The speeches were five words long, the winners had been announced a month before the show, and host Lisa Kudrow's first punchlines involved the likes of cellphone inventor Martin Cooper and the British physicist Tim Burners Lee.
The 15th Annual Webby Awards, an occasionally kinetic, frequently lurching and determinedly irreverent yearly tribute to the best and brightest (and, crucially, often the funniest) in digital media, took place at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Monday night, but mostly it took place on the internet, streamed live via a variety of sites.
"It seems like just yesterday my IBM Selectric typewriter was the badass machine to have," said Kudrow before awkwardly kicking off 90 minutes of nerd jokes, appearances by online celebs, clips, music from Norah Jones and the Gregory Brothers featuring Antoine Dobson.
Winners in attendance included "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier, the co-founder of SHFT.com; Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, getting an award from "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe; It Gets Better Project founder Dan Savage; and the band LCD Soundsystem, which was named Webby Artist of the Year.
Winners who did not attend included many of the biggest names among the Webby recipients: Justin Bieber, Jim Carrey, Conan O'Brien and the Arcade Fire.
In many of the dozens of categories, double awards were presented: a Webby Award voted by judges, and a People's Voice Award determined by online votes.
Almost all of the winners adhered to the show's five-word-speech rule, though FunnyOrDie co-founders Adam McKay and Chris Henchy drew a few hoots by delivering a full comedy bit, with a video assist from Will Ferrell.
Speeches from many of the winners who did stick to five words are available on a ; they range from the grateful (Blast Radius' "Blast Radius thinks you're boss") to the somber (CAA's "Kids deserve a great education") to raucous (the Onion's "Where is our f ing Pulitzer?").
In one of the more curious awards, the Webby Person of the Year honors went not to an actual person, but to Watson, the computer that won on Jeopardy.
At the end of a night during which a good number of her jokes fell flat, Kudrow accepted her own Webby for her web series "Web Therapy," and then used her speech to deliver a quick plug not for an internet project, but for her upcoming Showtime series. One last shout-out to old media, perhaps.
Special Webby awards:
Special Recognition Award: Dan Savage, "It Gets Better Project" (RED) Webby Award: Ushahidi Webby Artist of the Year: LCD Soundsystem Webby Film + Video Person of the Year: Adam McKay and Chris Henchy, . Webby Person of the Year: Watson Webby Lifetime Achievement Award: Martin Cooper Webby Special Achievement Award: Red Burns Webby Breakout of the Year: Groupon
From Webby press releases:
Winners boasting star-power include: Lisa Kudrow's "
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