College Humor’s Hardly Working

When it comes right down to it, most office environments are pretty similar. You might think that the folks punching the clock at IAC’s uber-successful comedy site CollegeHumor are awash in slick technology and post-millennial hipness, but as the Hardly Working series shows, they play pranks on each other, bum snacks off of each other, and suffer the pitfalls of office romance, just like everyone else. More or less.

Sure, they also have an office phantom, they’re occasionally replaced by minor celebrities, and if they stay too late at the office, they tend to run into Bizarro versions of themselves. But other than that –- and the thousands of viewers following their every move -– they’re just regular people trying to earn a living.

Hardly Working rolled out in May of 2007 as a series of off-the-cuff videos filmed around the CH offices, a home for silly thoughts and strange impulses. Well over 100 videos later, the series’ popularity is easily equal to that of CH’s “official” content. CH contributors Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, the minds behind (and frequent stars of) Hardly Working, now have their own site, JakeandAmir, which scores an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 views per episode. And the Internet is buzzing that a deal with MTV is in the works for a CollegeHumor series — the CH crew have shot a pilot, based on the sketches and other material on the site.

OK, so maybe these offices aren’t exactly like yours. Even if you’re lucky enough to work at an office with after-hours drinking games, you probably don’t have phone fights, share inappropriate tattoos, or create IFC-sponsored film parodies rife with male genitalia. Oh, let’s be honest, your office will never be as much fun as the one in Hardly Working.

Then again, considering what happens there when Valentine’s Day rolls around, maybe you’re better off.