Last Things First: Mike Farah, CEO of Funny or Die
Episode #410
Mike Farah was the first producer hired at Funny or Die, and he has been a vital part of the upstart digital production studio since 2008, when Funny or Die was still known only as an online comedy video platform. The company has produced the critically-acclaimed Brockmire for IFC, Emmy-nominated Billy on the Street, the Peabody award-winning American Vandal for Netflix, the Emmy-nominated Sarah Silverman series I Love You, America for Hulu, and the feature films, Between Two Ferns: The Movie for Netflix, and Impractical Jokers: The Movie for Warner Bros. In the fall of 2022, they’ll present Pickled, a celebrity pickleball tournament hosted by Stephen Colbert for CBS and Paramount+, as well as WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story, a feature film biopic spoof that premieres on Roku. As CEO since 2016, Farah sat down with me in his Hollywood offices to take a look back at all the twists and turns in Funny or Die’s history.
Please enjoy these trailers for WEIRD, which is out today (Nov. 4, 2022), and Pickled, which premieres Nov. 17.
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We were supposed to sit down, I don't know if it was here or the old offices in March of 2020, but then life got in the way.
It did. But I'm glad to see you now.
Maybe we were just waiting for the momentous double whammy of celebrity pickleball. And Weird Al biopic.
Yes. The path emerged two-and-a-half years later.
These are heady times for Funny or Die
Indeed
And these are new offices. When did you move into these offices here on Sunset?
We moved into these offices. I want to say April of this year. But it's a hybrid work schedule. And so everyone's here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then it's a ghost town Thursday and Friday. I think that's just the way that's how it's gonna be moving forward. I don't know really any entertainment company that has folks going in five days a week. Maybe one of your listeners knows. It was an adjustment during the hybrid thing, but now it's just like now when you get to Wednesday evening, it kind of feels like just like a teaser for the weekend. You're still working on Thursday and Friday. I do think generally speaking, most people kind of like give it up on very productive Fridays. But we've kind of settled into a nice routine here.
How many adjustments do you feel like you've had to go through in 15-odd years of Funny or Die?
Well, I've been here since 2008. So maybe that saved me one of those adjustments. I would say, Funny or Die and myself have probably over-indexed in adjustments. We are not afraid of an evolution, that's for sure.
Right. It's amazing to think if I were to try to describe Funny or Die to someone from Gen Z, and go OK, so Funny or Die was named because they allowed users to upload videos, and then you could vote Funny or Die. And if enough people voted Die, the video would get kicked off the platform.
That's a thing? What are you even talking about? Yeah, those are our humble origins. Yeah. 2007 Funny or Die was actually inspired by really not so great website called Hot or Not. I wasn't here for that, but think, Mark Kvamme’s son, I think Michael Kvamme knew about Hot or Not, and thought what if they turn this premise into a comedy website called Funny Or Die.