Funny or Die Shuttering NY Office?

Funny Or Die is celebrating its tenth birthday in a somber way- by laying off thirty-seven employees and closing two coastal offices. According to Page Six, the Silicon Valley and NYC offices are shuttered, except for a sales office on Wall Street, with employees given the ultimatum to move to Los Angeles or leave. Three left the company and ten committed to the migration.

Page Six says the changes come shortly after production exec Mike Farah was promoted to CEO. While hiring top-notch writers like David Litt, former Obama speechwriter and head joke-writer at White House Correspondents’ Dinners, the site made cuts mostly to the tech side of things. Although the site has produced Emmy-winning content like “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis” and served as the birthplace for tons of viral sketches, the lay-offs are presumably a move to curb irrelevance from too rapid of inflation. Litt cited changes to a need to “refocus on making the kind of content that made us a household name in the first place”, which ideally means seeing Will Ferrell get beat up by ruthless toddlers.

But a spokesperson for Funny or Die told us that layoffs in Funny or Die’s Silicon Valley office were announced back in August, and that the news about the New York offices was not entirely accurate.  “We chose to consolidate our creative team in one central office, so we offered our NYC creative team the opportunity to join us in LA, covering the cost of relocation,” Funny or Die representative Carolyn Prousky told us, clarifying that  “all the writers and the vast majority of the team made the move back in early January.”

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Rachel Crowe

The most notable lies Rachel Crowe has ever told were that she has 10 children (no twins), she’s running a marathon retracing the path her ancestors took to evade the IRS and that she found childcare for 10 on a Saturday night. She’s also a stand-up comedian and dog walker living in Los Angeles. Follow Rachel on Twitter @Racheddar or on Instagram @thelma_and_disease. Or don’t, but at least appreciate those fresh hot puns.
Rachel Crowe
Rachel Crowe
The most notable lies Rachel Crowe has ever told were that she has 10 children (no twins), she’s running a marathon retracing the path her ancestors took to evade the IRS and that she found childcare for 10 on a Saturday night. She’s also a stand-up comedian and dog walker living in Los Angeles. Follow Rachel on Twitter @Racheddar or on Instagram @thelma_and_disease. Or don’t, but at least appreciate those fresh hot puns.