Whoever said you shouldn’t toot your own horn obviously didn’t live in a world with social media. It’s that time of the year again, when every professional on X/Twitter is making long threads of the best work they did in 2023, in the vain hope that professional accomplishments will fill the big gaping hole in their chests (hint: they won’t). Self-affirmation wrapped up in self-promotion, it’s the perfect end of year tradition for an extremely online, relentlessly navel-gazing generation. And because we’re all human at DeadAnt (“for now,” our CTO ominously adds), we thought we’d join in on the fun.
It’s been a pretty eventful year—for Indian comedy, and for us. From launching a new comedy festival to hitting new digital milestones, here are just some of DeadAnt’s highlights for 2023.
The Laughing Dead Comes To Life
DeadAnt turned four-years-old this March, and to celebrate we put together the biggest, funniest comedy bash of the year. The inaugural edition of the Laughing Dead festival—held in Mumbai on 18 and 19 March—featured performances by over 34 of India’s top comedians. We had four sold-out marquee shows, a comedy debate, a Next Big Thing showcase, and enough vodka martinis for a James Bond convention. The highlight of the festival was a killer headlining set by global comedy star Daniel Sloss (with Kai Humphries as the opener). The Scottish comedian performed his latest hour Can’t to 1,100 adoring fans—who bought out the ticket allotment in 10 minutes flat—at the iconic Mehboob Studio. He enjoyed it so much, he even took off his shirt at some point, earning adulatory wolf-whistles from a certain section of the audience.
We Got New Swanky Digs
After two years of trying to run a digital media startup from our living rooms and—let’s be honest—beds, we finally moved into a new office this year. Situated in a busy part of Bandra, our top-secret new HQ is where we hole up to plot world domination editorial calendars, shoot our videos, and drive our CEO nuts. Most importantly, it’s got a coffee machine.
We Got Some New Blood In
Karan Baikampadi—a media industry veteran who’s held pivotal roles at Netflix, Viacom18 and TVF—joined DeadAnt as the head of business this year to whip us all into shape and accelerate the company’s growth. He’s already made some exciting changes behind-the-scenes, and will be focused on helping DeadAnt build new IPs that foster artistic creativity and collaboration in the comedy space in 2024. We also made additions to our editorial and social media teams. Wanna be part of the DeadAnt family? Keep an eye out for job postings on our Instagram and LinkedIn.
DeadAnt Annual Comedy Awards Turns 3
Sure, Vir Das may have won an International Emmy, but we all know that the only awards that count are DACA. In its third year, India’s only annual comedy awards honoured the best of Indian standup, with categories ranging from Best Comedy Special to Most Stalked comedian. We even gave out medals! We’re already gearing up for a bigger, better DACA ’24. We may even throw a party!
Laughs Per Minute
In 2023, we innovated in the live comedy space with our new property Laughs Per Minute. A lineup show with a twist, LPM brought together 20 amazingly talented comedians and gave them all a new challenge: how many jokes can you land in under a minute? The first edition of LPM took place at The Habitat, and was a smashing success (you can check out the action here). Think you’re up to the task? Keep an eye out for our next LPM announcement.
We Hit 100k Followers
Yeah, we’re proper influencers now. It’s been a long road to 100k, including one disappointing “return to starting point” moment (#IYKYK). But we finally got across the finish line, and it’s all thanks to you. Which is why we’re running a giveaway to mark the occasion (check our Instagram for deets). Next stop? A million followers.
The DeadAnt Office Became An After Hours Classroom
We also made forays into comedy education by partnering with Kunal Rao on Zero To 60, a comedy workshop aimed at building a strong foundation for the craft to help up and comers, and writers, and in a bid to reduce the barrier of entry for those entirely new to the game.
Sign up for the workshop here!
DA Studio Made Money Moves
Besides our comedy-focussed online publication and events vertical, DeadAnt Live, our parent company DeadAnt Media also boasts of an award-winning creative studio and full-service agency. This is where pop culture experts and creative geniuses come together to offer brand solutions, content development, digital marketing, commercials and campaign ideation, brand building and talent collaborations to anyone looking to connect with the youth.
This year, as since the day we started, we were also able to build on different ways to use the arts for social impact, and expanded our design capacity to offer end to end solutions to all our partners.
It’s been a productive year, laying the foundation for bigger, more ambitious collaborations in 2024.
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