Henry Muñoz III is the primary to admit that he was a shock bidder for Funny or Die when the digital comedy model was put up on the market final 12 months.
“It was type of a shock to me too,” Muñoz jokes on the most recent episode of Selection podcast “Strictly Enterprise.”
The entrepreneur and activist sees Funny or Die as a automobile for increasing his work that’s centered on creating better entry to alternatives and better equality for Latinx communities in his native Texas and across the nation. Muñoz, who was most lately a co-founder of the Somos Group Care chain of well being care suppliers, acquired the corporate along with his personal sources, with none companions or financial institution loans.
Funny or Die was an early Hollywood foray into short-form digital media. The web site was based in 2007 by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Judd Apatow and others and rapidly expanded with a content material manufacturing arm. At 15, Muñoz notes that Funny or Die is simply marking its “quinceañera.”
Drawing on his various profession expertise and private journey as a homosexual man whose dad and mom had been activists, Muñoz goals to carry a extra inclusive imaginative and prescient and presentation to Funny or Die. Among the many first strikes beneath Muñoz’s regime was to choice the coming-out memoir “Hola Papi” for growth as a scripted collection.
“It’s not a shock to say the origins of Funny or Die had been type of ‘bro’ humor. I like that. I don’t need them to cease doing that. However I need us to be extra inclusive and to mirror what the younger individuals on this nation share that they’d like to see of their leisure,” Muñoz stated. “There’s so many elements to what it means to say, ‘That is my id.’ I’m brown, I’m Latino and I’m homosexual. I’m a businessman and I’m an activist and I’m a philanthropist. I’ve many pursuits. And so I’m actually working very arduous with a bunch of people that have been at Funny or Die for a very long time and a brand new era of expertise at Funny or Die to open up that aperture.”
Muñoz spent a number of years serving as finance chairman of the Democratic Nationwide Committee in the course of the Obama years. He was additionally loosely concerned in bringing President Barack Obama to Funny or Die in February 2014 to visitor on Zach Galifianakis’ discuss present spoof “Between Two Ferns.” The President urged viewers to join Inexpensive Care Act insurance coverage by that 12 months’s March 31 deadline.
Obama’s direct pitch to millennials was a viral hit for Funny or Die and for the administration. The reminiscence of that have helped spur Muñoz to pursue the model when the chance arose.
“I simply fell in love with the truth that it’s a enterprise that appears to have been blended political thought and philanthropy and comedy,’ Muñoz stated. “And I feel the nation wants fun.”
“Strictly Enterprise” is Selection’s weekly podcast that includes conversations with business leaders concerning the enterprise of media and leisure. New episodes debut each Wednesday and will be downloaded on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
