It's An Interesting Story...
I imagine that Lorne Michaels gets a lot of email.
Maybe not him personally, but his office. And I'll bet it comes from group of people who are all claiming to be "the next 'Lonely Island'".
The Lonely Island, for those who don't know, is Andy Sandberg's trio that started making comedy songs out of an apartment and ended up getting featured on Saturday Night Live a few years ago. They're quite famous now.
Naturally, along with any kind of notoriety comes the rush to copy. So I'm guessing there are tons of comedy duos and trios making videos in an effort to get discovered by someone in the media industry. There are a couple of problems with this:
1. The rags-to-riches story of The Lonely Island is one that other people tell about them. To my knowledge, they don't go around telling it about themselves.
2. It was an interesting story when it happened to The Lonely Island because it hadn't happened before.
Three amateurs getting discovered by Lorne Michaels and joining the Saturday Night Live lineup is a pretty good story, but these kinds of things wear on people. If you hear a remarkable story, whether it's group-based discounts (Groupon), online video hosting (YouTube), or social networking (Facebook), the truth is this: once that story has been told, it's taken, so it's no longer interesting when you decide to tell your own it.
This is why imitation rarely works. It's tempting to copy someone else who's made it because, hey, it worked for them. But very few people copy their way into greatness.
Maybe not him personally, but his office. And I'll bet it comes from group of people who are all claiming to be "the next 'Lonely Island'".
The Lonely Island, for those who don't know, is Andy Sandberg's trio that started making comedy songs out of an apartment and ended up getting featured on Saturday Night Live a few years ago. They're quite famous now.
Naturally, along with any kind of notoriety comes the rush to copy. So I'm guessing there are tons of comedy duos and trios making videos in an effort to get discovered by someone in the media industry. There are a couple of problems with this:
1. The rags-to-riches story of The Lonely Island is one that other people tell about them. To my knowledge, they don't go around telling it about themselves.
2. It was an interesting story when it happened to The Lonely Island because it hadn't happened before.
Three amateurs getting discovered by Lorne Michaels and joining the Saturday Night Live lineup is a pretty good story, but these kinds of things wear on people. If you hear a remarkable story, whether it's group-based discounts (Groupon), online video hosting (YouTube), or social networking (Facebook), the truth is this: once that story has been told, it's taken, so it's no longer interesting when you decide to tell your own it.
This is why imitation rarely works. It's tempting to copy someone else who's made it because, hey, it worked for them. But very few people copy their way into greatness.