Huayu 2011: Starting with Hilarious Men

Humans are social animals and have a desire to confide in others.

Unfortunately, Zhang Wei lives alone and doesn't have many friends, so he doesn't know who to talk to if he wants to confide in someone.

I glanced at the time again; it was only 8 p.m. on Saturday. Tomorrow was Sunday, no work, just the beginning of the nightlife.

Sleeping is out of the question; I'll go to the forum to confide in fellow enthusiasts.

People on Tieba, Tieba souls, and Tieba members are all superior people!

Open the "Hilarious Men" forum. It's a new forum that was only registered last month, but it already has 137,000 followers. The forum is very active, with many experts posting lewd content.

In 11, there was a bug on Baidu Tieba where you could post a picture that appeared as a normal image when not clicked, but turned into a piece of nude art when clicked.

Zhang Wei had come across this on Tieba more than once, and he critically saved it each time.

This is all evidence! Proving that I, Zhang Wei, truly existed!

Perhaps because "Hilarious Men" ended today, many fans haven't finished watching it yet, so the forum seems a bit quiet.

Zhang Wei edited the post and sent it out.

I just finished watching the last episode of the first season of "Hilarious Men". After laughing, I suddenly feel a little sad that it's over. Does anyone else feel the same way?

With over 100,000 followers, this post quickly garnered replies.

【sofa.】

Just finished watching it. As always, it was interesting, and I don't feel any reluctance to part with it.

I feel the same way as the original poster; I'm really reluctant to give up such simple, mindless happiness.

[I laughed so hard my stomach hurt; I thought my period had come early.]

[I'm begging for season 2! I'm begging for an extended version! I haven't had enough!]

[I just discovered this amazing web series today, and I binged all eight episodes in one go! My roommate thought I'd gone crazy from laughing so hard!]

Some of the jokes are a bit cheesy, but they're undeniably funny! Coming home after a long day and watching these instantly heals all wounds—that's enough!

[Suddenly realized, after watching this episode, there won't be any more episodes next Friday! This is agonizing! Zheng Nan, hurry up and film season two!]

[What are they going to use to make a film? Zheng Nan is a student at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. He has no money and no connections. He practically sold everything he owned to make the first season, and it was even streamed for free. What are they going to use to make a second season?]

[I saw at the end of the last episode that the script outline for season two has been written, but there's no money to film it.]

It's infuriating that talented people are broke!

[Hey guys, I have a great idea! "Hilarious Men" is so popular right now, all the platforms are making a killing. Why don't we get them to invest? Whoever invests the most gets exclusive rights, and at worst we'll just see more 'GG' (a slang term for awkward or embarrassing moments) when we watch season two.]

Great idea!

[A smart person!]

When there are many people, a "King of Ideas" will be randomly generated.

Wang's idea is often accepted by the majority.

Netizens are very enthusiastic when they join in the fun. The news spreads from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred, from Tieba to Weibo, and from Weibo to QQ Space. Soon, some drama fans actually started to take action.

Leave comments under the official accounts on various platforms.

[Go invest in "Hilarious Men"! I want to see season two.]

[Go invest in "Hilarious Men" now, or they'll keep criticizing you!]

[Go invest in "Hilarious Men"! I'm already downstairs at your company with two cases of milk.]

[Hurry up and invest in "Hilarious Men," or I'll give your app a bad review.]

[Hurry up and invest in "Hilarious Men," or we'll investigate you!]

Netizens unleashed a barrage of creative and witty remarks, quickly taking over the comment sections of official accounts on various platforms.

Because of its deep partnership with Sina, Tudou.com usually gets a lot of exposure and interaction. This time, it was the first to reply in the comments section: "Tudou-kun has received all your comments and has forwarded them to the boss~"

When netizens saw that it was effective, they became even more excited and started urging the official accounts that hadn't responded yet.

Amid this wave of comments from netizens, official accounts such as Youku, Sohu, and Popcorn.com have all joined in the discussion.

"We are currently trying to contact director Zheng Nan. We will let everyone know when we have any news."

"Received, we value netizens' opinions."

"Popcorn is constantly working on it!!!"

Actually, there was no need for netizens to urge them; various platforms had already taken notice of "Hilarious Men" after it became popular.

Popcorn.com and others started contacting Zheng Nan early on.

However, Popcorn.com lacked sincerity (due to insufficient funds) and its future prospects were not optimistic, so Zheng Nan kept making excuses.

Youku, Tudou, and Sohu, these major platforms, hadn't contacted Zheng Nan before, but they'll probably be able to get in touch after replying to netizens' comments this time.

…………

Tudou.com

"Manager, this is the total number of views for 'Hilarious Men' across the entire network as of 10 PM tonight, along with the audience demographics." The programmer, with dark circles under his eyes, a receding hairline, and wearing a plaid shirt, was still working overtime on Saturday night.

"Are you sure you didn't make a mistake in the statistics?" The supervisor looked at the data above, somewhat surprised.

"I checked it three times, so even if there's an error, it shouldn't be too big."

"It's only been a month since 'Hilarious Men' was released, right? There are only eight episodes in total, each episode is twelve minutes long, and the total number of views across the internet has already exceeded 200 million? And the audience is around ten million?" The supervisor was still a little incredulous; these figures were more impressive than many satellite TV dramas.

"But we have to consider that 'Hilarious Men' is free to watch on all platforms across the internet, so the number of views must be inflated. Also, the audience of 'Hilarious Men' is mostly working people and students, who don't have much spending power."

"It's normal for viewership numbers to be inflated. Who doesn't inflate their viewership these days? Try contacting the copyright holder of 'Hilarious Men'." The supervisor's job is to do this; he's very familiar with the industry's unspoken rules.

"Huh? I contacted you?" The programmer pointed to himself, "Are you sure it's me?"

"I just blurted it out. Go back to work overtime." The supervisor patted his head and casually offered the programmer a rosy picture.

The supervisor contacts higher management and reports their judgment.

"Are you sure it's worth investing in?" the senior executive asked.

"worth."

"You know the platform's losses last year, so we can't afford to invest much money, but we can give more in terms of platform traffic... That's settled then, you go contact the copyright holder." The executive's tone was calm, showing no reaction to the data from "Hilarious Men".

Tudou.com is not doing well right now. After submitting its IPO application for the first time in November 2010, the listing was suspended due to the freezing of shares caused by the founder's divorce lawsuit.

Last month, on April 28, the company resubmitted a revised F1 prospectus to the SEC, restarting its Nasdaq IPO process.

Moreover, Tudou.com suffered a huge loss of 3.474 million yuan in 2010, marking several consecutive years of losses.

Giants may appear glamorous on the surface, but what they're really like inside is something netizens can't see.

Platforms such as Youku, Tencent Video, Sohu, and Popcorn.com were also discussing "Hilarious Men" that night.

How much is the copyright of "Hilarious Men" worth, given that it was the first wildly popular online short drama?

…………

"The vast horizon is my love, and flowers are blooming at the foot of the rolling green hills..."

Zheng Nan, who had just woken up, received a call from Jiang Jinfu, which surprised her.