On Monday, Comedy Central announced a new broadband series called Crash Course in Comedy .
The ten-part show, hosted by comedian Ted Alexandro, purports to teach viewers how they can become a stand-up comedian with episodes covering topics like "What is a stand-up comedian?" and "writing material."
Crash Course, sponsored by Hyundai, will also have interactive features. Visitors to its Website are invited to create their own comedian "avatars" using a web tool called Comedian Constructor created by web development company Oddcast . Using the Oddcast tool avatars can be programmed to perform "sets" written and recorded – via microphone, telephone or text entry - by users. Users are invited to save their sets to a gallery where others can view and rate them.
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Comedy Central’s parent company Viacom has had good results with avatars for some of its other properties, including MTV's Laguna Beach and the Hills. MTV recently announced a third virtual world, Virtual Pimp My Ride.
