Comedy Hack Day

EXPERIENCE DESIGN // EVENT PRODUCTION // VIDEO DIRECTION // WORLD BUILDING

Take a hackathon model, add comedians, and turn the final presentations into a raucous, satirical tech party. That was the basic equation for Comedy Hack Day.

From 2011–2016, our small company (Cultivated Wit) hosted and franchised more than a dozen of these events in multiple major cities. We hosted spinoff events with partners ranging from the MIT Media Lab to The Daily Show. Our celebrity judges included Alexis Ohanian, Reggie Watts, W. Kamau Bell, Scott Aukerman, Chris Gethard, Michael Ian Black, among many others.

Every event was an experience — a funhouse mirror held up to Silicon Valley culture. We hired actors to protest our own event, and held a moment of each show to honor the Startups We’ve Lost in a Oscars-style in memorium.

But the real stars are the products that teams made (in only two days, remember). Some of my personal favorites include…

  • EquiTable — The bill-splitting app that divides the check based on income inequality between races and genders at the table.

  • Well Deserved — The secondhand marketplace for access privilege.

  • Got This Thing — An automatic excuse generator.

  • Wearable Furby — The smart, shoulder-mounted Furby assistant.

  • Shit Talk — The way to connect with other people currently on the toilet.