Late last week, Lord Zuckerberg and the gods of Instagram bestowed upon the users the ability to record 15 second videos, complete with stabilisation, filters and an extended record time. Bet you thought that would kill Vine, the six-second video sharing service owned by Twitter, right? Wrong. Here’s why Instagram Video will never kill Vine.
Instagram Video won’t kill Vine because of the art of comedy. Jokes are funny because they are unexpected, short and to the point.
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side!
Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field!
How does a Wookie get around? Ewoks!
Each of those jokes is funny (albiet slightly lame) because it’s quick and fun. Comedy is all about delivery, and the quicker the better. That’s where Vine comes in.
On Vine, people only have six seconds to be funny or interesting. That means people have to get really creative with what they shoot, especially when it comes to skits. Take the video above, for example. It’s a compilation of a bunch of different Vines from whoismaxwell, but each skit is only six seconds and it’s NSFW-ishly hilarious.
I challenge all Instagram Video users to be as funny as Vine users have become in just a few short months, but I doubt it.