What is The Shitcom Project?

The Shitcom Project is a weirdly pointless comedy project that seeks to entertain those involved by producing deliberately bad proposals for sitcoms (henceforth known as 'shitcoms') under assumed names. These are then sent out using false email addresses to real TV and radio producers at top production companies around the country and we sit back and wait for their responses.

Why?

Why not? If you really want we could try to come up with some kind of philosophical justification for this, but it's not really worth the effort. It just exists to amuse us in a Kaufmanesque fashion. And maybe get our own back on some producers who shouldn't be doing the jobs they are in.

What's Kaufmanesque?

Andy Kaufman - American comic, most famous for playing Latka in Taxi, and whose life was recently portrayed by Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon. Kaufman used to perpetrate elaborate stunts that no-one but himself and his partner Bob Zmuda knew the reality of. His real audience was himself. Recommended reading: Andy Kaufman Revealed! by Bob Zmuda and Lost In The Funhouse by Bill Zehme.

So, which would-be Kaufmans are behind The Shitcom Project?

Not telling. If you're looking at this you probably know anyway, so we'll leave it at that.

How do I get in touch with you?

Email us at theshitcomproject@infinitemonkeys.co.uk.

Can I find out the real identity of any of the fake writers?

Not from us, no. You could try contacting their fake identities via email and asking them.

How do I go about becoming part of this?

How much invention do I have to do apart from writing the proposals?

You need to invent a bit of a character for your writer; specifically, an entry for them on the writers page. This is basically a form of CV, and if you send the thing out to any producers you are going to need to invent a CV anyway. Also the character you create will slightly inform the style of your proposal and vice-versa, for example, David Alan Brogdan is basically a psychopath writing with a religious agenda, whereas Stacey Warkham and Chris Allan have good ideas but are just bad writers. It's all about how subtle you want to be. Obviously for the purposes of not giving the thing away we want to be as subtle as possible, but there are a lot of shades within that.

How do I set up a fake email address?

You should aim to set one up from a web-based email service (this is a lot easier in the long run since you can access it through a web browser from anywhere and don't have to change the settings on your computer for your own email). However, it's important that we don't all end up with addresses ending in @hotmail.com or @yahoo.co.uk. Try and be inventive - it makes it more believable. The best way to find free email addresses that end in things you wouldn't normally expect is to go to www.yahoo.com and search for 'free web-based email' and then try out some of the options presented to you. A lot of these services give you a variety of choices for the second half of your email address. A very good one available at the moment with a massive range of email addresses is www.another.com. Also, you don't have to use your full name as the first half of your email address. Imagine what your invented writer would like to be called. The difference doesn't have to be big: David Alan Brogdan became davebrogdan@thedoghousemail.com.

Why can't I send my proposal straight to a producer myself?

Because if we don't regulate how this stuff goes out, they might start to get suspicious. This is a long-term project and we don't want to rush it. After all, we're trading on the fact that a producer has to assume that any proposal he receives is genuine and if that stops being the case, we stop having a target.

Can I suggest producers to target for particular proposals?

Yes please. One of the requirements of becoming part of this project is a willingness to share the email addresses of producers, development producers and commissioning editors that we can target. Each of us knows a few. If we pool our resources we might end up with quite a large range of potential options. WE WANT THE EMAIL ADDRESSES OF ANY PRODUCERS YOU KNOW.

Once I get a response from a producer to a proposal can I go ahead and engage them in development-type dialogue?

Sure. Just keep us informed by forwarding copies of all your emails (both sides of the conversation, please) to theshitcomproject@infinitemonkeys.co.uk so we can keep tabs on how it's going and post them on this site for everyone else to see.

Anything else to say?

Probably, but it's late and I should go to bed. The other stuff can wait.