Stand-up comedy isn’t easy. It takes guts, insight and impeccable timing. We wanted to see if machines could be programmed to tell jokes and be just as funny the comedians in the competition. It turns out they can’t, but it was funny trying.

We created Keith - the world’s first automated comedian. Give him a keyword, and in seconds he’ll search for its meaning, then turn it into a joke. Keith automatically made jokes based on YouTube search terms, Tweets, and Facebook Live comments, in real-time - all of which drove to the Top Comic website.

Since Keith was digital, he could turn every mobile medium into a stage. He was able to use keywords on various mobile platforms and use them to create original jokes.

On YouTube, Keith surprised viewers with a custom joke based on the video they were about to watch. To do so, we leveraged Google’s Vogon tool, an automation tool typically used for offer-based advertising, to create 1.3 million unique pre-roll ads.

On Facebook live, Keith performed an entire set in front of a live mobile audience, writing jokes based on users comments in real-time.

On Twitter, we promoted a hashtag to encourage people to tweet at Keith to receive a video of him telling a joke about that topic.

The jokes drove people to the website, where they could see comedy by real comedians, and vote for a winner.

This national campaign ran July 28th to August 18th 2017.

Keith’s videos received over 7 million views. On YouTube, he created 1.3 million unique pre-roll Youtube ads, making it the most robust YouTube campaign of all time. Our Twitter trend drove 7K engagements in the first 24 hours which doubled from the previous year.

Most importantly, because every single joke led to the comedians of the competition, there was a 152% increase in the number of votes vs. the previous year. And the 18 Top Comic contestants were rightfully given the credit and national exposure that they deserve.