CollegeHumor Takes Aim at Malaria with the Star-Studded ‘Reverse Telethon’ Malarious

CollegeHumor has teamed up with Malaria No More to create Malarious, a “reverse telethon” that asks folks to donate whatever they want, from a single dollar on up, to gain access to two dozen original comedy videos starring celebrities such as Nick Offerman, Ed Helms, Tony Hale, Elizabeth Banks and Reggie Watts. The videos are all available as of this morning over at CollegeHumor’s Malarious site.

The videos, which were all shot in front of a similar red curtain backdrop in both NY and LA, all uniquely represent the folks in them. Nick Offerman performs beat poetry about bacon. Elizabeth Banks describes her skin regimen while getting repeatedly hit in the face with pies. Reggie Watts performs a song called “Fuck Mosquitos.” Tony Hale names all 50 state capitals, none of which are correct or real cities.

CollegeHumor President of Original Content Sam Reich told me that “it was very collaborative. In most cases we went back and forth with the talent. Either we brought an idea to the table and riffed on it together or they brought an idea to the table and we wrote a script on it.”

The content is top-notch and the price is certainly right, but will people bite? “We’re optimistic, but it’s an experiment, right?,” says Reich. “Malaria No More wanted to do more than just an awareness campaign, something that would actually encourage people to put their money where their mouth is. And this accomplishes that. What it has going for it is that it’s a great deal; It’s a $1 minimum donation for about 45 minutes of content. So even take the charity piece out of it and it’s something that people will probably want to watch.” The videos I’ve seen from the collection would all be eagerly sent around the internet if they were freely released, and are well worth the paltry $1 minimum donation. So go help out a good cause and get entertained for your trouble why don’t you?

Here’s the full list of talent involved:

David Arquette, Elizabeth Banks, Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci of Garfunkel and Oates, Rachael Harris, Ed Helms, Ellie Kemper, Nick Kroll and Paul Scheer, Rhys Darby, Brooklyn Decker, Gilbert Gottfried, Tony Hale, Takeru Kobayashi, Josh Lawson, Nick Offerman, Penn & Teller, Aubrey Plaza, Ben Schwartz, Kenan Thompson, Reggie Watts, Joss Whedon, Allison Williams, Rainn Wilson, Josh Wolf, Scott Wolf and “Weird Al” Yankovic, plus additional appearances by Thomas Middleditch, Chris Pratt and Adam Scott.

CollegeHumor Takes Aim at Malaria with the […]