Now conquering your consciousness: Derrick

Stealing a line from Boing Boing, the internet is filled with wondrous things, mostly videos designed to suck away your time and productivity. YouTube is filled with users who've made a name for themselves by lip-synching to Pokmon, or whatever it is that bald dude with the black glasses does.

But the original sketch comedy from the group Derrick - made up of an NYU student and three alumni - has the most subscribers of all time in the comedian category, with 14,267 as of this writing.

"We don't get the internet anymore than some 15-year-old cam-girl lip-synching," said Tisch senior DC Pierson, a member of Derrick. The group is also composed of Tisch alumni Donald Glover (Class of 2006), Dominic Dierkes ('05) and director Dan Eckman ('05).

Dierkes and Glover began collaborating as members of the pioneer cast of Hammerkatz, an sketch comedy troupe. Pierson joined the following semester, and the group received the wonderful name of "Three D" ("Which was lame," Glover adds.) As for the name, it's basically what you think.

"Two years ago, we entered this three-on-three improv tournament [at Upright Citizens Brigade]," Glover said. "And we were like, 'We need a name. What's another D name?' And then we were like, what's a stupid D name?"

And Derrick was born.

"Our lawyer was like, 'Within one year, you will absolutely regret having called you guys [Derrick],' " Dierkes said.

There's also the fear people will start to think one of them is actually Derrick - or "Kevin," which Glover has run into after two sketches with the same name (including "Girls Are Not To Be Trusted").

The style Derrick takes "definitely evolved out of" their time with Hammerkatz, Pierson said. He said that style usually "ends up being people in very real pain" or "people sort of lying to themselves and others, but really believing their own bullshit and [trying] to play it off. And it just not working."

It's easy to see this in their sketch "Spelling Bee," in which three finalists must spell the most offensive word known to man - that happens to be a synonym of pineapple (but not really) - and "Celebrity," where three kids try to buy beer while pretending to be Adam Sandler, Quentin Tarantino and a cop. The sketch has a million views on YouTube.

"Suppressed pain is fun," Dierkes said. "Seeing people try and push through very horrible circumstances with their pride intact."

Or maybe it's just sympathy.

A majority of old Derrick sketches come from former Hammerkatz sketches, like "Celebrity" and "Daughters" - a "24" parody in which Special Agent Tom Rogers must find and save all his daughters. (Trust us, there are a lot.) It also has some of the slicker editing in Derrick's collection, especially after a one-day turnaround.

"For a thing like 'Daughters,' we shot it a lot, but it was so much made in the editing. [The latest sketch] 'B-Boy Stance' was actually pretty hard to get through in terms of shooting because we were changing a lot of writing on set," Eckman said.

Their usual writing process begins from a single idea, and they simply hammer out the rest - like with "Jerry," where the titular character has a really unfortunate accident during class.

"That one was pretty unique," Eckman said. "We were talking about cologne, and Donald was talking about how one day some kid in class accidentally thought it'd be smart to wear two colognes."

"He smelled like straight shit and urine," Glover chimed in. "I don't know how he did it. Just like in the [sketch] he's like, 'Who pooted, guys? Who pooted,' tears in his eyes."

From there the idea snowballed into Jerry pleading to "start over" the entire event.

The Derrick guys are well on their way to being recognized, with Glover having performed on the Conan O'Brien show and worked as a writer for "30 Rock," Dierkes performing stand-up and improv at UCB, Eckman working as a videographer for Blue Man Group and Pierson currently directing Hammerkatz as well as appearing on MTV programs.

"It's interesting because it's only become tangible recently," Dierkes said on their newfound fame. "You see how many views you're getting, but it's kind of a weird detachment for those things existing."

Derrick's videos have been showcased on MTVu and G4, making the front page of YouTube every so often.

"We can command brilliant things," Dierkes added, referring to ideas for sketches like "Drunk Baby" and "B-Boy Stance." "We can just say them."

Find Derrick online at http://www.derrickcomedy.com/ and on Facebook.