Sleevelessness

A sitcom in an email list

Many years ago I landed my first job in interwebland, working for an experimental “New Media” arm of a small broadcast company in Bristol, UK. At the time the company was developing a prototype interactive TV programme, and the talk of the day was all about what exciting formats traditional media might morph into on this strange new world wide website thingy. It was decided it was going to be all about “micro narratives”. After all what viewer wouldn’t want to assemble their own tv programme from a series of infinitely interconnectable pieces?

Nearly ten years later, the real entertainment on the web comes from the most unlikely places. From the consistent brilliance of the b3ta message boards, to the simple genius of FAIL Blog, people have used the tools available to make their own content. Rather than waiting around patiently for old media to arrive and “entertain” them, they’ve gone ahead and amused themselves. In this grand tradition comes The Pretend Office, which to all intents and purposes is a sitcom in an email list.

No one in the 90s saw that one coming.