Barats and Bereta

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Barats and Bereta is a sketch comedy group consisting of Luke Pierre Barats and Joe Daniel Bereta. Formed in 2003, the duo originally made videos to amuse friends, often combining real and fictional acts. These videos eventually made it onto their website and onto YouTube. Their viral videos have also earned them the description of an internet phenomenon.

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[edit] History

Barats and Bereta met while attending Gonzaga University, where they were both active in the broadcasting and theater departments, respectively, and led the Gonzaga University improv comedy troupe GUTS (Gonzaga University Theatre Sports). They began posting their viral shorts on YouTube in early 2006 and quickly become a pop culture phenomenon. Their rapidly growing fan base consists of millions of on-line viewers that span all demographics on popular websites such as YouTube, Break.com, MySpace.com, Funny or Die and CollegeHumor. By the end of 2006, the duo had landed representation with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and manager Dan Farah of Farah Films & Management, an overall development deal with NBC Universal, and was featured in Variety’s well respected Comedy Impact List, which named them two of the fifty most influential people in comedy in 2006. They started off 2007 by creating, starring in, producing, directing, and editing a pilot for NBC Universal. They continue to perform improv regularly with Spokane's Blue Door Theater troupe[1].

Several of their videos (Mother's Day, Completely Uncalled For, Windward Reports: Cubicle War 2006 and The Other Son) have been featured on the front page of YouTube, and one of their most popular videos, Completely Uncalled For, attracted over 1 million views on its first five days on the site and now has over 5 million views. One of their other most popular videos, Mother's Day also has over 5 million views on YouTube.

Videos of theirs that have eclipsed a million views on YouTube are Mother's Day and Completely Uncalled For, both over 5 million, Kanye Hands (3 Million), So Smooth and The Other Son (2 Million), MANtage (1.5 Million), Barats and Bereta Theme Song (1.2 Million), Auto Insurance (1.8 Million), and Winward Reports: Cubicle War 2006 (1.7 Million). If you add up the view total for both versions of The Good Word (regular version and "Redux"), it has over 1.3 million views)

[edit] YouTube video chronology

[edit] 2005
Title Release Date Length Notes YouTube Views*
1. "Gonzaga Love" December 28 3:10 Parody of "California Love" focusing on "the hardcore Catholic Gonzaga University experience." ≈ 556,454
2. "Ninja Rap" December 28 1:41 First music video. ≈ 648,670
3. "The Good Word" December 28 4:10 First non-music sketch. ≈ 418,000
4. "Two Scoops" December 29 3:14 First submitted on FilmFights.com. ≈ 601,448
5. "Body Massage" December 29 3:11 Live performance at Gonzaga University lip sync contest. ≈ 243,856
6. "Wanna Massage" December 29 4:00 Second live performance at Gonzaga University lip sync contest. ≈ 225,081

[edit] 2006
Title Release Date Length Notes YouTube Views*
7. "Aaron P" January 1 3:01 First video made by them as an inside joke during the run of Pippin but was released later after Ninja Rap and Gonzaga Love took off ≈ 305,130
8. "Hans Winkerbean Part II" January 22 2:20 Part of an ongoing series of videos produced by different amateur filmmakers worldwide, which will create a 90 minute movie when completed ≈ 365,741
9. "Gonzaga RA's Episode 1 (Backpack Attack)" March 14 4:07 Based on experiences both had as part of the Res Life staff in college. ≈ 203,532
10. "Gonzaga RA's Episode 2 (Inter-Vis)" March 14 3:24 Based on experiences both had as part of the Res Life staff in college. ≈ 154,162
11. "Gonzaga RA's Episode 3 (The Key In)" March 14 4:22 Based on experiences both had as part of the Res Life staff in college. ≈ 105,704
12. "PC Fratboys" March 14 2:22 ≈ 936,600
13. "Mother's Day" April 14 2:09 Arguably where Barats and Bereta first became famous, this video was featured on YouTube's front page on Mother's Day. ≈ 5,711,400
14. "The Good Word (Redux)" May 13 3:07 A re-edited version of "The Good Word" ≈ 925,490
15. "Suburbanites Sans Bookends" May 13 2:37 ≈ 611,070
16. "Just Wonderful" May 19 5:18 Won first place in the First Night Spokane 2005 48 Hour Film Festival. It shortly features friend of Barats and Bereta and fellow filmmaker, Ben Mallahan, who attended Gonzaga University with them. It is also their longest video ≈ 563,303
17. "Suburbanites Censored" May 24 2:36 Censored version of "Suburbanites Sans Bookends" ≈ 381,200
18. "Barats and Bereta Theme Song" June 10 1:03 ≈ 1,218,579
19. "Auto Insurance" June 30 2:51 Based on real events. ≈ 1,836,103
20. "Windward Reports: Cubicle War 2006" July 25 2:03 A commercial Barats and Bereta were hired to do for Windward Reports. Featured on YouTube. ≈ 1,792,100
21. "Completely Uncalled For" August 31 0:39 Barats and Bereta's most viewed video, with over five million views. Also, an improvised joke. Featured on YouTube. ≈ 5,572,000
22. "Facebook" Sept. 5 1:56 Exclusive for Break.com ≈ 691,000**
23. "So Smooth" September 25 1:20 ≈ 2,066,000
24. "Robot" October 5 2:47 Exclusive for Break.com. Written by their friend Dan McGivern. ≈ 847,000**
25. "Flag Makeover" November 10 2:12 ≈ 786,200

[edit] 2007
Title Release Date Length Notes YouTube Views*
26. "The Other Son" January 11 2:39 Featured On YouTube. ≈ 1,947,400
27. ""Sound of Your Voice" Barats and Bereta" March 10 3:27 Made for the Barenaked Ladies's "The Sound of Your Voice" Music Video, similar setup to "Mother's Day" ≈ 611,020
28. "Maxwell Dorian, Valedictorian" April 29 1:20 ≈ 587,000
29. "Fast Food Spoof" June 10 0:38 Barats and Bereta's shortest video ≈ 684,363
30. "Olympian" August 14 2:16 ≈ 749,200
31. "MANtage" October 10 1:09 ≈ 1,566,000

[edit] 2008
Title Release Date Length Notes YouTube Views*
32. "The Sexy Milk Jump" January 3 3:02 Collaboration with other viral video stars, including Gary Brolsma (Numa Numa) and LazyDork. ≈ 189,000
33. "Harty Boys" January 3 1:47 Based on improv scene at Blue Door Theater in Spokane. ≈ 434,000
34. "To-Do List" January 20 0:53 First video to not star Luke or Joe, instead features Luke's younger brother Lee. ≈ 867,000
35. "In Bruges "On the Red Carpet" at Sundance" January 25 2:11 Luke interviewed the stars of "In Bruges" ≈ 311,220
36. "Kanye Hands" February 24 1:34 Parody of the internet sensation, "Daft Hands" ≈ 3,385,000

*as of <June 8, 2008
**views from Break.com

[edit] Television

After a bidding war with networks such as MTV and HBO, NBC signed a one year development deal with Barats and Bereta, with an option for a second year.[2][3] In 2007 they finished production on "This Is Culdesac", a pilot written, directed, produced, and performed by the comedy team. It was not picked up, although NBC will be airing portions of it.

[edit] Awards

For their two-man stand up routine, they won the Brickwall Amateur Comedy Competition in 2005. In the same year, they won first place at the Spokane First Night Film Festival with their short film, "Just Wonderful". In 2007 they won Best in Show at the regional Addy Awards for their 2 min short Windward Reports. At the end of 2007, "The Sexy Milk Jump", a video created with Ricky Stern (A.K.A LazyDork), and Ben Relles, took first place in Canon's inaugural Battle of the Viral Video Superstars competition. [4]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Blue Door Theatre - Spokane Improv - Players
  2. ^ Variety article http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117950782.html?categoryId=14&cs=1&s=h&p=0
  3. ^ Backstage.com article http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/multimedia/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003187201
  4. ^ Barats & Bereta Productions

[edit] External links

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