Now for some Friday fun.
This is an oldie but a goodie. The Website is Down is a set of hilarious indie videos showing the phone conversations between the main protagonist “Web Dude” Derrick and his arch nemesis “Sales Guy” Chip. Other characters also make an appearance, such as data center admins, network admins, and other sales people.
The brainchild of Joshua Weinberg, The Website is Down is a parody of what IT support staff experience every day. I did IT support work for a summer internship and can empathize.
A 2009 Webby Award winner in the Viral category, The Website is Down is the brainchild of a tech support geek turned independent filmmaker Joshua Weinberg from Denver, CO.
The inspiration for The Website is Down came to Weinberg while he was still in college. As he tells the Rumpus:
For a long time I had an idea about making a movie that took place on the screen of someone working at a computer. I thought it would be cool to see that, watching the story only through the actions onscreen. Originally, I had this idea when I was in school getting my computer science degree. At the time the it was not going to be a comedy, but a mystery where you would watch someone uncovering a secret, like detecting a hacker or whatever. It was going to be all text, all Unix commands, but only ultra-geeky people would know what the fuck it was about.
…That didn’t happen. Really, it’s been more fun doing it as a comedy; obviously more people can appreciate it that way. I had the idea for [The Website is Down] in my head for a very long time and finally the pieces just fell into place. I’ve been making a lot of movies with Casey [Cochran], who also works in tech support, so he completely understood the characters and scenario. He plays Chip Moorhead, the Sales Guy.
Total PEBAK. Go watch the rest of their episodes before their website goes down.
