Olde English was an American

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

troupe based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The group published over 100 comedy shorts on the internet, and performed live at several venues and festivals in the US.

History

Olde English was formed by a group of students at

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

, and was originally conceived by Ben Popik. While traveling in Europe during the summer of 2002, Popik chose the name for the group and began writing some of the early sketches. In the fall of 2002, Popik returned to Bard and held auditions for the group. By 2010, Olde English consisted of Adam Conover, Ben Popik,

Raphael Bob-Waksberg Raphael Matthew Bob-Waksberg (born August 17, 1984) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and voice actor. He is best known as the creator and showrunner of the Netflix animated comedy series ''BoJack Horseman'' (2014–2020), for wh ...

, Dave Segal, and Caleb Bark, although several others had joined and left over the years. Olde English produced videos for its website since 2002, usually posting one sketch every two weeks. In 2004, Olde English released its first self-produced DVD, ''Gorilla Warfare''. The group gained increased popularity in 2003 when their video "Gym Class" became a viral hit. In 2006, the group released a video titled "One Picture Every Day", starring Ben Popik and featuring an original song by former member

Jesse Novak Jesse Novak is an American composer, best known for his work scoring television shows, including '' The Mindy Project'', ''BoJack Horseman'', '' Tuca & Bertie'', ''The Baby-Sitters Club'', and '' Superstore''. He is the brother of actor and produ ...

. The sketch is a parody of an internet phenomenon popularized by Noah Kalina and Jonathan Keller. The video was seen on ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'' as well as a

Mountain Dew Mountain Dew, stylized as Mtn Dew in some countries and colloquially known as Dew in some areas, is a soft drink brand owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage Bottler (company), bottlers Barney and A ...

ad campaign. On January 17, 2007, Olde English announced that its videos would be regularly featured on the comedy website

Super Deluxe Super Deluxe was an entertainment company owned by Turner Broadcasting. Founded by Wolfgang Hammer in 2007, the company's main output was in online video, television series, and documentaries. History Turner Broadcasting System announced the l ...

. Olde English performed live at the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival (2005), the San Francisco Sketchfest (2005–2007) and the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival (2007). Olde English's "Free NYC Rap", a rap music video protesting the restrictions for independent New York City filmmakers that were proposed in Fall 2007, was nominated for a 2007 ECNY award.

Other projects

The members of Olde English—along with former members Joel Clark and Jesse Novak, as well as longtime collaborator Chioke Nassor—completed their first feature film, '' The Exquisite Corpse Project'' in 2012. The film first premiered at festivals in June 2012, and became available for commercial download at the end of April 2013.

References

External links

* {{authority control Sketch comedy troupes Performing groups established in 2002 Bard College alumni 2002 establishments in New York City American comedy YouTubers American comedy troupes