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Video - Tuesday, April 17, 2007

How To Get 1.5M Pages At Launch: Be Will Ferrell. Sequoia Invests In His Funny Or Die Site.

Seqouia Capital has invested in Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Gary Sanchez Productions which has launched the comedy video site, FunnyOrDie.com. McKay is the producer of Ferrell's recent films Talledega Night. The Legend of Ricky Bobby.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, since quietly going up as a beta release last Thursday, the site a two-minute video featuring Ferrell has served more than 1.5M page views. The clip found its way to YouTube but the company is looking to have it taken down.

FunnyOrDie also features user-generated comedy videos, allowing anyone to upload their clips. The gimmick here is that unlike YouTube, viewers' ratings can result in a video being removed from the site.

McKay told the LA Times that the site was not corporate but was the result of his work with Will Ferrell. He "insisted there was no corporate entity involved. 'It's just us, McKay said. 'That's the fun — this isn't brought to you by GE or Viacom or whoever.' However, Hollywood Reporter says that FunnyOrDie.com has been in the works for months, following an overture by Sequoia to talent agency CAA that led to the partnering with Ferrell, McKay and Gary Sanchez executive Chris Henchy.

Read - Will Ferrell cracks up the Net (LA Times)
Read - Sanchez's Web dare: FunnyOrDie (Hollywood Reporter)
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