Recently, Fark, the popular aggregator of news, was a category on Jeopardy, marking the second time the 10-year-old provider of hilarious headlines appeared on the popular game show.
Here’s a brief interview I had with Drew Curtis, founder of Fark.
BF: Jeopardy chose Fark as a category because it was a type of news. Do you think Fark’s headlines are a new genre of news?
DC: Well sorta. We fit into a lot of categories. You could say we’re the Twitterization of news (except we predate them by about 8 years. Still
it fits). You could say we’re the comedy version of the daily show,
except we just about predate them and they use us heavily as a resource
(which is fine by me, a mention once in awhile would be nice though).
The main reason they chose us is because making Fark taglines into
Jeopardy questions creates instant curveballs – they catch contestants
offguard. Although this time around one of the contestants figured out
the schtick immediately. She kicked ass.
What makes a good headline?
DC: in my opinion, one that makes you laugh at something that’s just wrong
enough that you immediately feel embarrassed that you laughed at. Which
makes you laugh again when you realize what you just did.
DC: They did it before in oct or nov 2007. It was the same context as
before, however it was during their tournament of champions and none of
the contestants got any of the clues right. Which is why I think
Jeopardy decided to do it again, because they love stumping the players.
BF: Is this the most mainstream coverage Fark has had?
DC: Hard to make that call. We’ve had really good coverage in the past.
I’ve been on CNN, FoxNews, in Time, Newsweek, Playboy, etc and so on.
We created one hell of a ruckus in the sports world when we rickrolled
the mets last year. Readers Digest does an annual roundup every
November of Fark taglines. We’re all over the place, just below the
surface. Although of everything so far this is probably the coolest mainstream
coverage we’ve ever gotten. And, it’s happen twice. I can’t thank the
folks at Jeopardy enough for picking us for a catagory. Would love to
do it again too.
