Childhood friends Ricky Van Veen and Josh Abramson might be ridiculously rich 20-somethings now, but a few years ago, they were poor college students struggling to pay the rent. What is the cause of their fortune, you ask? Senses of humor – really big ones.

In a fit of boredom, the self-described “Internet nerds” decided to take funny videos they had made and post them on a website, allowing students from other colleges to post videos as well. Less than six months later CollegeHumor was popular beyond its creators’ wildest dreams.

As it turns out, a site filled with witty, funny and just plain dumb videos intended directly for the inappropriate and skewed sense of humor of the typical college student was just what everyone – from fraternity boys to computer geeks – was craving. The Diamondback interviewed co-founder Van Veen about the website’s rise to the top and the inspiration behind all of the laughs.

The Diamondback: What was the inspiration behind CollegeHumor?

Ricky Van Veen: My best friend Josh Abramson and I are from Maryland; we went to two different colleges – I went to Wake, he went to Richmond. We were both Internet nerds … and we wanted to start an Internet site. And if you’re a writer, they say write what you know, and what we knew well at the time was just being a jackass college student. So we basically just took a collection of dumb videos and pictures and put it on the site. We started it in January 2000, and by May, it had become really popular, the place where a lot of colleges put stuff up.

DBK: So how exactly did your website evolve from just another funny site to a multimillion dollar business?

Ricky: When we graduated in 2003, we decided to take it to the next level – we knew we could at least feed ourselves with the money it would bring in. We moved to San Diego, lived on the beach and took it to the next level. But after a year of hanging around unmotivated surfers, we realized San Diego wasn’t the best place to start up a business, so we moved it to New York City. It was a long process; at first we were just doing it for beer money. Then, when we graduated and faced the choice of doing what we love for little money or working for somebody else for more, we chose to do what we were passionate about.

DBK: So you had no idea, when you moved to California and then New York, that your venture would pay off so big?

Ricky: We started out with just two people, then three; it wasn’t until our fifth year that we actually hired a real employee. [Now we have] 40 to 50, depending on how many interns are in that day. We knew that it had caught on culturally and people were fans of it, but we didn’t know if it would make money.

DBK: Is your internship program selective?

Ricky: Yeah, we have a ton of applicants. Being funny is pretty important, since our interns usually end up acting in videos and writing articles.

DBK: I was reading your articles; they’re really funny. Have you ever read The Onion? How does CollegeHumor compare to their stuff?

Ricky: Of course. We’re good friends with those guys. We both do comedy on the web, but they have a particular style they fall within, news parody, and do it really well. We do more random articles, narrative videos, that sort of thing.

DBK: On that note, what is the difference between your site and YouTube?

Ricky: YouTube is a big directory of millions of videos. We’re more of a niche site geared toward young people, mostly guys. Also, we create our own professional videos, whereas YouTube is pretty much all user-generated. [CollegeHumor] used to be all user-submitted videos, but about two years ago, we started making our own and have a lot of success with it.

DBK: Why did you start making your own videos?

Ricky: To stand out from all the generic viral video sites out there. Also, we want to establish CollegeHumor as an original comedy brand, just like National Lampoon was in the ’70s.

DBK: What makes a video popular with viewers?

Ricky: It’s hard to predict when a video will be popular, but the ones that have done really well for us are usually inside jokes that a lot of people are in on. For example, Minesweeper the Movie.

DBK: CollegeHumor is a part of the overarching business Connected Ventures. What is that business?

Ricky: Connected Ventures is the company we own. It comprises CollegeHumor and our T-shirt site, BustedTees.

DBK: So you and your friends began BustedTees, too?

Ricky: Yeah. When we graduated, we didn’t know any advertisers, so we became our own advertiser by selling our own product. I went to a taco shop one day with a pad and a pen and decided not to leave the taco shop until I had 10 ideas for shirts. After that, BustedTees was born.

DBK: OK, Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert?

Ricky: Stewart.

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