos. And always be building your channel! Have more videos for people to watch, loop your videos together, and you'll have way better luck converting casual viewers to subs.

Theme: For the most part, these videos, deep down, are about grown ups mocking babies. I understand that may be a pessimistic point of view, but I stand by it. A common thread in all of these videos is that the grown ups are the ones holding the camera. And we, the audience, see the baby from their perspective. Face it. We're laughing at these kids, not with them. They are chubby, stinky little monsters that are only there for us to mock with our laughter. 

And this thread holds true across lots of different youtube 'genres'. People like to watch other people get humiliated. There are ball kicking videos. Face smacking videos. Auto accident videos. Clumsy fat people videos. The list goes on... These videos are king on youtube.

So jump on board the embarassing train! This means BLOOPERS. Film everything that happens on set. Stage accidents. Make your lead actors look stupid. Or better yet, throw them under the bus. Literally. Or set them up to fall in love and wait for the babies to pop out.

Then you're set.

This is a promotional video for "Home at Last." The series premieres on October 25, 2011. The character, Pete, is portrayed both in the series and in the above video by Eric Rubin. 

This is the first in a series of videos we are using to promote the show. The director of the show, Steve Sprinkles, is a VFX pro. That is why we are able to do ridiculous stuff like this. As you can see, Steve rocks at VFX (in addition to editing and directing). We're lucky to have him on board for this project. 

Steve came up with the concept for this video, and Chelsea and I loved it.  It's basically a take-off on a Kobe Bryant car jumping video that came out in 2007/2008. In that video, Kobe successfully jumps a car. In this video... Things don't quite work out as well.

Chelsea and I are very excited, because I think we are going to end up with a total of seven or eight "Epic Fail Pete" videos, and each is going to be more ridiculous than the last. 

As for these videos and their relationship to the series, that is something we gave a lot of consideration to before we decided to go ahead and shoot them. At first we were concerned - are theses videos pertinent to the series? Are they in line with the 'story world' we're trying to create with Home at Last?

Obviously, we decided that the answer to both questions is yes. These Pete videos are just that: Videos about Pete. They are almost more about the character than they are about the VFX surprise at the end, because Pete's easily distracted douch baggyness is pretty much why he fails to avoid disaster. 

Yes - there is a ridiculous element and a suspension of disbelief here that is not present in our actual show, but I think that's okay. Lots of my favorite promos are totally absurd. They're just fun, short videos that get you interested in the show itself.

So far, this video has only been up a couple of hours on YouTube, but it's already picking up steam more quickly than the two trailers we released earlier this month. That's kind of the idea. With these videos, we wanted to release something a bit more 'internet friendly.'  Something good for a 30 second laugh, that might point some new fans and viewers our way. 

I'm very interested to see how these videos fare online. There is certainly a bit more of a 'viral' component to them, but, as we've said before, we don't really have an interest in 'going viral.' Yes, the more people that watch the better, but we want a real, committed fan base. This is just one tool to get the word out there.

We'll certainly update this post if this video (or any of the other supplmentary vids we release) gains any traction online. We'll track how this video influences our subscriber numbers and view counts on other videos, and whether or not this 'viral' angle helps us develop an audience long term.

We've got a ton more footage already shot for more epic fail videos, and we've also shot an entire vlog style mini-series, focused on "Pizza Boy" (played by Jacob Grodnik). 

We're really excited for these videos too. Jake worked as a PA on set, in addition to playing this part. In the actual series, it's a small part, but he really shines when he's on screen, and these vlogs are shaping up to be pretty entertaining as well.

Alright, awesome. 

"Home at Last" is a comedy web series directed by Steve Sprinkles. The show stars William Russ (Boy Meets World) and features Jeff Lewis (The Guild). The first episode airs Oct. 25, 2011. Like us on Facebook! Subscribe on YouTube!