Comedians And Coders Wanted For Chicago's First Comedy Hack Day

By Kate Shepherd in News on Sep 15, 2015 7:09PM

Comedy Hack Day, Cultivated Wit

If you have an idea for an app or computer program that would illicit some combination of snickers and groans from a room full of comedians—or coders, for that matter—then Comedy Hack Day might be for you.

Developers, designers, funny people/comedians and people "full of terrible-but-actually-fantastic ideas" are encouraged to apply for the two-day event on Oct. 3 and 4 at the Cards Against Humanity offices.

The hackathon, which pairs comedians with coders to make humorous apps has already taken New York, Los Angeles and the MIT campus by storm.

Participants will meet in the morning on Oct. 3 at Cards Against Humanity's Bucktown office, pitch ideas and form teams. They'll work on their apps until Sunday evening when they will present ideas to a panel of judges and a winner is crowned. The process is a great learning experience for entrepreneurs, according to Fast Company.

The organizers want people to sign up whether or not they have a useful or humorous project idea in mind.

"There will be an abundance of ideas, and we'll spend the first part of the weekend narrowing them down to the best ones," Chicago organizer Sandor Weisz said in an email interview. "If you have development or comedy skills, and you're free that weekend, you should come. It's gonna be a blast."

Feel free to start brainstorming now and check out some of the hilarious ideas from previous hacks. Sick of trying to hide your TMZ or E! Online addiction? The winner of Comedy Hack Day NYC last year built an app "Timesify" that transforms your trashy guilty pleasures to look like highbrow New York Times articles. Watch below:

Chicago's version of Comedy Hack Day is like a smaller cousin of the original, according to organizers. A few Chicagoans wanted to put one on in the Windy City so they emailed the founding organizers Cultivated Wit who granted them permission to franchise it.

"Chicago is such a natural fit for this enterprise, given its position as a cauldron of comedic talent, as well as the home of some of the smartest developers on Earth," Weisz said. "I'm looking forward to putting a bunch of smart, funny nerds in a room together and seeing what develops. I'm looking forward to the small community that will emerge as a result of this weekend."