2005 / Video / Early web-vodcast character comedy
Ask a Ninja
A masked ninja answered viewer questions with jump cuts, terrible advice, and a promise to kill you soon.
The original is hosted off-site; this page provides context and a link to it.
What was this?
Each episode treated an ordinary viewer question as an excuse for the Ninja to offer wildly overconfident answers. The rapid edits, direct-to-camera performance, and catchphrase sign-off made the tiny videos feel built for replay and quotation.
Why it spread
Ask a Ninja circulated as a free web series, podcast, and vodcast, then through links, embeds, and early online-video communities. A steady run of episodes gave viewers a reason to return rather than simply pass along one isolated clip.
What happened
Each episode treated an ordinary viewer question as an excuse for the Ninja to offer wildly overconfident answers. The rapid edits, direct-to-camera performance, and catchphrase sign-off made the tiny videos feel built for replay and quotation.
Where it came from
Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine launched Ask a Ninja with “Ninja-Mart Store” on November 24, 2005. Douglas Sarine played the Ninja; the short, viewer-question format turned the pair’s low-budget character comedy into an early web-video fixture.
Why it mattered
Ask a Ninja showed that a self-produced character and a repeatable format could make internet comedy feel like a series. Its quick, creator-led episodes helped define the web video vocabulary that YouTube-era channels would soon scale up.
How it spread
Ask a Ninja circulated as a free web series, podcast, and vodcast, then through links, embeds, and early online-video communities. A steady run of episodes gave viewers a reason to return rather than simply pass along one isolated clip.
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