Sam Pepper Entry In £10,000 ChannelFlip Contest Causes Controversy
The contest -which Pepper is currently winning- is sponsored by computer giant Dell and the prize consists of £10,000, professional coaching by David Mitchell and the opportunity to star in their own online comedy show (presumably featured on ChannelFlip itself).
The range of entrants includes individual comedians as well as small groups doing impressions, skits and routines.
It's ostensibly aimed at up and coming underground comedians who want a leg up into the mainstream.
Forgot to Tell the Joke
Whether that category includes ex big brother contestant Pepper is debatable, especially considering his somewhat unclear prior affiliations with ChannelFlip.
However, it's the nature of his entry itself that's really got people riled up.
"Hi guys, just wanted to quickly enter this competition cause I'm a comedian and [I] just wanna tell you a joke"
Roughly twenty seconds of silence then passes before a caption pops up saying "sorry guys I forgot to tell the joke" Pepper then goes on to say
"so if you could just vote for me that would be really good thanks guys"
Bus Tour
This isn't the first time Pepper has been criticised for the way he utilises his fan base.
In June of this year he started a campaign to buy a coach and tour the U.K at a hefty £50,000 price tag. Funded, of course, by donations from his subscribers who in return would be permitted to enter the bus and party with him and other YouTubers.
The project soon fell flat after only a small percentage of the target was met and the video promoting it was privated by Pepper.
Vote Based Competitions
It isn't just Pepper who's come up for criticism.
Traditionally competitions like these can expect the winner to be the person with the best entry.
They make the assumption that nearly everyone coming to the website arrives relatively unbiased and without having yet decided who they're voting for or that they'll at least take a look at the other entries.
This logic kind of goes out the window when dealing with people who already have a built in fanbase and who don't need to carve one out through the competition itself.
The implication is that if competitions want to claim that they're rewarding the best entry rather than the one with the largest fanbase behind it -regardless of objective merit- then impartial judges rather than a system of open voting is the way to go.
Regardless of who actually wins it seems clear that those who organise competitions like these will need to start factoring competitors who already have large audiences into their calculations.
