by John Corallo

Five years ago Adam Hamway announced that he would vacate his Thursday web-posting slot in 2009 to make way for Rob Asaro who then covered the Friday slot, posting mostly articles. The move was the idea of the WeMakeTheFunny brass, made out of fear that Asaro might turn to a different website. Any Wemakethefunny reader will tell you that the prime spot on the weekly humor website is Thursday. That’s the day when everyone in offices across America are winding down but not distracted with making their weekend plans. As one could imagine Rob Asaro was thrilled that he would soon realize his dreams.

“It was,” says internet insider, Steven Bujilet, “the cream de le cream of posting days. Hits were always high.”

But as 2009 approached, Hamway then 26, hit count was soaring and he had second thoughts about relinquishing his day. In an effort to keep Hamway from turning to another humor website the brass at WeMakeTheFunny offered him the Wednesday slot on the website and Immediate concerned set in for both Hamway and Asaro fans alike. Hamway fans were concerned that comedy might not play as well earlier in the week, and Asaro fans weren’t happy to see Adam stick around.

“It’s like, here’s Rob, finally getting his shot and he still has to follow Adam in the weekly line-up,” one Rob fan said as he protested WeMakeTheFunny headquarters with his I’m with ROBO t shirt.

But Hamway fans were quick to point out that “Adam didn’t owe Rob nothing. Adam likes to work and his hits were high. His humor was easily relatable, light and universally enjoyed.” Asaro on the other hand, “tends to have a more surreal bent. he’s [Asaro] more of a cult writer who doesn’t play as well to the mainstream,” said long time WeMakeTheFunny reader known simply as “The Pit.”

Case in point, Rob Asaro posted the following article last week (http://www.wemakethefunny.com/?p=1709) entitled “Thoughts on the Economy by a Duck,” wherein the entire article featured the work ‘Quack’ or words derivative of quack. “That’s the perfect example of why the WeMakeTheFunny brass were concerned with Asaro on Thursday,” says Bujilet, “that doesn’t play with a middle America crowd who would much rather get their Elmo and Jay-zee impressions and movie poster spoof fix from Adam.”

The duck article was the final straw for the WeMakeTheFunny brass who had seen ratings steadily decline for both Hamway and Asaro on their respective days. Asaro’s odd ball antics did not belong on Thursday and the “Hamway Wednesday Experiment,” failed. “People just do not like comedy on Wednesday, and to ignore that was a misstep from the WeMakeTheFunny brass,” Bujiliet continues, “Wednesday was always comic strip day, and the brass at WeMakeThefunny thought that they could save tens of dollars by cutting the comic strip costs from the lineup.”

Former WeMakeTheFunny contributor Zach Dresler, has been weighing in on the fiasco over at ComedyBeStrong.com. Dresler, who has a long standing feud with Hamway, after not getting the Thursday slot years ago, chided Hamway referring to him as ‘burns’ during his thursday blog posting, an obvious reference to Hamway’s notorious sideburns. “This is vintage Hamway. Going to swoop back into Thursday with his Pillsbury audio posting and fake news postings which we all know he stole from me.” Dresler has benefited from the posting-shift earning stronger hit counts then WeMakeTheFunny during the past year.

Last week, WeMakeThefunny offered a compromise wherein Hamway would return to Thursday and share the day with Asaro wherein Hamway would post his piece in the morning and then Asaro in the afternoon. Asaro issued a letter to his fans, over the weekend but the letter comprised of mostly “Quacks,” was hard to decipher. It was revealed this week that Asaro would vacate his post at the end of the week.Hamway would reclaim Thursdays in five weeks following February’s coverage of Olympic parodies. Asaro was offered a generous severance  package of three vouchers for a free pizza at Papa John’s and a 2 liter of Coke Cola. But insiders like Bujiliet wonder whether “Hamway tarnished his image,” and if “he’ll ever see the same high hit count he saw in 2009.” Hamway was souring at 53 per day in 2009, in comparison to the 2010 average hit count, which garnered an average 38 hits by Rob Asaro.

“One things for sure,” Bujiliet concludes, “WeMakeTheFunny is in dire straights, and someone needs to come in there and make sweeping changes on all levels and until they do, I foresee only bad things to come. This isn’t really about Hamway, or Asaro, it’s about one terrible, terrible website”