This is the second episode in the VIRAL series. See the first VIRAL episode here.
My conversation is with actor and producer Shane Nickerson, who knows more than a little something about VIRAL content, as he’s spent years creating it through tv shows for MTV, CMT, and Nickelodeon.
Shane is co-president of the production company Super Jacket with Rob Dyrdek, and together they're responsible for shows like Rob & Big, Fantasy Factory, The Dude Perfect Show, Jagger Eaton's Mega Life, and Crashletes.
Today we delve into the show Shane helped create with Rob Dyrdek: Ridiculousness, which features remarkable short clips culled from the vast sea of the internet. Ridiculousness is so popular that it was responsible for roughly 23% of MTV’s total programming last year.
MTV's Ridiculousness host Rob Dyrdek, the show is also created and produced by Shane Nickerson
Ridiculousness is a clip show a little bit like America's Funniest Home videos, where they feature hilarious amateur clips culled from the internet. I chat with Shane about how they find these videos, what they're looking for in a clip that will evoke a reaction from their studio audience, an what works and what doesn't in the current culture of sharing EVERYTHING.
I wanted to talk to Shane in particular for the VIRAL series because he is such an expert in knowing what kinds of content will make people laugh, cry, or cringe. But what happened towards the end of our conversation was a total surprise and I couldn't have asked for a better or more shocking story to go at the end of an episode.
The book that has made such a huge impression on Shane:
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
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